Denied at American/Canadian border now filing for I-130

[Hoptastic 1]

Here's the story.

My current wife was living in Toronto, Canada on a working holiday in 2009 (we weren't married then). She is originally from Japan. I was living in Chicago (I'm a US citizen).

She had about 3-4 weeks left on her working holiday but decided to call it quits and come down to Chicago for 1-2 months (on visa waiver) before going back to Japan. I drove up to Toronto, packed up her stuff, and drove back.

When we got to the border everything was fine until they checked my car. They saw all of her stuff and then started asking questions. Since she was going to stay with me for 1-2 months, we didn't buy a plane ticket back to Japan for her yet. Long story short, she was denied entry and labeled "foreigner without visa with immigrant intent". We tried telling them our story but they nope, denied entry. She hasn't tried to enter again since. We know better now.

So we turned the car around and went back to Canada. She stayed there for the next 4 weeks and then went back to Japan. After about 5 months apart we got working holiday visas for New Zealand. We moved here in Dec 2010, got jobs, both have working holiday visas, got married here in April 2011, and now are a couple of days away from doing DCF for our I-130.

Is that denial on her passport going to hurt us? Is there anything else we need to do or be prepared for? On her passport, they stamped her visa initially but then just wrote "canceled" on it.

thanks in advance

[canadian_wife 1,823]

Nope, I was denied entry into the US twice, as long as she discloses it and is truthful when asked, it shouldn't be an issue

That is, as long as it was a simple denial of entry, and there was no misrepresentation or anything specific written into her passport

Good luck

[Channah&Aaron 51]

; My entry got denied once in Philladelphia, because like you two, I didn't buy a return-ticket as I didn't know when I was flying back within the 2 months of vacation with my love & didn't bring any proof of my ties in my home country although I had a job and all that.

No misrepresentation, No bar. THANK GOD!

I have my interview (K1) next week and I'm sure that it won't become a problem. Otherwise they wouldn't have send me a NOA2. Anywhooo, just be honest at the interiew and things should be alright.

As long if there wasn't a misrepresentation or bar, things should be fine. Maybe a little more questions at the interview. Like I said, answer their questions truthfully

Edited July 25, 2011 by Channah&Aaron

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

If you really want to be sure, look and see if CBP stamped anything in her passport. You can look up the stamped numbers (if any) and see what they mean.

[Hoptastic 1]

love this site. You guys are really helpful.

What about when we submit the DS-230? Should we send a letter explaining what happened or that it did happen? Ir should we just let them ask the questions?

Again, thank you so much.

[canadian_wife 1,823]

You need to disclose it on the Dw-230 where it asks, simply put that she did not have the proper visa to enter, or she did not show non-immigrant intent, or she failed to produce sufficient ties to Japan. Don't write a book, simply tell the honest truth. Trust me, they already know what happened, you don't need to repeat it