liberty23456

I haven't noticed any Filipino fiancee's or spouses who got a U.S. visitors visa. Maybe one who did will chime in.

My, at that time, fiancee from an Asian country got a 10 year B1/B2 visa during the K1 application. It was quite amazing. The NOA2 came the same day after the tourist visa interview.

My fiancee had 17 pages full of visas and stamps in her passport at that time. 3 months later the 10 year visa has been replaced with 6 months K1 visa.

We applied for the tourist visa out of frustration over the wait for K1 and actually didn't give it much hope. My fiancee didn't even care to prepare herself for the interview as she deemed it pointless. She referred to me as 'boy-friend' at the interview and that didn't seem to be a blocker. The interviewing officer was a skier and my fiancee said she wanted to go heli-skiing in Alaska. The a big part of the interview was then about skiing and I think the officer was convinced that her skiing intentions were genuine.

With the nexus scenario - they could ask for your passport.

From http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/trusted_traveler/nexus_prog/nexus.xml

The NEXUS alternative inspection program has been completely harmonized and integrated into a single program. NEXUS members now have crossing privileges at air, land, and marine ports of entry. Under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, the NEXUS card has been approved as an alternative to the passport for air, land, and sea travel into the United States for US and Canadian citizens.

Do have some 15 odd DOS service centers with same day service and your employer should honor that.

To obtain a 2nd US passport you must submit your 1st passport with the application, so this requires some planing. Too late now. Reporting the 1st passport as lost would probably get me a new passport, but it could cause double trouble with DOS for false statement and the foreign embassy for submitting invalid passport for visa processing.

In my experience, entering the US from Canada via the airlines is one of the worse countries to enter from. Think it would be easier to enter from North Korea or Iran, thanks to Bush. Lines were extremely long and this was traveling back for years where a passport wasn't even necessary.

For Canada I recommend NEXUS. If you are entering via an airport you don't have to show any document or talk to anyone. Just scan your eye iris at the kiosk. You fly through the immigration.

Besides if you try to enter as a non-immigrant, how are you going to show your return ticket? And what about that I-94 that is on record? Could be arrested for overstaying your visa.

I think we have general consensus on this one here.

I would never suggest that someone deliberately try to enter the country without their US passport. I am also however sure that the "crime" of entering the country as a USC does not actually have a measurable penalty attached to it.

There is a penalty for USC's who enter the country on a foreign passport. With this in mind, passport or not, always declare yourself as a USC at the immigration counter. They are required to automatically send you to secondary to verify your citizenship and once verified immigration has no further jurisdiction over you.

This is the law as written in 22 CFR 53

§ 53.3

Attempt of a citizen to enter without a valid passport.

The appropriate officer at the port of entry shall report to the Department of State any citizen of the United States who attempts to enter the United States contrary to the provisions of this part, so that the Department of State may apply the waiver provisions of § 53.2(h) and § 53.2(i) to such citizen, if appropriate.

They are kind of stuck when a USC enters the country without a passport. They are constitutionally prohibited from preventing travel and US entry/exit has long since been defined as a basic constitutional right.

NOTE: Travel can be prohibited for a few reasons but there is a process required to yank a passport

If it was me I would take my chances at the counter.

Thank you for the very elaborate answer. Do you think entering without a passport could put my NEXUS and Global Entry privileges in danger?

As I mentioned I have to travel. Please no comments or opinions. I'm just looking for an info from someone who was in that situation on either side of the immigration desk or has reliable source.

Has anyone first hand experience with arriving in US by air without a US passport? My passport is it a foreign embassy for visa processing, but I have to travel. To obtain a 2nd valid US passport you have to present the 1st one for some reason. So this is not an option. I can make the airline believe I travel on a visa waiver with my non US passport to board the flight, but I would prefer not to do that with US immigration. What happens if I arrive with a foreign passport and proof of US citizenship? I am quite sure I would be let in, but not sure how painful that would be and if I would be subject to fine.

I have another option to enter via Canada just with my NEXUS card which is sufficient for arrival in Canada and US land boarder crossing and airport pre-clearance, but it would be nicer to fly in directly.

The course is 3 weeks long and it costed me almost $3,000. I'm open to come a day before the course starts and leave a day or two days after the course finishes. Would that be better?? I'm bringing my college student ID and my amex credit card and the registration from the course. Thank you for your help.

I would think that this should be perfectly OK. I wouldn't plan for staying longer. Even if you received a stamp for another 6 months I would consider not using it all as this might bite you in the future.

Other than you risk loosing it in the mail it is not a problem. When it arrives in a few weeks you can have a nice vacation in Miami. I would not even trust FedEx or UPS with my wife's GC and especially the USPS. Too much money, time, and effort went into getting it. I would go in person to get it--YMMV

Good luck,

Dave

As if USCIS didn't sent the GC by USPS in the fist place.

Hello

I stayed in the U.S for a 5 months. I came back to my home country in March. I'm planning to re-enter the U.S in August, and stay there for about 5 weeks for a digital marketing workshop. Could I get in trouble if I re-enter too soon after I spent 5 months in the U.S?

Any of you guys travel a lot or stay for extended periods in the U.S? If so, any advise?

Thank you!

If you had said 4 weeks I would've said no problem. In the 5th week you will have been in US more than half of a year within the last year. However I am not sure how strict the rule is followed.

Yes! We just had our interview yesterday. The IO only wanted to see the original.

Thank you. From your timeline it looks like this was for you the first time that someone asked for the original.

Any K1 applicants who had to show the original at the AOS interview again after having already shown it at the consulate?

Has anyone ever been asked for the original birth certificate in the adjustment of status (I-485) interview?

Please disregard my question. This post explains everything in detail: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/335754-ds-3025-complete-or-not/?p=4971318#entry4971318

What happens if at the time of the transcript there is still insufficient time interval?

Could someone explain the interpretation of the below for AOS from K1:

'If you are missing any shots from your overseas medical a I-693 vaccination transcription is required...'

If all required vaccinations have been applied oversees, but the series have not been completed yet and at this point no further shots can be given due to insufficient interval between series, is this interpreted as missing shots and I-693 required?

I'm aware of the long term importance of SSN. My question was rather can we save ourself multiple trips to the Social Security office to change status, name etc. and rather go there for the first time with a Green Card in the hand.

it sure makes life handy, when attempting to participate as a human in the USA.

I wouldn't go that far to degrade humanity to a number.

Is there any necessity to apply for SSN during the K1 AOS process and before receiving the Green Card? The spouse does not intend to work and has a foreign drivers license which can be used for some time.

I just spoke with the Seoul embassy, and they said it would not be a problem to push the interview date back to August or September. She did mention background checks do expire, but she couldn't give me a time frame. Does anyone know how long background checks are valid for? Getting a new Korean background check is easy, but a Thai one takes work; we got my wife's Thai background check at the end of Feb.

So, it seems we're going to push back the interview and hopefully enter the US in Feb. With the option of staying, or returning abroad and formally handing in my wife's green card and applying for a tourist visa. I did read there is a specific form for formally handing in a green card and applying for a tourist visa at the same time..

Anyway, thanks for the advice so far! It really is helping in many ways.

I would try one more thing. Apply for a tourist visa again. Show them you already have an appointment for IR-1 visa, but you don't really want to live in US at this moment. That should be more convincing to them that you don't try to circumvent the immigration laws with the B1/B2 visa. And it would save you a lot of headache with establishing a US residency and subsequently returning the green card. Anyway you seem to go through a lot of effort to just get a tourist visa. That was really not meant to be that difficult especially for a spouse of US citizen.

In my experience there is no citizens/permanent residents line, they are two separate lines, citizens on one line and residents on another. And there is a third line for visitors.

When my then fiancée came to the states, she waited on the visitors line, because she had a K1 visa, which is a non-immigrant visa. Your best bet is to ask the person on the floor directing people to the proper lines. But, common sense is telling me, you're coming in as a permanent resident, go in that one.

During my several hundred entries to US I have never seen a separate line for US citizens and residents. They use always the same line. There is always a visitors line and US citizens/resident line, plus most of the time there are few special lines, one of them being ' New Arriving Residents' line somewhere on the side. Look for that one.

No he stayed with his passport, and just told me to pay the mail courier and said that I was approved. He didn't say anything about our case undergoing AP

oh ok, yes they kept his passport

Does anyone know how to get the passport back in such situation? I wouldn't want to be grounded like that for more than a week without the ability to travel.

So....I went online to check the status of our visa...and come to find out it is in Administrative Processing!! Why?? I have noooooo idea!!! Everything went so well at the interview, the IO told us that we were approved, gave us the green slip to pay domex, and said nothing else!!! He stayed with all his (Fiance) documents and did not ask for any paper or evidence other than the necessary (which I made sure of). I found this out yesterday, so I called NVC today to verify if the information on the website was accurate, and a very polite woman told me that yes indeed it was in AP. The only information that she told me was that they were not asking for extra documents or evidence. At this time all I can do is wait for an answer, and she didn't give me a time frame either. She did say I can call everyday to check. What can they be possibly checking?

I am so sad, b/c I was hoping for my man to go home with me, since I am having surgery this week I know some of you have been in this situation and/or is still in this situation. Can anyone share some info that I am not aware of? Thank you once again guys....

xoxoxo

Did they keep your passport or gave it back to you?

In general is it possible to get the passport back for the duration of administrative processing?

Sometimes I don't understand the members of this forum. So here is someone who overstayed 27 years and everyone is so supportive to him/her. In another thread there is a person who overstayed 2 days and got sent back on an attempt to re-enter and everyone is bashing him and beating the ####### out of him.

Go figure...

@stackhouse,

there are topics you would be better off not posting at this forum. The members here are much more cruel than CBP or any other government agency.

No worries about anything on VJ, just couldnt see how they could find me on here. and I really hope they look at my face book

Unfortunately the whole concept of VJ Timeline does not meet reasonable privacy standards. The creators should have thought about this before bringing this site to life.

If you fill out your timeline correctly a consular officer can find out your VJ account with nearly 100% accuracy.

He would start by the interview date, then beneficiary country and one more date from your timeline and it will nearly always return exactly one result.

The VJ site should make it easy to separate the timeline from the forum contributions and actively promote that separation. Right now the only way to achieve some level of privacy is to have 2 accounts: one with the timeline and one for forum discussions.

I am sure the site moderators will not like my post because by doing that people may stop bothering about the timeline account, but nowadays we need more sophisticated systems to meet the high demands on privacy.

Um...

There has been a lot of confusion about freedom of speech on this board recently.

Freedom of speech means you will not go to jail for saying the wrong thing. It doesn't mean that you are not responsible for the consequences of your speech.

Immigrants have freedom of speech too. It's just you guys don't know what it means. A married person cannot get a fiance visa, by law.

You don't need to "be careful." You need to tell the truth, or face the consequences of your lying.

Freedom of speech is not a license to lie in front office bearers. There you have to use the legal language they use. Apart from that situations 'freedom of speech means' I can tell whatever I want and not face any legal consequences. Unfortunately there will always be some social and cultural consequences. This forum is a perfect example of that.

Really? So you can prove that you're not married? How? Explain to me how you can prove to the US government that at no point, in any country, you were married to your fiance?

If you're not married explain to me why you're calling your fiance, someone you are NOT married to, a term reserved for married people?

You (collectively) are being silly and risking your future together by calling each other a term that does NOT relate to you. You are drawing unneeded attention and red-flags into your relationship. Stop calling each other something you are not. It's like calling your best male friend your boyfriend. While the term COULD imply simply a boy that's a friend, that is not it's typical and known use so calling them that adds a dimension to the relationship that doesn't exist.

If you want to be together, stop doing stupid things that put it at risk, and stop doing things that add unnecessary stress to an already stressful and lengthy process.

Wow. How about freedom of speech. How about using your own language, your own slang? You guys are getting paranoid. That's not what America is about.