welkin

Husband interviewed at Seoul consulate and got his visa approved. We’re sooooo happy to be finally done with this grueling process and look forward to being together without the long distance travel hassle. I wish the best of luck to everyone else still waiting as I know too well how agonizing this can be. Hang in there!

5 minutes ago, Family said:

May I assume you got the response from NVC through the Congressional Liason ( email)…since NVC has effectively suspended the very limited help they were giving via telephone. 
Good news that it is resolved and do go to the interview with the printed “ terse” response, ready to anticipate any additional review by post.

No, during this time I was also unable to reach NVC by phone. The supervisor review had also rejected the document but wrote a couple more words in addition to their generic response (something like “US authority needed”), so that’s how we inferred that it was because the divorce wasn’t filed in US court. We called several lawyers (didn’t hire any, just the initial free consultation) and one of them said I should just submit a letter to explain the situation, so that’s what we did.

I thought I would post an update after so long, maybe this would help others who run into similar issues. So after I had posted the above, we requested a supervisor review, and two months later, they finally gave a very terse explanation. Basically my husband and his ex were living in the US and had divorced via the Korean consulate (because they got married in Korea). The NVC people must’ve expected the divorce be filed with a US court or something because they were living in the US at the time.

So we submitted a letter explaining the circumstances fully to show why the divorce was filed via the consulate. Another 2-3 months go by and we finally got DQ’d a few weeks ago! We were told that he should be expected to present his divorce documents for his consulate interview. Since it’ll be in Korea, we hope that the consulate people there have more experience navigating korean marriage/divorce procedures and not give us any more trouble about it.

It’s a longer process than we had expected but we feel like we’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks to all who have read my posts and gave me advice, I wish everyone the best!

Also to add a data point: my husband had I130 approved, waiting on NVC. We passed together through US custom preclearance  (in Calgary, Canada) without any trouble.

Update: this was in Calgary airport’s pre clearance. We stood in different lines, but when officer asked me if I was traveling with anyone, I answered that I was with my husband. He told me to wave him over, we passed quickly without any problems. Thanks again everyone!

Hi all,

My husband (from South Korea)’s immigration application is being reviewed at NVC (I-130 approved) and we’re planning to meet in Canada next week, sightsee a bit, before entering the US together (not to immigrate yet, but for him to stay with me for a while). We’re a bit paranoid of him getting rejected at the border and really want to minimize the chance of that happening because we have so little time together. So we’re wondering when we enter the US, does it help or hurt his chance of entering if we stand in the same line at the border and enter as a couple or stand separately (so I’ll go to citizen line and he goes to visitor line)? Or does this not matter? Anything else we should do or not do?

thanks in advance to any tips people might have!

8 hours ago, Family said:

1. Did you send THE SAME DIVORCE document to USCIS when you filed  the I-130 ?  Did you get RFE ( request for evidence that said Divorce paper is not acceptable ? ) 
 

2. What country is your husband’s divorce from? NVC knows what each countries divorce documents look like and what government/authority seals/stamps the divorce. They go by Reciprocity Table .. 
 

Many helpful people on VJ and they will send you links country specific threads / groups so you can look for others that had the same problem. 
 

 

We didn't have any problem with I-130. He's from South Korea and the website (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/SouthKorea.html) says

Quote

 

Divorce Certificates

Unavailable:  The Marriage Relation Certificate (Detailed) “Honin Kwankye Jeungmyongseo (Sang Sae)” provides information on marital status and also contains previous divorce information.  The Family Census Register “Jejeok Deungbon” also provides divorce records if the divorce was reported before January 1, 2008.

 

The "Honin Kwankye Jeungmyongseo (Sang Sae)" was indeed the file we submitted.

6 hours ago, etrangais said:

Call them back and ask for a supervisor review, if you are sure you submitted the correct document.

Supervisor review takes about 6 weeks at most

Thanks! I will give that a try!!

Hi all, my husband and I are very sad to see his "Marriage Termination Document" was rejected by NVC. We got a message that says

"Please replace this with an acceptable divorce, annulment, or death certificate from a correct issuing authority. Please use our Document Finder at https://nvc.state.gov/find for acceptable documents guidelines."

but we did indeed double triple check the state.gov website and this is the exact document they wanted. We were baffled and I called the NVC and the person who received the call said they don't know why the reviewer rejected the document, and said we could submit a new letter saying "this is indeed the correct document". But even so she said that'd put us at the back of the line again. It is quite infuriating we are being made to wait for something that wasn't our mistake. Has anyone had this happen to them? How did you resolve it?

3 hours ago, Hubbster14 said:

Congrats!

 

Did you file i129f? If yes, when? 

I filed it on May 3, didn't seem to have helped.

Update: my husband passed through the customs in JFK just fine! They didn’t give him any hard time at all. Thanks to all and happy Thanksgiving!

1 hour ago, dwheels76 said:

There's no issue.People travel back and forth through the process all the time.Matters not where in the process they are. Just be honest to the CBP officer and all is well.

And your file is sent within hours to days  so keep eye on your email for  Welcome letter.

Thanks! That’s great relief, because we haven’t seen each other for so long, would hate to have to abandon this upcoming trip!

4 minutes ago, Mike E said:

 

Thanks, I did see the pinned thread, but most of the posts were about pending I-130, I’m not sure if approved I-130 makes it harder or easier which is why I made this thread.

I'm US citizen and my husband is South Korean. I'm in the US, he's in South Korea. Today we just found out that our I-130 has been approved!!!! Which is great, but he was planning to visit me for the holidays (ticket already booked for this Thursday). Will he be able to enter the US normally? I'm happy that we're moving forward in the process, but worried if him trying to come to the US will jeopardize the next steps. Thanks!

(I assume because this just happened, they haven't transferred the case to NVC yet.)

Thank you all who have answered!! Sounds like him visiting will be fine but we will have to settle for a shorter visit 😭

1 hour ago, SteveInBostonI130 said:

 

Are you asking if it is ok to be dishonest to CBP?  No. 

 

There is always a chance for denied entry.  But contemplating lying should not even be considered.  Just be honest:  He is visiting his wife for the holidays.  

 

He should have a return ticket and explain his job if asked.

thanks, what about duration? Is a 3 month stay (max allowed by esta) more likely to be denied than 1 month stay?

I'm US citizen and my husband is South Korean, we've filed I-130 in February and still waiting on approval. He plans to visit me this holiday season on ESTA, but we have a couple questions:

- is it risky if he wants to stay here for over two months? He has a teaching job so he gets a long vacation, but we're afraid a longer stay would arouse more suspicion that he wants to stay here illegally.

- would he be denied entry if he says he's visiting his wife (as opposed to a generic answer like "traveling / visiting family and friends")? Or will they see his I-130 application anyway so he should just be honest and say he's visiting me?

Thanks in advance!