a.reece

I am a US citizen with a Moroccan spouse and we'd like to apply for a green card. We live abroad (not in Morocco)

Married 6 years

2 kids

We applied for a tourist visa and it wasn't approved when we were first married, so we never tried again. This was in Morocco, we presented strong ties, but not enough apparently. My spouse has a good job and should complete his PhD in January, if that's important. 

Are any visas possible as we live abroad?

Should we enter the green card lottery, or is that even an option as I'm a citizen?

Thank you for your help. 

15 hours ago, Penguin_ie said:

You could try again and send the proof of previous travels and ties with the submission, rather than bringing to the interview, in the hope they will look at it then.  Also include proof that YOU, the US citizen, has ties to the country you live in and don;t intend to move back to the USA (because if you aren't in the USA, the wife is much less likely to stay illegally).

 

There is another option, but it is very costly and I would definitely give the tourist visa another try before going this route:  Petition for a IR-1 spousal visa. You would need to show intent to re-establish domicile in the USA at the same time as your wife moves over, BUT as soon as she has the greencard, you guys could move back abroad, and she can formally hand back the greencard and apply for a tourist visa again.  As she showed that she could have stayed in the USA legally with the greencard, but declined to do so, the tourist visa is almost guaranteed then.

Thank you for your reply and information.

We will try for a B2 again as you've suggested; how are we able to send the supporting documents with the submission? We only filled out the DS 160 at the beginning of July, but if I remember correctly, there was no option to upload documents with the submission.

Thank you again.

17 minutes ago, az2014 said:

Documents are not expected to be looked at, why would they?

 

Your spouses answers on the DS160 and to the questions at the interview did not show sufficient ties to their home country, thats it really.

 

What country are they from? What ties do they have? Previous travel abroad?

Thanks for your reply. 

I expected documents to be looked at, as the embassy suggests bringing documents to show ties, especially in a situation where immigration is assumed until proven otherwise.

My spouse is completing his master's degree, he had proof of his enrollment, a letter from the University stating he was scheduled to defend his thesis this fall, all of the transcripts and deposit slips, etc that the U.S. embassy website suggests. 

We live in Morocco, my spouse is a Moroccan national. Previous travel includes Turkey and Japan. All previous travel is Academic-related, if that's of importance.

Thank you again.

Hello,

My spouse recently applied for a B2 visa and was denied. I am a U.S. citizen, and we were hoping to visit my family this summer, as we just had a child.

We do not have the intention to immigrate to the U.S., which is why we applied for the tourism visa. I asked advice about which visa to apply for previously here.

During the interview, my spouse was never asked for any documents showing ties to the country we are living in. 

What advice do you have for obtaining a visa to visit the U.S.?

Does my spouse have any additional rights to visit my family, now that we have a child that is an American citizen? 

Is there another visa we can apply for, although we do not plan on living in the U.S. at any point? 

What could we do differently to succeed in the B2 interview? We had strong supporting documents, but never had the chance to present them.

In a perfect world, we would like to visit my family for 2 weeks every summer and winter.

Thank you for your guidance.

Hello,

I am an American citizen with a foreign spouse. We would like to visit my family in the United States this summer, but we do not wish to immigrate to the United States. Is a tourist visa the only visa we can apply for? Is there an option for multiple entries over a multiple-year period, in the event we wanted to visit twice per year?

Thank you for your guidance.