My fiancee had a tourist visa cancelled under 22 CFR 41.122(h)(3)

[mugumogu 18]

My fiancee was refused entry last summer upon arrival in the US. After being questioned for several hours, she was asked if she wanted to withdrawal her effort to enter the country. She agreed and her B2 Tourist visa was cancelled under 22 CFR 41.122(h)(3). What exactly does this mean and will it affect her approval for a K-1 visa?

More details...

She came here first as a tourist in 2007 and came again in 2009 to see if she liked it here. She began making more frequent trips in 2009 to help her cousin at home and work. She was not paid for this, but since she was here, it provided her a place to stay and she just wanted to be helpful. She thought that since she had a valid 10 year visa that she could come and go as much as she liked within that timeframe though she always left by the time it said to on the I-94 admission card. We met during one of her stays here and began dating. We toured many parts of the state and went on a lot of trips. Neither of us really understood the rules of a visa until this happened. As soon as she found out that what she was doing wasn't considered proper use of the visa, she was devastated (I was too) and she has been in Mexico now for just over a year. Funny thing is, I didn't really understand at the time what happened. I thought she could just apply for another visa and come back. She was going to do this, but as soon as I started doing some research online, I advised her not to bother with a tourist visa because she wants to come back to be with me. So... now we're in the K-1 process. As we get closer to the interview, I'm wondering if it's wrong for me to be getting my hopes up or how much of an impact this will have on approval.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

22 CFR 41.122(h)(3):

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.f6da51a2342135be7e9d7a10e0dc91a0/?vgnextoid=fa7e539dc4bed010VgnVCM1000000ecd190aRCRD&vgnextchannel=fa7e539dc4bed010VgnVCM1000000ecd190aRCRD&CH=22cfr

(3) The alien is notified pursuant to INA 235(b) by an immigration officer at a port of entry that the alien appears to be inadmissible to the United States and the alien requests and is granted permission to withdraw the application for admission;

22 CFR 41.122 deals with revocation of visas. The paragraph they cited says the CBP officer determined she was inadmissible and she withdrew her application for admission. The most common reason for this is that the CBP officer believes she intends to immigrate. Based on your description of how she previously used her visa, I'd say this is almost certainly what happened.

It won't affect her K1 visa application. The K1 visa specifically allows for immigrant intent. Basically, by revoking her visa the CBP officer was telling her to get the right visa if she intends to immigrate.

[mugumogu 18]

Thanks, good to know!

[mugumogu 18]

My fiancee was in the US in 2009 on a tourist visa. She did not know that you couldn't do certain things while in the country on a tourist visa and in order to help support her stay, she helped a relative with some things at the office that she (the relative) owns. This was not done regularly nor was my fiancee on any kind of payroll. In exchange for her help, the relative would give my fiancee money from time to time. My fiancee was stopped when trying to enter the US later that year. The officers went through her things and didn't find anything suspicious until they came across her calendar on her computer that had some appointments in it. They were business appointments that the relative was keeping and my fiancee was helping to keep track of them in an effort to help her be more organized. The relative explained that my fiancee was very helpful and expressed interest in filing paperwork to have my fiancee come work for her as a consultant. Anyway, before the paperwork could be filed, my fiancee's tourist visa was revoked at the airport. She was honest with the officers and they seemed to understand that my fiancee misunderstood what she was allowed to do with a tourist visa. They said that it appeared to them that she was working or at least the activity she was doing was not allowed and that they would have to cancel her visa. They did and wrote 22CFR41.122(h)(3) in her passport. They were going to send her back that night, but because they trusted her, they released her to me, took my information, and told me that she had to be back in 24 hours to return to Mexico. She returned the next day and has been in Mexico now for over a year. I have been to visit her many times. So... all this said, will this cause the K-1 visa that we are currently applying for to be denied? We intend to be honest about everything, but I just want to get some insight as to what impact this might have on approval.

[Inky 1,110]

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/325281-my-fiancee-had-a-tourist-visa-cancelled-under-22-cfr-41122h3/page__p__4852632#entry4852632

Already been answered in your other post about this.

[Krikit 1,163]

Merging duplicate threads.

Mugumogo, this happens all the time to a lot of people. It especially seems to happen to a lot of Canadians. Some even come back with strong proof of ties and are allowed to enter. At the interview she will be asked about this because it will be in their database. This isn't something to be worried about because it doesn't affect visa approval. You'll find lots of Canadians with the same story.

[mugumogu 18]

Merging duplicate threads.

Mugumogo, this happens all the time to a lot of people. It especially seems to happen to a lot of Canadians. Some even come back with strong proof of ties and are allowed to enter. At the interview she will be asked about this because it will be in their database. This isn't something to be worried about because it doesn't affect visa approval. You'll find lots of Canadians with the same story.

Well that's makes me feel better. I just don't understand why, when you look up common reasons that a K-1 visa can be denied, I always see that having been denied entry is one of them. It also asks about that on the DS-156 form and in the DS-260. The reason I posted the question again was because I had more detail and I learned that the immigration officers seemed primarily to be concerned with the fact that she might have been working on a tourist visa and I wasn't sure if that changed anything - even though they put that code in her passport that allowed her to withdrawal her application to enter. In the end, the seemed very cooperative with her and trusted her enough to let her go that night, which they don't normally do. Thank you for the reply.

Edited August 20, 2011 by mugumogu