Visit to the US

[Marty J 0]

Chris & Mara,

Thats rough getting your application lost, geeze thats the worst

I am a NZer living and working (on a 2 weeks on weeks off rotation) in Canada and my US wife lives in Colorado, subsequently i pass through MSP customs once a month on an I-94w (which once got me well interrogated out the back) but over the last two years of this frequency i have got to know them well enough that they're not so concerned with me anymore.

During a discussion once the supervisor at the US customs he told me that when i pass through I must declare our NOA1s for I-130/I129F to the agent and that if i didn't then i risk getting denied entry and sent back to Canada. Therefore i do, especially since the know who i am. As usual they always ask for proof of return flight now and last time the agent recommended i keep my old boarding stubs on me for proof of departure. The agents always ask the same questions, where are you going? who are you visiting?, why? and how long? where do you work? what do you do? to get the ball rolling.

What I am getting at is that sure you could probably pass through without declaring your application and who youre really visiting but when they find out (pretty quickly because you will be nervous ) that youre visiting your fiance they will start asking a lot more questions because their #1 concern is that you might not leave. Personally, i really think you should be completely open about everything that youre doing and why and put it all on the table straight up like you have nothing to hide. You have good reason to be visiting the US (your file got lost!) , just make sure you have all your USCIS letters, proof they lost your file, proof that you have a place to go back to in Oz (job?) would help hugely, take proof that you visited once before and left prior to 90 days also, proof of major savings if you're going for 90 days...all in case you need it. You really need to make them feel assured that youre only visiting. If you have a really weak case then perhaps it best to plan to answer the questions when they arrive and hope for an easy agent.

Remember these guys are trained to try to pick out people that are not telling the truth or being completely honest and bombard you with quick questions and that is how they test you , but theyre mostly nice, and human- so they know when youre being honest (eg acinlove's experience). Word of advice...don't start off by saying youre going to visit a friend and then change to fiance, that could be a bad start.

Good luck and best wishes!

There's nothing on the I-94W about having applied for a K-1 visa. You're only asked if you have ever attempted to obtain a visa by fraud, or if you have ever been denied a visa. If there was a requirement to disclose it, I imagine they'd ask.

Just my opinion of course.

Edited March 10, 2009 by Marty J