dro4739

My wife's scenario is as follows.

She was caught by US border agents attempting to enter the United States from Mexico without inspection on three separate occasions, all within a two week period. Her fingerprints and picture were taken each time, and each time she was released back to Mexico. She successfully entered the US on her fourth attempt and has remained in the US ever since. All of this occurred around in early 2002 when she was 15 years old.

Based on her scenario, is she subject to the permanent ban? Is there a way for us to find out with certainty? Thank you greatly to anyone who replies to this post.

1 hour ago, trac3rt said:

Hello there!

 

I am in the same situation. Appointment for Feb 8.

 

You can call the consulate and have them schedule it over the phone... I hear a lot of people have had good luck with that, but I have not had any luck.

 

They just tell me to call again in two days.So, i call in two days, and again they tell me to call in two days.

 

+52 656 344 3003

Options 2-3-1-1 (In Spanish)

 

Also they did mention that if I cant schedule an fingerprint appointment, to just show up at the ASC location 1-2 days prior to the interview appointment and they'll let me do the fingerprints done.

Thank you so much for your reply! I wanted to let you know that we WERE able to schedule an ASC appointment through the website. My wife and I started checking the site throughout the day and we noticed that appointments would randomly open up. First, one came up on the 3rd, then another came up on the 9th which we grabbed right away. So my advice would be to keep checking the site every day throughout the day and you will hopefully see an appointment show up.

Good luck with your appointment on the 8th! This is the most stressful thing I've ever had to deal with in my life and I'm hoping it is all over soon.

Bumping this because I still have no answers. To clarify...

• Wife has her consular interview appointment in Juarez on 2/10.
• We are trying to schedule her ASC in Juarez but the website tells us no appointments are available.

Two questions are:

• What happens if she goes to her interview on 2/10 without having gone to the ASC?
• Is it possible to attend the ASC at a different location than where her appointment is (for example, Tijuana or Nogales)? Not sure we want to even go that route but want to know if that is an option. I called them on the phone and the operator didn't know the answer to that question.

Thank you for your help!

So my wife and I just got our appointment for her consular interview in Juarez a couple of days ago, which is on February 10. We immediately went in to try to schedule her ASC appointment in Ciudad Juarez but the website tells us that there are no ASC appointments available. If we select other locations (Nogales, Baja California, etc.) there are available appointments for the week of her interview. We are thinking of getting her ASC appointment in Nogales a few days before her interview and then making the drive from there no Juarez. But at the same time, this seems extremely sketchy (I don't want to be driving through essentially one of the most dangerous regions in the entire world for six plus hours!). Is it possible that ASC appointments will open up before her appointment? Has anyone else experienced this issue or had to do their ASC appointment at a different location than the Consular interview? 

Thank you to everyone who replies! What a tense and nerve-wracking experience this has been for us.

1 hour ago, Allaboutwaiting said:

She makes an appointment at any border location in Mexico, crosses the border and gets her passport in one day.

Thank you for this! Are the consulates on the border taking appointments right now? I guess I will need to look into this and find out. If we travel by car together and I have my passport and we have our marriage certificate, her ID, as well as the confirmation of her appointment in Juarez, is it likely they will allow her into Mexico even though her passport is expired?

Thank you! And do you happen to know how difficult it would be for her to obtain a new passport while in Mexico? Or how long that might take? I just fear she could get stuck there or that this could delay the process even further.

So yesterday morning my wife and I received a notification that she has an appointment scheduled in Ciudad Juarez. She is in the IR1 category and we had to do the I-601A petition and have been waiting for literally almost six years for this. However, when we went through our documents last night we discovered that her Mexican passport expired one month ago. We tried to see if we could schedule an emergency appointment but apparently the Mexican consulates near us are not taking any appointments, even in emergency situations.

Can anyone offer any advice on what we should do? I'm assuming she'll need a non-expired Mexican passport in order to go through this process? We were so excited to finally get an appointment and now we are feeling deflated and helpless! 

My wife and I are in the queue for an interview appointment at the consular office in Ciudad Juarez. She came to the U.S. without inspection at the age of 14 (she is now 34). I filed an I601A on her behalf and it was approved after an RFE. Still, I’m nervous about her leaving the country for an interview and would like some advice.

When we first filed the I601A, under the question, “Are there other previous entries?” we marked “No.” My wife’s experience in coming to America was extremely traumatic and her memory of what happened is foggy. She told me that she was not sure whether she was caught at the border or not, but she thought she remembered being detained by someone, but could not remember if that was in Mexico or the United States (she was also robbed at gunpoint, suffered severe dehydration, and nearly died en route to America). We consulted a lawyer about what to do, and, under his advice, filed a FOIA to see if it showed records of her attempting to enter the US illegally. When we received the FOIA request in return, it indicated that there were no records of my wife’s name on file. As a result of this and under the advice of the lawyer, we ended up marking “No” on that question. 

After filing the I601A, we received an RFE from USCIS asking us to explain why we marked “No” if their records showed that she in fact was “caught and released” not once, but twice at the border. In my response, I explained that my wife was traumatized by her border crossing experience and had blocked out most of her memories of what happened, and that we were advised by a lawyer to mark “No.” I sent the letter off and our next communication from USCIS was an approval for the I601A.

So my question is, will there be trouble with my wife’s interview because of her two unsuccessful attempts at crossing the border? Will her approved I601A protect her in her situation? We have two children together, one of whom is one month old, and absolutely do not want to risk her being denied re-admission into America.

Thank you in advance for your help. If you need me to clarify anything, just let me know.

1 hour ago, leerad said:

hi, i was wondering if anyone could help me out with current approximate timelines.  our i601a was approved beginning of August.  what would the next step be.  he is from ecuador.  our lawyer has all the supporting documentation in her possession that is necessary for the visas.  how long do you think it will be until we receive notification from nvc with an appointment at the american embassy in ecuador, and after that, how long to get the visa to come back home.?

I have the same question. I think there is a lot of varying information out there about how long it takes to get your appointment because some people wait until after their I-601A is approved before starting the process with the NVC, or they wait until their I-601A is approved before sending their documents to the NVC. I think if you do it that way, you will have to wait longer to get your appointment.

In my case, we sent our documents to the NVC first, received a notice from the NVC that they had all of our required documentation and that we were in the queue for an interview appointment, and THEN we sent off our I-601A application. A couple of weeks afterward, the NVC contacted us and stated that they were notified by USCIS that we had filed an I-601A, and that they would continue to process our visa application, but that they wouldn't schedule the appointment until our waiver was approved. Since our waiver was just approved last Friday, I'm wondering how long it will take USCIS to contact the NVC, and then how long it will be until we get our appointment. I'm hoping it will be in the next couple of months? It is very hard to say. We got the notification that we were in the queue for an interview back in September of 2018.

You mentioned that your lawyer has the supporting documentation in her possession. Did she already send it to the NVC? If so, when? Did you receive a notice from the NVC that you were in the queue for an interview appointment overseas? I'm by no means an expert at this, but I think the amount of time you have to wait largely depends on the answer to those questions.

29 minutes ago, Tyssa said:

Congrats!!! So happy to hear from someone that received an approval after their RFE.  I also got an RFR and replied almost two weeks ago. Hoping to get an answer soon! Could’ve gone through this process without the support of this group! 🙏🏻

When I got the RFE I was very nervous, but then I kept telling myself, "If they were going to reject us, they would have rejected us right off the bat. The RFE means they want to approve us, but they just need some more info before they can do that." So I'm sure you'll get your approval. They are too busy with other cases to be sending out RFEs to people they are going to reject. Be sure to keep us posted when you get the good news.

Well I want to say thanks to all the people on here who have given me their support throughout this entire process, whether you all have realized it or not. Just knowing that there are other people out there going through the same thing that I am has given me the strength to continue this arduous and difficult process.

Our original receipt date was September of 2018 (can't remember the exact date). We received an RFE on June 19, 2019. I sent in the response to the RFE almost immediately after getting it, and just today we received our approval notice via the app. I am happy beyond words! Now, we wait for our appointment in Juarez. The end is almost near!

Even though we have a shithead for a president, I will always have faith in my country (I'm an American and my wife is from Mexico) and its immigration system. Good luck to everyone who is still waiting, keep the faith, and never give up hope. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks so much for your help! That was helpful, and I also ended up finding all of the info out by searching other forums on this site (something I should have done more thoroughly before posting). So this thread can be closed or deleted. Thanks!

I am currently in the process of waiting for USCIS to approve my wife's I-601A petition. If that goes well, our next step would be a consulate interview in Ciudad Juarez. I have a few questions about how that whole process works and was hoping someone could shed some light on them for me.

1.) How long should we expect to be in Ciudad Juarez? We are planning on traveling there a couple of days before the interview, but would like to know roughly how long it will take for my wife to have her Visa so that we can then return to the states. 

2.) After we are notified that the Visa is approved, do we need to then return to the consulate in Juarez to get the Visa? Or do they mail the Visa? Do they ever tell you right at the end of the interview that you've been approved and issue the Visa on the spot? 

3.) How safe did everyone feel while they were in Juarez? Are there any hotel recommendations in safer areas in Juarez? I have heard about the high crime rate and frankly I'm terrified to be staying there for any amount of time.

4.) Will I, the husband, attend the interview with my wife? We have a four-year-old who will be traveling with us; will our child be allowed in the interview?

Thanks to anyone who responds! This is an amazing online community and I am happy to be a part of it.

I am so grateful for the quick responses to my post! It's refreshing to know that there are so many good souls out there in this world who are willing to help out total strangers for nothing in return.

No, my wife was not present in the US for more than a few hours when she was sent back, so I am sincerely hoping that the 9C ban doesn't apply to her.

Am I correct in assuming that the first step is for me to file the I-130 form? Can I do that, and then send off a FOIA request afterwards?

To answer the question about DACA, we looked into it, but the problem is that she has practically no records of her being present in the United States since she arrived. From our investigations, it seems like we would need to have some type of documentation for every 3 months since her arrival in the States, and she honestly has almost no documentation or records that she has been present here. We figured it would be too difficult to prove that, and that going a different route would be a better option.

Thank you all, once again!

Hello and thanks in advance for anyone who replies to this post. I'll try to be as concise as possible, but unfortunately, my case is a bit complicated.

My wife entered the United States illegally from Mexico when she was 15 years old. The first time she tried to enter, she was stopped at the border, fingerprinted, and sent back to Mexico. Sadly, she can't remember whether this (being stopped and fingerprinted at the border) happened to her only once, or if it happened two times. Regardless, after one or two attempts to enter, she made it in, and has been living in America ever since (she's 29 now). I'm a US citizen born and raised in the States, and we were married a couple of years ago.

I'm about to begin the process of trying to adjust her status, and I have two questions. On the form I-130, there is a question that asks, "Has your relative ever been under immigration proceedings?" I have two questions about this. First, do I need to mark "Yes" on that question? I assume that the answer is yes, but I thought I'd verify because I read one source online that stated that if you've never been in front of an immigration judge, then you don't need to mark "Yes" on that question. Second, my wife isn't sure the exact date of when she was stopped (the form asks you to state where and when you were under immigration proceedings), and she isn't sure how many times she was stopped. I previously met with a lawyer who told me that there is a way for me to find that out, but I can't remember how to do it. Does anyone on here know what I need to do to obtain that information?

I have been told by two different lawyers that we have a very long process ahead of us, and that there is a very real possibility that her I-601A waiver will be denied and she will have to return to Mexico for a number of years. That would absolutely devastate my family, but at this point, we have no other options but to file and see what happens. Unfortunately, these same lawyers wanted around $15,000 to take our case, and I simply can't afford to pay that amount of money.

I am sure that I will have many more questions to post as we begin this process, and I hope to keep everyone updated on the status of our case. Again, thank you to anyone who responds to this post!