SusieQQQ

This. This is what matters.

F3 and F4 only have about a year’s difference at present - it’s been wider in the past. I’d suggest both husband applying for sibling visa now and MIL when she is able. You never know how these categories move in the future, then they can just grab whichever one comes first.

Regardless, no one’s opinion really matters because there is no visa to bring either the sister or her child to come live in the US for a few years to look after the babies. OP needs plan B.

Hopefully so, and hopefully they will have enough, because we have seen before people being refused visas because they still owe hospitals from giving birth in the US. Or you could be just refused in future. Wouldn’t that be a horrible outcome, you give your kid US citizenship but you can never go visit them once they move there?

Is this person theoretically planning to lie in the section of the DS160 that asks for names, and date and place of birth of her children? If so, they should be informed that very factually this would be material misrepresentation that could bring a lifetime ban from the US. As to whether she will be refused, who knows. It’s not illegal to travel to the US to give birth, but it’s frowned on. Maybe she’ll get it, if her ties home are strong enough. Maybe they’ll refuse. Maybe they’ll give it but flag her file that CBP shouldn’t allow her in if she’s pregnant. Maybe they’ll tell her to come back and apply for a visa again when she’s past childbearing age. would

OP is American and understands American culture. You want a 16 year old to help with childcare? Sure, you do it. How you do it is, you get a local high school kid who can do it in the evenings or on weekends or in summer vacation and get paid for it. High school babysitters are pretty cheap. You don’t import a minor to do it.

I think you misunderstood what he said, he is coming in a business trip, he is not being paid in the US to work in the US.

And you will presumably have evidence from the company you work for that they have paid the ticket and hotel, and that you have business meetings arranged on behalf of your company, and maybe even if you’re paranoid a letter from the company explicitly stating that you are in the US on business on their behalf. it sounds like some posters here have never travelled internationally on business before.

ESTA is equivalent to a B1/B2 visa. No, he should not at all lie to CBP. If he is visiting for work he should say so. Apart from anything else it also shows a tie to go home.

Unfortunately most of the embassies are dealing with massive backlogs from covid, all interview categories have a wait and B visas are lowest priority vs immigrant, student and work visas. 60-90 days is actually not that bad at all compared to some that have over a years wait.

I think you meant to say, it would be even trickier for the 16 year old because bringing a minor across borders for the purposes of work (especially unpaid work as it sounds like, or they could hire someone here) could be considered trafficking.

Student visa is limited to working 20 hours a week on campus, your friends and relatives doing illegal work is not a basis for suggesting things to others on VJ.

Does nobody else have a problem with wanting to get a 16 year old to come from the other side of the world to help look after babies? The niece was expressly included for this purpose in the OP.

No one gets “lucky” when applying for a B visa with an immigrant petition in process! Your ties would have been what made the difference.

There is only one approach. MIL applies for B visa.

Unfortunately, that’s not great news. San Jose can take up to two years or so to process i485s - they currently list 80% of cases being completed within 23.5 months. This is one of the big downsides of doing it this way. Hopefully you get your employment authorization pretty soon though.

If you’ve been here /married almost a year and are still waiting for work authorization- how long ago did you actually file? What uscis field office is closest to you?

It is only doable legally for immediate relative petitions. Remember you are violating the usage of an ESTA if that is your plan when you enter the US.

Your insults aside, I’m not sure I’m getting your timeline. by your description of this situation I assume this is when she was refused entry , and you say it was 2020 So she stayed around 2 months after flights locked down (which happened when, April?) when she overstayed -even if she entered before covid this must put her at least at mid year 2020, yes? And then you also claimed that she had successfully entered once after the overstay - so that must have been in 2020 too so I get that part of her stay in 2020 was covid but then on your information she came back (or tried to) twice more all in 2020 that sounds like way too much time in one year in one year in the US and is probably yet another reason she got denied the B visa. (PS if you think no one from Germany overstays illegally I have news for you, I have met a couple of them in my time in fact. Having a potential spouse is a risk factor for that too, you just have to go to the AOS from tourist status thread here to see that. )

Riiiiiggght , the immigration agents are nasty jerks and the system is evil and corrupt and they won’t give her a non immigrant visa because she’s immigrating and everyone is terrible, I guess this is just a venting thread and not interested in logic. I mean, how dare immigration officials apply the law? Ugh.

And even if you have, current DoS policy is that police certificates are valid for two years. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-5-collect-financial-evidence-and-other-supporting-documents/step-7-collect-civil-documents.html Police certificates expire after two years, unless the certificate was issued from your country of previous residence and you have not returned there since the police certificate was issued.

What happens to the house, car and daughter when her immigrant visa gets approved though? This is the problem, you say she has strong ties, but she is planning to leave them behind pretty soon when her immigrant visa comes through anyway. By law the CO has to assume immigrant intent, and it is very difficult to overcome that with an immigrant visa petition in the works.

What did the nasty immigration agent at Houston have to do with it? He was just following the law. Overstay is overstay. He doesn’t get any leeway to be subjective in how he applies the law. Unfortunately it is the case that also for example we have seen people lose their b visas because a flight got delayed to after midnight on the last day their i94 was valid. Overstay is overstay, period. If there is any learning to share from your wife’s experience, and similar of others, it is: don’t arrange to fly out on the last day of your authorized stay - or the corollary , don’t book your flight to enter the US the last day your visa is valid. Stuff happens. Weather happens, technical malfunctions happen, delays of incoming flights happen, always give yourself at least a day’s breathing room if you are flying. I think the issue with the B is not so much you technically cannot apply for both, but that the B visa requires you to overcome the assumption of immigrant intent, and obviously having an immigrant visa petition in progress means…there is immigrant intent.

VJ doesn’t have a guide specifically for spouse of LPR but the filing etc process is basically the same as a citizen, just your case will be classified as F2A not IR/CR1, and it will probably take a little longer to process. And obviously your right to petition will be shown by a copy of your green card not US birth certificate or passport. Etc

Of course it’s overstay, and was a problem since the day she turned 18 (minors don’t accrue unlawful presence) unless she had another legal status to stay on. Do any of the rest of the family have overstay issues or is it just her?