Denied entry and Visa during K-1 process

[Gomast 65]

6 hours ago, Unlockable said:

Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. It happens. They may think that you were of a high risk of using the visitor visa to stay instead of filing the usual way. This is the most common reason for those type of entry denials. It raises the risk if you have a love interest in the United States. They may think you are simply moving here instead of visiting.

 

To be successful for a visitor visa the applicant must show that they do NOT have immigrant intent. Kind of hard to show that when you have a fiance or spouse in the US. Also, if they see you planned to stay here for several months with no job or responsibilities in your home country to return to... it makes it harder.

 

Fortunately, it shouldn't have a bearing on your K1 unless there was something big like misrepresentation. 

 

 

The above in bold May have actually been the problem with her tourist visa denial. The most important thing people must remember with visitor visas is to prove why you must return home. The officers don't care why you want to visit, they want to see why you need to return to your country. Showing an ongoing relationship with someone in the US only makes it easy for an officer to deny a visitor visa. 

My B2 tourist visa was denied before I submitted the I-129F. 

[sam.e 19]

Hi Mattie0212,

 

In 2017/2018 My husband and I went through a VERY similar situation. He is also from the UK, less than a week after we were engaged he was denied entry on his esta, and then denied a B2 visitors visa a month later.

 

We decided to file for the K-1 immediately after his visitor's visa denial, and after a VERY long 11 months of me only being able to travel to the UK to visit (2 weeks total time together), he was approved for the K-1 visa and was admitted into the US.

 

He said it was brought up shortly at his embassy appointment, but he gave a quick explanation of the situation and he was in and out within 30 minutes with an approval. He decided to fly through Dublin for the US pre-clearance check there, and it was a breeze.

 

It seems all impossibly scary and heartbreaking at the moment, but in time it will only be a blip on your radar.

 

Best of luck!

[Ben & Katy 168]

21 minutes ago, sam.e said:

Hi Mattie0212,

 

In 2017/2018 My husband and I went through a VERY similar situation. He is also from the UK, less than a week after we were engaged he was denied entry on his esta, and then denied a B2 visitors visa a month later.

 

We decided to file for the K-1 immediately after his visitor's visa denial, and after a VERY long 11 months of me only being able to travel to the UK to visit (2 weeks total time together), he was approved for the K-1 visa and was admitted into the US.

 

He said it was brought up shortly at his embassy appointment, but he gave a quick explanation of the situation and he was in and out within 30 minutes with an approval. He decided to fly through Dublin for the US pre-clearance check there, and it was a breeze.

 

It seems all impossibly scary and heartbreaking at the moment, but in time it will only be a blip on your radar.

 

Best of luck!

In your situation how did it go down?  Did he say he was coming to visit you  (Fiancee) when he arrived on US soil (ETSA)?  

[sam.e 19]

20 minutes ago, Ben & Katy said:

In your situation how did it go down?  Did he say he was coming to visit you  (Fiancee) when he arrived on US soil (ETSA)?  

It’s a relatively long story. But In my best attempt to summarize, 

 

-August 2017 my husband (at the time he was my boyfriend) was hired to be a soccer coach at an American company. They issued him a J-1 visa, which was set to expire in October after 8 weeks (I believe)

-In October, this company told him that they were filing a H2B visa in his name to keep him working until December. He had emails and proof that the company explicitly confirmed he would be legally working in the US while this application was processing. 

-When his contract was up in December, we took a trip to Seattle, and got engaged!

-During this trip, we exited the US and went to Vancouver for a few days.

-The point of going to Vancouver was so that he would leave the US on his “work visa” and be able to re-enter the US on his ESTA and spend the holidays with me and my family.

-When crossing the border back into the US the agent pulled us in, and after a few hours he found that the company my (now) fiancé had been working for incorrectly filed for the H2B visa, which meant he had been technically working illegally for about 8 weeks.

-Luckily, my fiancé had all his paperwork verifying everything he knew about the visa was true and honest, and the incorrectly filed visa was to no fault of his own, so the agent did NOT issue a ban on him, only revoked his ESTA and confirmed my fiancé needed a formal VISA to be able to get back into the country. 

 

See a long story! Lol.

 

When he applied for the B2 visitors visa in January 2018 the embassy agent denied it because he mentioned he was engaged and with some more questioning admitted he was planning to immigrate eventually.

 

BUT it all worked out in the end, after a very long year he entered the US in December of 2018, and we got married in February of 2019  

Edited August 7, 2019 by sam.e

[Ben & Katy 168]

5 minutes ago, sam.e said:

It’s a relatively long story. But I’m my best attempt to summarize, 

 

-August 2017 my husband (at the time he was my boyfriend) was hired to be a soccer coach at an American company. They issued him a J-1 visa, which was set to expire in October after 8 weeks (I believe)

-In October, this company told him that they were filing a H2B visa in his name to keep him working until December. He had emails and proof that the company explicitly confirmed he would be legally workin in the US while this application was processing. 

-When his contract was up in December, we took a trip to Seattle, and got engaged!

-During this trip, we exited the US and went to Vancouver for a few days.

-The point of going to Vancouver was so that he would leave the US on his “work visa” and be able to re-enter the US on his ESTA and spend the holidays with me and my family.

-When crossing the border the agent pulled us in, and after a few hours he found that the company my (now) fiancé had been working for knowingly incorrectly filed for the H2B visa, which meant he had been technically working illegally for about 8 weeks.

-Luckily, my fiancé had all his paperwork verifying everything he knew about the visa was true and honest, and the incorrectly filed visa was to no fault of his own, so the agent did NOT issue a ban on him, only revoked his ESTA and confirmed my fiancé needed a formal VISA to be able to get back into the country. 

 

See a long story! Lol.

 

When he applied for the B2 visitors visa in January 2018 the embassy agent denied it because he mentioned he was engaged and with some more questioning admitted he was planning to immigrate eventually.

 

BUT it all worked out in the end, after a very long year he entered the US in December of 2018, and we got married in February of 2019  

Well at least that is over with!  So did he get "stuck" in Canada?  

[sam.e 19]

Just now, Ben & Katy said:

Well at least that is over with!  So did he get "stuck" in Canada?  

Yes, he was "stuck" in Canada for about 5 days. He actually applied for an emergency B2 Visa at the US embassy in Canada, and was approved, but with the holidays it still would have taken a week to get his passport back to him, which would have left him stuck there over Christmas. So he had to make the decision to revoke that application and go home to the UK. These were dark days lol, but we eventually got through it and are now on the brighter side of AOS applications 😂

[Ben & Katy 168]

2 minutes ago, sam.e said:

Yes, he was "stuck" in Canada for about 5 days. He actually applied for an emergency B2 Visa at the US embassy in Canada, and was approved, but with the holidays it still would have taken a week to get his passport back to him, which would have left him stuck there over Christmas. So he had to make the decision to revoke that application and go home to the UK. These were dark days lol, but we eventually got through it and are now on the brighter side of AOS applications 😂

Its so weird the differences of each agent and what type of port of entry you go through.  We have a friend in Rocky Point that has a "fiancee" living in San Diego.  Sometimes he comes to Rocky Point to see her and a lot of times she drives to California to see him.  She crosses in San Luis every time and they never get upset at her for saying she is visiting her fiancee.   Even though agents are rotated a lot most of the agents recognize her because she crosses so much to see her fiancee. I am very shocked they haven't revoked her visa.  

[sam.e 19]

3 minutes ago, Ben & Katy said:

Its so weird the differences of each agent and what type of port of entry you go through.  We have a friend in Rocky Point that has a "fiancee" living in San Diego.  Sometimes he comes to Rocky Point to see her and a lot of times she drives to California to see him.  She crosses in San Luis every time and they never get upset at her for saying she is visiting her fiancee.   Even though agents are rotated a lot most of the agents recognize her because she crosses so much to see her fiancee. I am very shocked they haven't revoked her visa.  

Seriously! Some people just have all the luck lmao

[Boiler 43,401]

There is some confusion so just to clarify you can not get a visa in the US to enter the US. No US Consulates in the US.

 

Let us say the plan was to adjust status to a H2b then as soon as he left he would still need a visa to re enter. Adjusting status also takes moths and if this was the plan seems odd he would have been told it was OK to leave.

[RamonGomez 259]

It sucks how much variability there is from agent to agent. But then again, if every single agent just went "by the script", it'd be pretty easy to "solve" the system.

 

I am really glad I didn't read all the horror stories of denials when my wife (then girlfriend) came to visit me on a B2 years ago. I honestly (naively) thought they let everyone in LMAO. Now I realize we got super lucky, as she was let in after only being asked a few simple questions by a very friendly agent. She has no issues even after saying she was here to visit her boyfriend. 

Edited August 7, 2019 by RamonGomez

[Boiler 43,401]

Her experience is normal, most who have horror stories have a complicated story.

[sam.e 19]

39 minutes ago, Boiler said:

There is some confusion so just to clarify you can not get a visa in the US to enter the US. No US Consulates in the US.

 

Let us say the plan was to adjust status to a H2b then as soon as he left he would still need a visa to re enter. Adjusting status also takes moths and if this was the plan seems odd he would have been told it was OK to leave.

If this was in reference to my husband's story, I agree it is very odd and doesn't make much sense! That company was crooked and gave my husband false information, but at the end of the day all worked out in our favor. Complications are never easy, but we are proof that even with a denied entry and denied B2 you can still come out on the other side successfully!