speedster

Here's the deal: My wife/and her sister were brought to the US as minors and were caught (and given orders of deportation), less than a year later both of them were approved for TPS for their country. My wife and I left the states and she's been given a visitor visa and we've arrived without any problems at the POE. My wife's sister has stayed in the US and hired an immigration lawyer who said she should not apply for advance parole or leave the country as "she would have the 10 year bar" and are going through the hardship wavier for the 2nd time as the 1st one has already been denied.

I'm scratching my head because my wife was able to come back easily without a problem, both of them issued the same order of deportation on the same day, as a minor, and both were given TPS. What gives? Is the lawyer lying to them? Should she get advance parole?

Great mind of VJ, give me your (non-legal) advice

When you arrive on any tourist visa you're expected to be there for tourism, no matter what happens. If you're plans changed go back to your legal place of residence and start the paperwork there.

I really do wish they would stop allowing AOS from anyone that arrives via a tourist visa.

It makes lives difficult for people like my wife who is married to a US citizen that just wants to visit family in the states just because of the massive amount of liars that enter via a tourist visa to adjust status.

11 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

It’s not void but she’ll need to travel with her old passport with visa, new passport with new name, and marriage certificate to show change of name. It’s just easier (under normal circumstances) to get a new visa to match the new passport name.

She got accepted! But okay sweet. I wonder if it'll be fine if we use the US visa the first time with the new name/new passport. Or should we enter with the maiden name/original passport first to give an entry on that passport?

After the 10 year bar you'll be able to obtain the visa for your spouse. After the 10 years as long as you file the correct paperwork to bring him to the USA, I wouldn't see why he would have any problems.

Because of COVID we of course couldn't apply for the visitor visa and also because of procrastination but we live in the Netherlands and finally have her visitor B1/2 appointment tomorrow. Hopefully, she gets accepted as she hasn't seen any family for 3 years.

Edit: She also hasn't changed to her married name since we need to go to her home country to do that (and well again COVID prevented that). If she gets her B1/2 visa with her maiden name, and she gets a new passport with her married name, does the visa become void and she has to start from square 1?

8 hours ago, JeanneAdil said:

As a USC have u been filing US tax returns for the years outside the US ?

 

Lebanon is not on the list as having a tax agreements with the US

 

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/international-businesses/united-states-income-tax-treaties-a-to-z

I will stop and say this, if the OP has never had a social security number, ever filed with the IRS ever, and has not spent a day in his life living in the USA. He isn't/is currently liable for IRS tax reporting. He's what people call an "accidental American".

On 5/28/2020 at 11:30 AM, SusieQQQ said:

Then there is no adjusting involved. Applying abroad gives you a visa.

the actual question was whether there was any impediment to her adjusting now. If not, it’s a negative for her case. 

Yeah we wondered if her status previously would affect the circumstance of her getting a visitor b visa. But reading around everything matters, so i guess we'll apply and find out i guess, Also interview dates aren't being taken for visitor visas anyways.

1 hour ago, SusieQQQ said:

If by this you mean she just needs to re-enter on a different visa and she can adjust, then this is a negative for getting a B visa.

No no no, not aos with a b visa, I'm talking about applying I-130 abroad of course, if we want to come back

18 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

Agree with luckycat ... I don’t think it will be easy ...but until you try you won’t know 
 

travel to other countries doesn’t count unless the unlikely circumstance of she also has a lot of family there and a history of living there/applying for status/etc (it’s not the same situation as a tourist with no ties anywhere else who just likes traveling), especially having had a brief skim of your post history where it seems your preferred route had been to stay and adjust if that had been possible. Possibly the best chance of getting the tourist visa is that (if I understood correctly) you left before she would go out of status, but it’s tenuous (especially if she’d legally be able to adjust from a b visa on another entry)

Yeah I'd figure it'd be hard, but it was near impossible to adjust status because of her situation, one of her family members is actually doing the hardship route with having to go back to their home embassy, and they're on year 5 right now. For us, rather than worry and be stuck in the USA immigration system, she said she rather just leave, which is what we did. But with the b visa all you can do is hope

On the bright side, if we ever wanted to move back for any reason we can just adjust status with the lockbox I-130

Hey all!

Just wondering if anyone had recent experiences with themselves being a USC living abroad with their non-USC spouse with obtaining a tourist visa. We feel like we have enough stuff here to show that I/we don't want to move to the USA. Also we've traveled to different countries, will that count for something?

My non-USC spouse primarily has family in the USA, She used to be TPS and actually arrived in the USA illegally but within 6 months of her arrival she was given TPS (She was also a minor at the time). Not sure if that bit matters but hoping to hear your comments and what are our chances with applying for the tourist visa?

9 hours ago, TM92 said:

At least you are considering all possible options.

Last status for the I-485 is "Case is Ready to Be Scheduled for An Interview" as of June 22, 2018 💤

Better quality of life in other countries especially for the run around we have to be dealing with here, not worth it for us.

And ouch 4 months and still waiting for an interview date?

On 10/26/2018 at 1:26 PM, TM92 said:

@speedster, did your wife receive her TPS EAD already? Did she already file for TPS AP?

We actually got it in August, but since we thought TPS was ending we were planning to leave the country anyways, but with this ruling we're sending and AP tommorow, we'll probably be moving out of the country anyways....too much run-around there's other countries out there where we can take our chances and move lol

How's your process going so far?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/10/24/politics/tps-extension-plan/index.html

Some good news here

On 8/10/2018 at 2:56 PM, TM92 said:

My line of thinking is that having TPS until NOA1 is sufficient. Since I'm not an expert, I called a local immigration attorney (https://law191.org/) in late February and asked for his general legal opinon on TPS renewal while trying AOS in the 9th Circuit. He said that TPS until NOA1 should be sufficient, but it is a good backup plan to maintain TPS if possible.

Sadly, she won't be able to maintain TPS status since hers ends in January, we spoke to a couple of lawyers that said for us to pack up and move everything now to the 6 or 9 cir. is pretty risky especially since her TPS expires so soon she won't be valid technically....

Now to somehow find a way with DCF

@TM92 - Reading some articles and the opinion of the judge in the 9th circuit case and I thought of something... Do you have to maintain TPS status throughout your AOS application until a certain point like NOA1 or until you get your EAD? Or you have to have it until your AOS is fully approved with the whole nine?

2 hours ago, TM92 said:

That decision was at the district level, not circuit level. Maybe @Hypnos can provide some further input:

Two district courts followed Flores:

• Eastern District of Pennsylvania: Medina v. Beers, 65 F.Supp.3d 419 (E.D. Pa. 2014)
• District of Minnesota: Bonilla v. Johnson, 149 F.Supp.3d 1135 (D. Minn. 2016)

As of September 16, 2017, DHS has failed to pursue appeals in these cases: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/practice_advisory/court_decisions_ensure_tps_holders_in_sixth_and_ninth_circuits_may_become_permanent_residents.pdf. But the PDF also mentions: "USCIS has not adopted—and thus is not following—either Ramirez or Flores outside of the Sixth and Ninth Circuits."

Ahh interested so the Eastern District PA court can't apply to the circuit that it's under? Didn't know that.

But now the question is doesn't the USCIS have to follow what the federal court has ruled? Especially if they let it settle in the district court?

Doing some digging and I found this about the 3rd Circuit:

http://immigrationimpact.com/2014/11/06/third-federal-court-rejects-government-interpretation-admission-u-s/

Possibly some good news for those in the 3rd Circuit?

And in many situations AP is the only option depending your status look at DACA and some cases of TPS, AP is the only way to adjust status at times, it sucks but oh well.

16 hours ago, KeratNY said:

Thanks. Yes it is always at CBP's discretion, and that fact alone scares people (AND lawyers who really should know better) away from doing it, but that fact also applies to LPRs too. Some people and lawyers think the risk is very high, which is demonstrably wrong. Which is why I'm curious what is underlying that. 

 

I have faith that they almost always deny you for a specific reason and I'm curious as to what those could be, in this situation. Which is why I want to find a single thread where this happened and assess it, to learn the answer to that. Those potential reasons you outline above are in line with my thinking and helpful, as well as your conclusion that the "risk is incredibly small." And yet, the fear is pervasive and widespread, which appears to be a result of catastrophizing (which is human nature, I get it) rather than based in reality. 

If you haven't done any crimes or anything close to that I wouldn't understand why lawyers wouldn't extend the use of AP

11 hours ago, TM92 said:

Just found this resource: https://cliniclegal.org/resources/re-registering-tps-and-applying-renewed-employment-authorization

 

Hmm interesting, yeah I just know our lawyer wants to wait for her EAD to actually come in first and get Emergency AP as he's not trusting the timeframe for a regular AP to come in with enough time. But again it's worth a shot to try to get AP either way

6 hours ago, TM92 said:

Since you reside in the 3rd Circuit this approach might not be the best as per the link you recently shared (http://blog.cyrusmehta.com/2018/01/potential-adjustment-of-status-options-after-the-termination-of-tps.html):

If your wife is not able to get emergency AP, she can still apply for regular AP based on TPS. Once you have an approved AP in hand she can travel to see her family. When she returns to the US with AP she will be able to apply for AOS (and a free AOS EAD/AP if she wants).

Well the link from what I read is that if you and your lawyer have the guts to push this it's a why not situation but in case that would have to be a last resort....and getting a request for AP at this time she wouldn't get it in time since her TPS terminates start of 2019

4 hours ago, TM92 said:

AOS EAD/AP was approved on 06/05/2018 and received on 06/13/2018.

That's amazing!

It seems like with crossing fingers this works, even though I'm not in either 6 or 9 Cir. worth a shot to try this if my wifes not able to get Emergency AP.

I just read this which I find pretty interesting related to this topic.

http://blog.cyrusmehta.com/2018/01/potential-adjustment-of-status-options-after-the-termination-of-tps.html

&

http://blog.cyrusmehta.com/2018/01/what-comes-next-potential-relief-options-after-the-termination-of-tps.html

@TM92 So are you gonna receive a TPS and AOS EAD? Or USCIS would automatically know which to give?

We sadly don't live in those circuits to qualify for that sadly