niner49

A little background: My wife (a Spanish national) and I (U.S. citizen) were married in Spain May 2008.

When we initially decided to move back to the U.S., we completed the CR-1 process and my wife received a i-551 stamp in her passport from the US Embassy in Madrid on April 11, 2010. We arrived at the U.S. border on August 23, 2010, supposedly within the allotted 6 month window. Since we initially applied for the visa, we received work offers and will now live in Abu Dhabi until approximately June 2012. That said, we were hoping to apply for a 2 year i-131 extension once her i-551 was validated, as we return to the U.S. at least once every 12 months.

However, the Madrid Embassy mistakenly put the date of May 11, 2010 for the “IV Expires On” field. In retrospect, perhaps we should have tried to have this text amended, however we assumed it was a mere typo and the system would recognize we had arrived on time…. (turns out we were right…. see below). Anyways, upon seeing this (incorrect) expiration date, the border agent confiscated our package and simply granted my wife a tourist visa….. and caused us a delay that made us miss our connection…. he didn’t care (and explicitly told us so).

Afterwards, we called the Madrid embassy and they acknowledged their mistake, however they said they needed the package that was confiscated by the border agent!

So we assumed that our application was dead in the water and we would have to start the whole process over. HOWEVER, a few weeks ago, my father in the USA received an ASC appointment notice (i-797C) for biometrics.... How is this possible if the border agent rejected her i-551, confiscated her “do not open” package and granted her simply a tourist visa? We are no longer in the US and will not return until July 2011. Can we keep delaying it until July?

Well that about covers it. Does anyone have any insight about our case? I am almost resigned to the fact that we will have to restart applying to the embassy in Abu Dhabi, but I am hoping there is some way we can salvage our current case (and save on the additional application fees)….. thanks!

Helpful response, thanks. She will go to the Madrid consulate anyways to try to clarify why the expiry date was so soon. Maybe this was a blessing in disguise, although it will cost us another I-don't-know-how-much ($1000?), the DCF method seems like it will present fewer issues in the future.... thanks again

Attached is a letter I recently got from the NZ consulate, just FYI for anyone out there

IV IMPORTANT NOTICE handout.pdf

The Consular Section of the Embassy gave you bad advice about entering the US once a year to retain residence. If such a pattern is noticed at POE they can go so far as to make you have to appear in from of an Immigration Judge to explain your situation.

The Green Card is for residing in the US and the pattern of entry you mention isn't residing in the US.

When you are ready to actually live together in the US then you should file DCF at the nearest US Embassy.

This incident should have no impact on future DCF beyond them asking why she never used the previously issued CR-1 Visa.

Helpful response, thanks. She will go to the Madrid consulate anyways to try to clarify why the expiry date was so soon. Maybe this was a blessing in disguise, although it will cost us another I-don't-know-how-much ($1000?), the DCF method seems like it will present fewer issues in the future.... thanks again

POE handled it properly, her Immigration Visa expired back in May for whatever reason.

Also as other posters have mentioned you shouldn't have filed for an IV for her yet as only returning to the US once a year on vacation doesn't fulfill her residency requirement.

Hi thank you all for your helpful responses! Let me clarify:

1) We attempted to call Madrid several about the strange expiry date, but of course there was no answer. Living overseas it was impossible to go in person. We just had to hope I suppose that what they told us about the 6 month window after issue date to enter was true.

2) We first filed for this green card thinking we were going to move back this August. Then things happened with work and we will need to stay overseas. The US consulate where we currently live gave us this advice that I will copy/paste below....

At this point, she will go to the Madrid consulate in person to sort this out, after our 2 weeks in the U.S. Looks like we will need to go the CDF route, but that only takes 2-3 months, correct? Will our failed visa attempt here complicate our future CDF filing?

Thanks again to all respondents, perhaps the information below will help someone in my situation:

--->" An immigrant visa applicant must travel to the U.S. during the validity of his/her immigrant visa. Immigrant visas are normally valid for six months from the date of issuance. (my edit: NORMALLY?!?!?!?!?) After admission into the U.S. on immigrant visa status, an immigrant may depart the U.S. if he/she chooses and seek admission within 365 days of his/her exit from the U.S. Should the immigrant stay outside the U.S. for more than 365 days, he/she will have lost his/her immigrant status.

If the immigrant believes that he/she will not be able to return to the U.S. within 365 days, he/she must file for a re-entry permit with the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Service (BCIS) when in the U.S. Re-entry permits are normally valid for two years, thus giving the immigrant applicant 24 months to re-enter the U.S.

Should you have further questions, please contact us.

Regards,

Consular Section" <-----

Hi, my wife had an I-551 visa in her passport prior to our entry yesterday to the US. This immigrant visa has the "IV issue date" of 07Apr2010 and "IV Expires On" 11May2010. It says "Upon endorsement serves as temporary i-551 evidencing permanent residence for 1 year".

We entered the US yesterday (Aug 9, 2010) for the first time since the issue of this visa. However, the border agent would NOT endorse this visa! He said it was expired. We tried to explain that we had 6 months after the issue date, which would be in our minds October 7, 2010 at the latest, but he wasn't listening. The only way he would let her enter was on a normal 90 day tourist visa (she is from Spain).

This is not a huge deal for the moment since we are currently residing abroad and are just coming for a vacation. We will be residing abroad for two more years and coming back to the US in the meantime at least once a year. However, I would not like this incident to spoil all of the hard work/headaches/money that we have put in over the past years to finally get her the i-551.

Also, as a side note, we will need an adjustment from CR1 to IR1 since we have now been married longer than two years.

Does anyone have any insight on what we should do????? Thanks.

In short, I TOTALLY agree with what Just Bob said. What you are thinking of doing will not work, period. You need to choose between your new job and her getting her GC now. You guys can always do DCF again later, as long as you explain to them what happened and why you wont use it now, you shouldn't have a problem getting the visa again...although you WILL have to pay the fees again. You could also check with your consulate and see if they will extend her visa to be good to enter for 1 year (I know they sometimes do that with K-1 visas, so maybe they would do that with a CR1 visa too...maybe not, you'd just have to ask). But really, you have two options: stay and take the job, or go to the US. You cannot do both. Or really, I guess your wife could go to the US and you could stay where you are...but you might have some issues with that later down the line. And really, why would you want to do that anyway!?

I've tried to answer your questions above explaining why what you want to do won't work...but as Just Bob said, it's really really complicated and what you are thinking of doing is plain right against the rules.

Let me fill you in on my situation: I'm American and my wife is French. Applied for and received her IR-1 visa in May 2010, thinking we would be moving back to the USA in August 2010. As it turns out, we will be staying in Abu Dhabi (as Abu Dhabi residents working in AD) for probably two more years! Good for career but bad for visa bureaucracy

We will be traveling back to the USA in August 2010 anyways for a two week vacation. From what I am reading, we will eventually need to repeat the visa process (probably through DCF) when we actually move back to the U.S.... unfortunate but that's life.

Does anyone have any advice for ways we can save hassle and/or money on paperwork and fees? If we are returning to the U.S. at least once a year, does the I-131 re-entry form help at all? Any insight greatly appreciated!