Wife did not make it past homeland and got k-1 cancelled

[pat & angela 1]

Yep it can happen, my fiance was held in secondary for hours in Chicago. He briefly saw his luggage which they would not let him touch, it was the last time he ever saw it, never been found. They questioned him relentlessly, opened the brown envelope, read a lot of the things in it, questioned him about things in it such as copies of our evidence of a relationship, etc. They kept him so long he missed his connection and had to spend his first ever night in the United States sleeping on a bench in O'Hara airport.

[/quote

Wow!!! It sounds like a horror story to me....that's rough!

[RickJovi 81]

SO? My opinion is it doesn't matter unless she said he's my husband.I never had a problem with me wearing my set this way; all knew I was engaged.I never said he's my husband before we married People have their own customs and the way they wear the rings It's only my opinion as I said but I don't know what happen with this lady when she arrived

AYMAN_RINA I agree with you. To think that if she wore her wedding set was the cause of her being denied and refused entry on her K1 is just plain ignorant. Like I said I gave my fiancee her who set o wear. I did this with my ex from the Philippines back in 2010 and she did not get refused entry. Of course I flew with her so they may not want to have tried anything that dumb. I just find it hard to beieve that wearing the wedding set is a cause for denial. My two cents. By the way she is wearing them to keep the set together. I don't see harm in it.

Edited April 26, 2012 by RickJovi

[SapphireDreams 71]

I'm sorry this happened to you. I think RebeccaJo gave good advice and you should contact the lawyer she mentions.

I, too, was questioned as I entered on a K1. It was pretty terrifying because they were asking me things like, where was my mother in law and father in law were born (in what city (they were born in the Philippines and I didn't know the cities), and other random trivia from inside my K1 package. I wasn't expecting it and was already a bit shaken up from saying good bye to my Mother. They eventually were satisfied with my answers and let me through and went through all my bags.

For someone who doesn't understand english well, I'm sure questioning like that could go very wrong. They may have asked her about your parents or address or simple things like that and she didn't understand them.

Please please contact a good US immigration lawyer to help you.

[sabi 148]

AYMAN_RINA I agree with you. To think that if she wore her wedding set was the cause of her being denied and refused entry on her K1 is just plain ignorant. Like I said I gave my fiancee her who set o wear. I did this with my ex from the Philippines back in 2010 and she did not get refused entry. Of course I flew with her so they may not want to have tried anything that dumb. I just find it hard to beieve that wearing the wedding set is a cause for denial. My two cents. By the way she is wearing them to keep the set together. I don't see harm in it.

I don't think "ignorant" is the right word when it comes to something either of us understands. We have no idea what happened and what causes red flags in an officer's eyes. If we did, we would be all avoiding it and that's what they don't want us to do

Yes you don't see harm in it like probably most of us. We are not discussing here what we think is/should be right, we are discussing what the immigration people see as a fraud.Unfortunately they are the ones who grant/deny entry, not us

[Oksana & Max 94]

Everyone gets questioned / interview at airport severity of the interview depends from case to case and person to person.

You need to provide little more detail about as what the conversation was, what were the questions and what were the answers.

Just officer by himself cannot put someone back on the flight and cancel a visa, it has to go to chief immigration officer on duty at that time and his approval is required.

This is not true. My fiancee (now wife) haven't being asked even one question!!!

However I do have to mention that CBP can refuse entry to the USA even with K-1/CR-1/IR-1 or any other Visa. Visa doesn't guaruantee admission to the US, it is an authorization to go to the US. It is up to the CBP officer to allow or deny entry.

While questions about how the house look sounds weird, I think there is more to the story.

Edited April 26, 2012 by Oksana & Max

[DaveE 178]

LAX processes thousands of people every day from all corners of the globe. Many are from Korea and they are no stranger to immigration at LAX. Since a K1 turn around is so rare, I suspect there is a great deal we don't (or perhaps the OP) doesn't know about.

[jaycali 415]

I was in korea a month ago and promised her family I would take care of her. Her having to go back is very difficult, she hasnt seen her family yet only staying with her friends,she is too embarrassed to see her family, I am on here to see if there is a quick fix, but apparently there is none, MY next step is to fly to korea this weekend and get a lawyer there.thanks everyone for the help, i really thought maybe someone had the magic bullet, but apparantly not, my fiance cannot read english so she cant tell me what kind of paperowrk she got

A Korean lawyer won't be able to help you nearly as well as a qualified American lawyer will. There are tons of Korean speaking lawyers in the LA area, it might be a good thing to search for a Korean speakign one in LA.

This seems to be a communication problem. It will be difficult to grasp a good idea of what happened at LAX because the S Korean fiancee basically doesn't understand English and the American fiance (OP) doesn't speak S Korean. Because of this its pretty impossible for the SK fiance to accuratley relate what occured between her & immigration to the OP and the OP to correctly tell us VJers the details. Just going to have to wait for paperwork.What could have happened:1)CBP asks what address will you be staying/spouse's address? Fiance answers wrong and later tells OP that CBP asked to describe his home.2)S Korean fiance may have repeatedly refered to OP as husband. 3)Giving OP wedding band. Officers in their experience thinks its unusual for foreign unmarried female to have a wedding band and not be married (suspicion compounded by calling OP husband).3)During the wedding band exchange, officers may have been confident in their decision to deny entry because the OP & fiance hardly if ever spoke & the little spoken chances are showed the strong language barrier between the USC & SK.

It could very well be a misunderstanding related to fiancee/wife. What I'm suspecting also is the language barrier. One of the major red flags in K-1 visa applications is a lack of common language between the beneficiary and petitioner. This can be a killer at any interview, but the problems COs often face is that only the beneficiary is present at the interview - It's often impossible for the CO to know or verify whether they in fact do share a language. If it comes up at the POE that the couple don't share a common language it can set off alarm bells previously gone unnoticed by the CO. This would explain why they're asking about the OP's family and house - Mixing up fiancee/wife wouldn't set off alarms for a sham marriage, but rather using the wrong visa. Not sharing a common language would set off sham marriage alarms. And this could go completely unnoticed by both USCIS and the interviewing CO.

OP, is your native language English?

Edited April 26, 2012 by jaejayC

[worriedsoul 1]

If I were the OP I would contact an attorney FIRST. I think the attorney would advise that they get married outside of US, and file CR1. If I were OP I'd stay in Korea his fiancee/wife for a while pre/post marriage so accrue strong ties/evidence. I think the language barrier played a huge role, as neither of them were fluent in the others language.

From what I read it sounds similar to what happened to me on my B1/B2 - catching the wrong officer(s) at the wrong time and being a bit shaken up and scared and not sound convincing in responses, even if she was telling the truth, they seem to take being nervous as lying. I really don't think they stop to think sometimes how intimidating they are. But I've kindof been through this myself, and I really feel your pain. But trust me, your pain right now is nothing compared to your partners so do anything you can to comfort her and make her feel better.

[beccaraella 1]

This is terrible!

What airport was this??

What did they stamp in her passport??

She does have a K-1 visa in her passport, right?

I'm sorry to seem rude, but if you can't speak Korean and your wife not good English, how do you communicate?

[jaycali 415]

If I were the OP I would contact an attorney FIRST. I think the attorney would advise that they get married outside of US, and file CR1. If I were OP I'd stay in Korea his fiancee/wife for a while pre/post marriage so accrue strong ties/evidence. I think the language barrier played a huge role, as neither of them were fluent in the others language.From what I read it sounds similar to what happened to me on my B1/B2 - catching the wrong officer(s) at the wrong time and being a bit shaken up and scared and not sound convincing in responses, even if she was telling the truth, they seem to take being nervous as lying. I really don't think they stop to think sometimes how intimidating they are. But I've kindof been through this myself, and I really feel your pain. But trust me, your pain right now is nothing compared to your partners so do anything you can to comfort her and make her feel better.

May I just ask out of interest why you used a B-1/2 instead of VWP? In my experience, a VWP country citizen traveling on a B visa is always an eyebrow raiser to them. Just goes to show how a simple matter can escalate, make you nervous, and make them not believe the story.

[Removed-02242014 19]

I don't think we are getting all the facts here. South Korea is on our 'safe list' of approval visas too. POE denial? Very strange circumstances ---

[worriedsoul 1]

May I just ask out of interest why you used a B-1/2 instead of VWP? In my experience, a VWP country citizen traveling on a B visa is always an eyebrow raiser to them. Just goes to show how a simple matter can escalate, make you nervous, and make them not believe the story.

I bought a holiday home and was advised on 3 separate occasions at 3 different POE for the INS officer admitting me to get one. I took their word as gospel and got one. And yep, everytime I entered USA on the b1/b2 I was continually asked "why did you get this? you don't need one." It for sure caused me problems.

Edited April 26, 2012 by worriedsoul

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

This is not true. My fiancee (now wife) haven't being asked even one question!!!

However I do have to mention that CBP can refuse entry to the USA even with K-1/CR-1/IR-1 or any other Visa. Visa doesn't guaruantee admission to the US, it is an authorization to go to the US. It is up to the CBP officer to allow or deny entry.

While questions about how the house look sounds weird, I think there is more to the story.

I agree with Max. Alla was not asked a single question and got through faster than I usually do. They stamped everything and handed her passport back and said "get married within 90 days" That's it.

This is highly unusual and we cannot say anymore until we know why.

[cdneh 3,112]

We may never know why. In his past posts, both of them, he seems in urgent need of advice, but fails to give the info anyone would need to assist.

But I agree, there is more to this story.

[Andie 147]

This is not true. My fiancee (now wife) haven't being asked even one question!!!

... lucky !!

and the B1/B2 situation ...yes it does occur if they consider you have had more than your "typical" VWP usage.

If you get the wrong guy on the day, you go through to secondary and its no picnic.

Just because it hasn't happened in your situation doesn't mean it DOESN'T HAPPEN. There doesn't have to have been anything wrong with your arrival/visa/circumstances... it can be for .......(whatever) reason.

Don't assume your case is the rule... there are always exceptions to the so called rule.

It may well be that in this situation it was a language/communication issue...(husband/fiance? whatever) why is it that when something goes wrong people assume it is dodgy? Be fair... the OP and his fiancee are hurting right now and need some positive input.

so... to the OP.. if you have anything else helpful to add... now is the time.

Edited April 26, 2012 by Andie