Crossed the US border to visit

[QC2CO 1]

I just came back from a 3 day vist to Pennsylvania to visit my wife, who was down there to visit family.

I crossed the border at Prescott-Ogdensburg (NY) POE. They had me go inside since I had problems crossing the border 2 years ago, and I explained to them my situation of going through the K3/CR1 visa application and that all I have left was to wait for my interview date.

The agent was very very nice and knoledgeable. He knew all the steps that I was taking and etc... He said that people can cross to visit their spouse during the process, but I guess they have to believe that you are coming back to Canada. I provided a letter of employement, I brought all the paperwork for the VISA, and he knew that I wasn't going to geoperdize my chances of getting the visa by giving them the slip and staying in the US.

So it all went well. He also explained to me that the Employement Authorization form can be mailed and processed at the same time as the I-129F. I told him that I thought we had to wait to get the VISA before doing this since it requires the POE and the VISA #. He said that a lot of people don't know that it can still be processed without it. But that for me, at this point of the process, he recommended that I should just wait so that it doesn't throw a wrench in the whole thing and cause any more delays.

So if anyone wants to look into that, might be a time saver so that they can start to work as soon as possible after moving to the US.

I hope that this info will be usefull to someone.

[Jersey Girl 2]

Sounds like you were well prepared, and lucky to get an official who understood the process. You probably looked like a nice Canadian fellow, too!

[QC2CO 1]

Sounds like you were well prepared, and lucky to get an official who understood the process. You probably looked like a nice Canadian fellow, too!

I must look innocent or something. hehe

Having my papers with me to prove that I was going through the process helped. He didn't look at them, but He was asking me questions about what steps I'm up to now and stuff.

Personally, I think that Ogdensburg is the best POE to enter in this area. They are always nice, friendly and informative, they are not stressed by having big lineups, since people will usualy go by Thousand Islands.

[Officer's Fiance 0]

Thank you SO much for this post!!! I was planning on using Thousand Islands as my POE when my K-1 gets approved and now after reading your post I'll definitely use Prescott. It's not a big time difference from Ottawa anyway and worth the detour. I'll also be looking at trying to apply for the EAD ahead of time too since you mentioned it!

Thanks

[QC2CO 1]

Thank you SO much for this post!!! I was planning on using Thousand Islands as my POE when my K-1 gets approved and now after reading your post I'll definitely use Prescott. It's not a big time difference from Ottawa anyway and worth the detour. I'll also be looking at trying to apply for the EAD ahead of time too since you mentioned it!

Thanks

Yeah, and its just down the 416. So if you have a problem or forget something and you have to go back, you are only 35 min away from Ottawa.

[Vox 0]

The fact that you can apply for your EAD ahead of time is great news for Canadians who plan to apply for Canadian EI after they get the K1 visa and move.

[QC2CO 1]

yeah. if we can confirm that we can do this, doing it that way would save a lot of time and money.

But he was the only source that I have gotten that info from.