US Immigration from Canada

Hello,

My wife (US Citizen; born/raised Philippines) has her mother here (visiting on B2 visa from Philippines; she's 63 years old), living with us and our 2 children the last 4.5 months, we've been having an amazing time each despite being cooped up at home under the Omicron surge. Her I94 expires March 26th 2022 (basically 5 weeks from now). This is her 3rd time here in the USA (1st visit was 2018 - 3 months. 2nd visit she came November 2019, right before COVID -- stayed till July 2020 due to Philippines being locked down).

We've been talking about possibly extending her visa. We filed I-539 during COVID back in March of 2020 (her 2nd visit to the US at the time), peak of the huge US COVID surge at the time -- it was filed before her I94 expired then (Philippines was locked down and she couldn't travel back). Everything was filed timely and properly; the application was denied way later that year long after she left the USA (denied due to no-show on Biometrics, as she was already in the Philippines). That denial was expected since she was long gone from the USA. She flew to the US September 2021 again, no problem on entry, no questions about the I-539 we last filed during the COVID times of 2020 or anything of her last visit.

We are considering filing I-539 again this year because once again, we got screwed with Omicron and haven't done much. She's staying with us and our 2 kids, we're having an amazing time just spending time as a family although with summer coming up soon and the COVID cases dying down bigtime (so far it seems...), we'd love to venture out and spend more time together. We are 50/50 on whether she should just "Go Home" and come back in 6-12 months again, OR, file the I-539 like we did last time.

My questions are:

1. Anyone know of (or had) any "Successes" with the I-539 and extending a B2? I know we had no issues with it the 1st time, but i'm wondering if that was because USCIS/CBP were just "gracious" during the COVID times and understood people couldn't travel back to their home country (which happened to her). I know USCIS had published guidance about it during those times due to border lockdowns and countries shutting down, so those were extenuating circumstances at the time.

2. I researched a lot already and checked other posts... it seems for I-539... its *OK* that your reasons for extending are tourism, pleasure, spending time with family, travelling within the USA, etc. I'm correct in thinking those are VALID reasons, right?

3. Would you think having -TWO- I-539's filed on record (last visit 1.5 years ago -- and this visit), would be an issue on the -NEXT- entry to the USA in say...1-2 years? Anyone ever hear of someone having multiple I-539's on a B2 visa record (1 per visit)? Apparently she does this with Canada and its never an issue (extending each visit), but that's Canada...

Any thoughts/questions/advice? Thanks so much!

Theoretical question and wondering if anyone has experience with this?

I'm doing some math in my head with dates. If we are approved for the CR-1 visa on our estimated timeline, we will likely be about 4 months short of our 2-year anniversary.

If we wanted to wait 4 months for the 2-year mark to cross the POE with the packet (assuming it is within the visa expiration date) to officially activate the green card as IR-1 rather than conditional, could we still cross the border as a visitor's visa since we visit family almost monthly? Or does it not work that way?

For background, we live in Canada, so we regularly cross on NEXUS.

Hello all,

Just a quick question, I've two citizenships/ passports (one is Chinese, another is Canadian). If the Montreal Post issued an immigrant visa to me after interview, which passport they'll affix the visa? Is it possible to request the Post to affix the visa to my Chinese passport?

PS: I'm still waiting for IL from the Montreal Post.

Thank you in advance!

Can someone add "Calgary" option to the POE drop-down list box? Thanks for the help in advance!

Hi all, my fianc e is looking at flights for her one-way crossing into the US with her K-1, but we're not sure how long of a layover she should want to have enough time to go through secondary. For anyone who has made the trip by air and had their POE at Toronto or Montreal, how long did it take you to clear the process, and how long of a layover would you recommend between connecting flights?

Thanks in advance for any advice!