DH keeps getting stopped at immigration with GC

[Tupuna 0]

Greetings:

My husband and I met here in the US when he was on a J-1 visa. He did everything by the book (as far we can tell). We moved back to his country (Finland) for a few years, then did a DCF in Helsinki. He got a marriage-based GC last summer and we thought everything was fine.

HOWEVER. Every single time he returns to the US from a short trip around, he gets pulled out of the immigration line, has to go to some back room, and sit there till they say he can go (with no info about what he supposedly has done wrong). Today they finally slipped and said he is a "former student visa violator". How is this possible? He did everything he was supposed to do and never overstayed. They always eventually let him in, but this is really a problem. When he asks what is wrong, they refuse to give him any more info or anyone to contact.

The only scenarios I can think of are:

- the school he was at forgot to do some paperwork

- institute of international education (IIE) who sponsor J-1s forgot or has something to do with it

- someone made a mistake in some computer somewhere

- someone paperwork is missing somewhere (but why did he get a GC then?)

- other?

It's really, really annoying. Any tips or people who have been in this situation before and how the heck to clear it up?

[Krikit 1,165]

Hi there. If he is getting frequent referrals to secondary he can ask for redress at the following link:

DHS Traveler Redress

Good luck!

[Tupuna 0]

Thanks!

[milimelo 4,540]

Greetings:

My husband and I met here in the US when he was on a J-1 visa. He did everything by the book (as far we can tell). We moved back to his country (Finland) for a few years, then did a DCF in Helsinki. He got a marriage-based GC last summer and we thought everything was fine.

HOWEVER. Every single time he returns to the US from a short trip around, he gets pulled out of the immigration line, has to go to some back room, and sit there till they say he can go (with no info about what he supposedly has done wrong). Today they finally slipped and said he is a "former student visa violator". How is this possible? He did everything he was supposed to do and never overstayed. They always eventually let him in, but this is really a problem. When he asks what is wrong, they refuse to give him any more info or anyone to contact.

The only scenarios I can think of are:

- the school he was at forgot to do some paperwork

- institute of international education (IIE) who sponsor J-1s forgot or has something to do with it

- someone made a mistake in some computer somewhere

- someone paperwork is missing somewhere (but why did he get a GC then?)

- other?

It's really, really annoying. Any tips or people who have been in this situation before and how the heck to clear it up?

There's traveler's redress but why hasn't your husband contacted his sponsoring organization and the school he attended? They should be able to provide him with documentation proving he is/was ok with SEVIS and any other DHS required systems. Documentation would help his case with redress.

Also, please note that once you put in a request for redress, they will never tell you why this happened or what specifically caused it. The next time, he may just fly through POE without being sent to secondary. Then he'll know all is fixed.