Using a tourist visa while waiting for CR-1

[MTMR0420 0]

Hey everyone. So me and my wife just got married. I am a US citizen and she is a Peruvian citizen. We are currently living in Peru, I’m applying to get a temporary resident card and our is plan to go to the US after on a CR-1 visa. My wife has a pending appointment on March for a tourist visa that she applied for in January 2021. At the time we were figuring out our plans and decided to apply for it in the meantime. Now that we got married here we want to start our CR-1 application. We have done some reading with mixed answers and wanted to know if there would be a problem if she stills go to the appointment tourist visa being already married to me. The purpose to still apply for the tourist one would be that we can visit my family soon and then apply (or while we wait to process) for the CR-1. We understand that they would most likely retract the tourist visa while waiting for our CR-1 approval, but if anyone knows if this will effect how they view our case that would be very helpful. 

 

Question 2: We have been discussing the possibility of hiring an attorney to help us with all the paperwork and process. Does anyone have an experience with this? If it’s worth it? Or if anyone have recommendations for our situation and an idea of how much a lawyer would typically be for this service? We can't seem to find one that will even talk pricing without charging a consultation fee.

 

 

 

 

[Sarah&Facundo 595]

She can go to the tourist visa appointment. If she receives the tourist visa, she can use it throughout the CR1 process. My husband visited me several times in the US on his tourist visa while we waited for processing. It wasn't an issue and no one at border control ever asked him anything.

 

Unless you have some extraordinary circumstance, save the money and do it yourself. It is tedious, but it isn't hard to fill out the paperwork yourself. Most people on here do it themselves. There are tons of helpful guides and a lot of people here to answer your questions.

Edited January 17, 2022 by Sarah&Facundo

[Boiler 45,658]

Last time I saw a Lawyer quoted number it was $6k

[MTMR0420 0]

This is great to hear that she can visit. She was planning on changing her last name as well to include mine. We are worried if it would make an issue for her appointment for the tourist visa appointment. I would think she can just prove the appointment name was made under her Maiden name and it should be fine. Also I assume for filing the CR-1 visa it will be appropriate to use her changed name as well and won't creat any issues. Does anyone know anything about this? 

 

[Boiler 45,658]

Some people change names some do not your call not an immigration issue

[Crazy Cat 41,979]

6 minutes ago, MTMR0420 said:

Also I assume for filing the CR-1 visa it will be appropriate to use her changed name as well and won't creat any issues.

My wife has never changed her name.  It made the entire process a great deal easier.  A name is just that... a name.

[MTMR0420 0]

Thank you for your advice. Let me clarify a bit. In her meeting appointment confirmations it states that if her name doesn't match exactly her passport she will be denied and turned away. Will they make an exception because it is changed due to marriage? Or should she just keep it the same?

[Verrou 1,962]

its your preference. for me changing the name is super painful. my husband doesnt want me to take his name either.

and also she's in process of waiting for tourist visa interview, why rock the boat.

better change the name when she's going to be US citizen. 

[hunny&me 274]

1 hour ago, MTMR0420 said:

Thank you for your advice. Let me clarify a bit. In her meeting appointment confirmations it states that if her name doesn't match exactly her passport she will be denied and turned away. Will they make an exception because it is changed due to marriage? Or should she just keep it the same?

I think visas are issued based on passport names?

[pushbrk 12,969]

3 hours ago, MTMR0420 said:

Thank you for your advice. Let me clarify a bit. In her meeting appointment confirmations it states that if her name doesn't match exactly her passport she will be denied and turned away. Will they make an exception because it is changed due to marriage? Or should she just keep it the same?

It would be wise to make a decision about name change and follow through.  If is changing her name based on  marriage, then part of what she does is get the name changed on her passport.

 

The visa is not the only issue.  It's very unlikely she'll be granted a visitor visa anyway.  It's rare to issue a non-immigrant visa to a person with immigrant intent.

 

In the future, all international airline tickets will need to be in the name on her passport.  Consider carefully and take the necessary action promptly.

[MTMR0420 0]

On 1/17/2022 at 7:33 PM, pushbrk said:

It would be wise to make a decision about name change and follow through.  If is changing her name based on  marriage, then part of what she does is get the name changed on her passport.

 

The visa is not the only issue.  It's very unlikely she'll be granted a visitor visa anyway.  It's rare to issue a non-immigrant visa to a person with immigrant intent.

 

In the future, all international airline tickets will need to be in the name on her passport.  Consider carefully and take the necessary action promptly.

Thank you for your advice. We decided to not change her name as it sounds like it will be easier. 

 

We are debating if she should still attend as she already has paid for the fee and cause they are not available dates for the next year.

She filed her DS 160 form in January 2021. Since it'll be more than a year until the appointment date in May 2022, we are worried as a lot has changed. We weren't engaged at the time and she was a college student. Now she's married and has a full time job in peru. Also in her DS form she didn't specify about visiting her Bf at the time as the main reason, because we thought it would have worked negativibly towards her approval at the time. 

 

We understand the DS 160 should match the interview appointment. We can't find official information about changing her DS information. We are assuming we will need to call USCIS have them verify and change the information on her DS application. Is this possible? We are worried they will deny for fraud if we do not change it.

 

We simply want the B-2 visa in the meantime we get the Cr1 visa approved, so we can visit my parents as they can't not visit us due to medical reasons. We're planning on staying in Peru, hoping that the fact I'm applying to have a card of temporal Peruvian residency would be enough tie to the country for her to be approved for the B2 visa.

Also I'm planning on sending our I-130 in the next weeks(before the tourist appointment) and hope it will stand as proof we are trying to immigrate legally, and use the B2 for a short visit.

Finally we would like to know if we will be negatively impacted on our CR-1 application if she is denied. Thanks for reading and your help. 

[pushbrk 12,969]

Make your own decision about proceeding with the interview.  It's not a problem to get a visitor visa issued in the maiden name and change the name later.