Non-US Citizen Spouse and B2 visa. Questions regarding "ties" to home/country of residence and potential "red flags".

[porkshoulders 0]

Bear with me, just want some good advice based on my particular circumstance.

 

Met my wife 9 years ago. We had a long distance relationship and I'd visit her in Thailand twice yearly. Before getting married, she was denied a B2 tourist visa twice (once before pandemic, once around a year ago). Just got married 3 months ago and she immigrated to Costa Rica. We live together now. In addition to her Thai passport, she is now a Costa Rican resident.

 

She's currently unemployed as she waits to be issued her Costa Rican temporary residency card, but she has savings in her Thai bank account from previous employment and receives money from a family rental property that she and her parents manage in Thailand. Her parents are there.  

   

She has no criminal record. She never lied about her intentions to the CO at the USA embassy in Thailand. Just your run of the mill visa denial for an employed middle class unmarried Thai woman wanting to visit her "US citizen boyfriend". She was issued a Costa Rican tourist visa (AOS to immigrant visa when she arrived) and a Swiss tourist visa (never entered Switzerland due to pandemic lock downs right after it was issued). No other international travel history. She has no other family that live in the USA or that have USC or Green cards. Her parents have B2 visas though.

 

Obviously, we don't want to move to the USA. Basically she wants a B2 visa to visit my parents with me and to be able to transit through the USA to fly back to Thailand for visits / checking up on her property (flights are way cheaper via the US).

 

She plans on applying a third time after being issued her Costa Rican residency card (I don't think she can apply at the US embassy here before then).

 

I hold various citizenships (USA, Costa Rica, German) and have lived in Costa Rica for about 10 years. My entire maternal side of my family (except for my mother) lives here. Nothing is under my name, but my family has pretty significant ties to Costa Rica (properties, homes, businesses etc).  I'm a university student and I help my family part time at the moment. My wife and I do plan to remain in Costa Rica and eventually be more involved in my family's business when I graduate. My family in the USA have basically nothing to their name, and we'd be worse off there than here. 

 

With that being said, here are my questions.

 

I am fully aware that my wife has to qualify for a tourist visa on her own.

 

What I'm confused about is, do they consider my ties to Costa Rica as her ties as well, being that we are family now?

 

Nothing is under my name and we aren't technically employees of my family's businesses, but my entire family considers her to be "one of us" and is glad to have us take on an active "owner" role after university. Because she doesn't have her residency card yet,  she's not allowed to legally work or perform any activity similar to that at the moment, but when she does they'd like her to be part of it. She has some skills from her previous career that would benefit. Even though she's technically not "employed", would it be a negative to tell a CO that the business is , well, "ours" that we have an active role and very much a part of it (which will actually be true)?  Or is it best for her to get "real" employment making a slightly above average Costa Rican salary?      

 

Is it a negative that she's applying from Costa Rica using a Thai passport (with a legal Costa Rican residency status based on marriage , of course)? Or will it be seen as "visa shopping" because Costa Rica has a lower B visa refusal rate than Thailand?

Would it seem odd if she told the US embassy here that she is involved, although remotely, with managing her and her family's Thailand property?

 

The first time she applied for a tourist visa, she mentioned that I lived in Costa Rica and that in addition to being able to travel the USA with me, that the B2 visa would help her travel to and immigrate to Costa Rica. I imagine that is on record and any CO can pull it up. 

Does it at all help that the story actually became true , about her immigrating to Costa Rica (via a much more bureaucratic and complicated route)?

 

Any other advice or recommendations based on these circumstances that you can give?

Thanks in advance!   

 

 

 

 

 

[milimelo 4,291]

I'd imagine after couple of years on Costa Rican residency card she should have no problems getting a B-2 visa. Going straight after getting it for a B2 visa would in my opinion not get you B2 visa granted. 

[MaxP22 173]

No your ties will not be taken into consideration.

 

Overall sounds highly unlikely she will get approved. She has two previous denials, and her ties to her home have got worse if anything, not better. Newly arrived, no job, no ties.

 

Maybe after a couple of years and a job.

[Mike E 11,730]

Had she visited Germany while married to you?

[SteveInBostonI130 3,330]

If her visa to Swiss is still valid, I would suggest you use that and visit Europe.  After some travel history as tourists and establishing a life in Costa Rica for a while, your wife's chances for a B2 should improve.

[Boiler 43,868]

I agree give it a few years and try, she only has the application fee at risk.

[porkshoulders 0]

4 hours ago, Mike E said:

Had she visited Germany while married to you?

We haven't traveled anywhere yet. She's still waiting for her Costa Rican residency card and needs to remain in country during the process. After that she'll get employment and begin establishing what the CO considers "ties". Europe and hopefully Canada (if she can get that visa) are places we'd like to visit to build some travel history. 

[porkshoulders 0]

4 hours ago, SteveInBostonI130 said:

If her visa to Swiss is still valid, I would suggest you use that and visit Europe.  After some travel history as tourists and establishing a life in Costa Rica for a while, your wife's chances for a B2 should improve.

Unfortunately that was a single entry tourist visa that has expired already. However, if I'm not mistaken, it appears that as my wife she has the right to an expedited and free "EU family member 90 day visitor visa" (or whatever it's called) as long as some conditions are met. So EU travel is absolutely on the horizon once she gets her Costa Rican residency. 

[porkshoulders 0]

8 hours ago, milimelo said:

I'd imagine after couple of years on Costa Rican residency card she should have no problems getting a B-2 visa. Going straight after getting it for a B2 visa would in my opinion not get you B2 visa granted. 

Yeah she's definitely not gonna go straight in and reapply until we at least have some travel history and she has a history of employment here. 

[Mike E 11,730]

9 minutes ago, porkshoulders said:

We haven't traveled anywhere yet. She's still waiting for her Costa Rican residency card and needs to remain in country during the process. After that she'll get employment and begin establishing what the CO considers "ties". Europe and hopefully Canada (if she can get that visa) are places we'd like to visit to build some travel history. 

In my (vicarious) experience:

 

Since you are a citizen of Germany, once she travels to Germany and leaves before her authorized stay expires, she can use this as evidence for her next B visa application. Her argument will be that despite being married to a German citizen she visited Germany, did kit attempt to adjust status on the basis of her husband’s German citizenship, and returned to Costa Rica thus demonstrating that her ties to Costa Rica are higher than her ties to Germany. Thus the US embassy can expect that she would visit the U.S. and return to Costa Rica within her authorized stay 

 

The specific experience I am talking about: husband was a dual citizen of USA and UK.  Wife was a citizen of Thailand. Both were living together in Thailand. Her first B visa application was denied.  

 

So they went to the UK to visit his family.  
 

She then applied for a B visa and was accepted.  
 

Ironically she later applied for an IR-1 visa, got one, and now lives in the U.S. But she did not adjust status. She did it through consular professing.  

[porkshoulders 0]

1 minute ago, Mike E said:

In my (vicarious) experience:

 

Since you are a citizen of Germany, once she travels to Germany and leaves before her authorized stay expires, she can use this as evidence for her next B visa application. Her argument will be that despite being married to a German citizen she visited Germany, did kit attempt to adjust status on the basis of her husband’s German citizenship, and returned to Costa Rica thus demonstrating that her ties to Costa Rica are higher than her ties to Germany. Thus the US embassy can expect that she would visit the U.S. and return to Costa Rica within her authorized stay 

 

The specific experience I am talking about: husband was a dual citizen of USA and UK.  Wife was a citizen of Thailand. Both were living together in Thailand. Her first B visa application was denied.  

 

So they went to the UK to visit his family.  
 

She then applied for a B visa and was accepted.  
 

Ironically she later applied for an IR-1 visa, got one, and now lives in the U.S. But she did not adjust status. She did it through consular professing.  

Interesting! Thanks for sharing. 

 

 I guess the only difference is that I am also a Costa Rican citizen and she ended up staying here lol. 

 

Or do you mean to say that a CO might be more convinced of her "lack of intent" if she has travels to Germany having the right to immigrate there legally but ends up returning to a comparatively "poorer" nation? 

[Mike E 11,730]

2 hours ago, porkshoulders said:

Interesting! Thanks for sharing. 

 

 I guess the only difference is that I am also a Costa Rican citizen and she ended up staying here lol.

So IOW she has stronger ties to Costa Rica than my Thai acquaintance had to Thaliand since her husband merely had a residence permit / visa for Thailand. 
 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, porkshoulders said:

 

Or do you mean to say that a CO might be more convinced of her "lack of intent" if she has travels to Germany having the right to immigrate there legally but ends up returning to a comparatively "poorer" nation? 

I guess I wasn’t crystal.  So let me be blunt.  
 

Until she visits Germany, her applying for a B visa is waste of time.   

[porkshoulders 0]

28 minutes ago, Mike E said:

Until she visits Germany, her applying for a B visa is waste of time.   

Gotcha, sorry I replied to your message and had a bit of a brain fart. Skipped through your first paragraph. 

 

Thanks