I-130/IR-1 Visa Route and Truobles

[Benjamin A 0]

Evening!

 

In a little bit of a worry as my wife and I ran into an issue in her visa application process. My wife's a canadian citizen who I met while working for the US Military. We got married in 2024 here in the states. In January of 2024 we started the I-130/IR-1 process, unaware that we could take the AOS route to keep her in the states. We contracted Boundless during this time to help us with our application and answer any questions, of which we'd very normally pass along our times and dates of flights along with the question to ensure that we were within the law. With contacting the team they had there, we were under the impression that as long as my wife established presence in Canada to keep her ties that she'd be fine to travel back and forth between the states. Currently we have the I-130 approved, awaiting fee's to be filed for her IR-1. Recently when returning from her parents home in Nova Scotia she was denied entry into the States. We were given a long explanation of how throughout her three year relationship with me she had overstayed her B-2/Canadian passport time within the states by almost 200 days. The US Customs and Border control agent informed that she "only" had been given an Application for Admission Withdrawn and not a removal, which wouldn't occur as much as a black mark on her record. She'd been instructed to wait for her immigration visa or wait the six months to re-enter the states with the form provided.

Today while I was filling out the IR-1 visa application I was putting in all of this information. Doing some more digging I've found that there's a possibility of a ban due to her overstaying. I still plan on filling the application, though truthfully I'm worried that despite it being simply a "Application for Admission Withdrawn" and not a removal, that it'll incur something worse for us. Thanks a ton for all of your help, sorry if I seem entirely too clueless to this situation.

[pushbrk 13,498]

Nothing you can do but tell the truth. I would not expect a problem though.  Evidently you were unaware, Canadians are limited to a six month stay, AND must be outside the USA more than they are inside.  Keeping her ties DID make it possible to travel back and forth, but she didn't do enough of the "back" part of the back and forth.