CoyKoi

Thank you for that information, I was unsure whether it would be a waste of time, sounds like it would be. How sad that there seems to be no real oversight of the process at entry.

Thank you for your reply! Are you saying that if he's denied entry, he wouldn't be able to fly from Latin America to Australia via the US, even if the flights were packaged as part of a single ticket and he never left the international part of the airport???? It looks like transit visas can take 15-45 days, so that may be achievable if it came to that.

QUESTIONS: 1) What can we do ahead of time to help ensure that he can make it into the US on his esta? 2) In the worst case scenario, if they don't let him in, can we just book a flight from the US to Latin America or would they make him return to Australia? 3) A friend thought he just needs to show a certain amount of money in his account to support himself for the time he is in the US - is this right? How much do they want to see? Will they consider money in my US accounts, since we're married (but as this is our first trip to the US together, and his first ever, we don't have a US joint account)? 4) Should I have a Chicago immigration lawyer on speed dial in case they give us problems? Would that even help if they decide to refuse him entry? BACKGROUND INFORMATION: My husband, and I got married last year via the Utah remote zoom marriage while living together in Thailand. We looked into the CR1, but we eventually decided against it, as neither of us has a strong desire to live in the US. We've lived in Thailand for the last 8 years, but have decided to leave Thailand in June to travel and explore new destinations that would have better time zones for my remote work (we're looking into Ecuador and Portugal). I've recently read some HORROR stories of people getting refused entry into the US bc the immigration agent believes they want to stay. I know one of the things they'll look at is his "close ties" to Australia, which I'm afraid he doesn't have, beyond his family, who we're visiting after the US. We both work remotely online, his work is for a European company, not Australian. He doesn't own a house or a car in Australia either. We have work permits here in Thailand, but we're giving them up before we go to the US. He's got his esta, but I understand that doesn't guarantee him entry to the US. We'll have all our flights booked, including his return to Australia. Our itinerary: mid-June - Fly from Bangkok to Chicago, followed by a domestic flight to my parents' city 6 weeks USA 8 weeks Ecuador 1 week Mexico 6 weeks USA (my brother's wedding) He flies to Australia mid-November I fly to Australia after Christmas/NY with my family (who I haven't seen for 3.5 years due to the pandemic) - this is the only flight that won't be booked when we enter the US the first time. This is causing me a lot of stress, I'm happy to print out a load of documents or whatever may be necessary to help make things smoother. What are people's recommendations?