Question: submitting I-130 while on vacation in US on Visa Waiver Program (VWP)

[K.hardwick 0]

Hi!

My husband is a Spanish national and I am a USC. We have been married and living together in Spain for over two years now but now we have decided to start the process to get my husband's residency. However, at the moment we are back in The States visiting my family for a month.

My question is if it will affect the approval process if we submit the I-130 form while on vacation in the US? I understand that in Part C question 14 of the I-130 it asks if my spouse is currently in the US and that I can mark that he is here as a "Visitor- VIsa WAiver PRogram", but then it asks for the I-94 number for arrival/departure information. When we entered the US we were told that they no longer staple (or give you at all) any papers into passports like they used to do with the I-94. Therefore, what numbers should we enter if they no longer give you the I-94? I am nervous about leaving it blank because I've always read that you should NEVER leave any parts empty.

And finally, since we are just visiting for a short while and my husband only has a tourist visa I don't want to give the impression that he is going to stay in the US while we are waiting for his approval and possibly overstay his visa. What is the best way to nake it clear that we are only visiting and that he WILL be going back to Spain?

thanks in advance for your help!!

[burna1980 0]

Hi there,

did you find out anything? I am currently in the US visiting my husband (he USC stationed there and I am from Germany). We also think about filing the I-130 while I am here. It takes sometimes 6 or more months to get the I-130 approved so it would be a shame on wasting time.

But it is really irritating, as some people say you should not file the I-130 while the spouse is visiting in the US, some say it is totally fine as long as the spouse is leaving before the tourist visa expires.

But I also get stuck on the I-94. As you are right... they do not staple that any longer. I find it really irritating that they don't even stamp the passport when you leave the country. I had friends having trouble coming back to visit in the United States as they didn't have any proof that they ever left the US on their last visit. Therefore I always keep all my flight tickets in case that is a problem.

The biggest problem in this visa process is, that even the immigration officer you talk to on hotlines don't know how all the visa things work. We got told to make me come to the states on a B2 tourist visa and then make an adjustment of status. As I thought it was strange and I read it was illegal we called the hotline again and another immigration officer told us, that it was illegal. How should people like we know what the right thing is to do if not even the people sitting in the departments know about it???? It can be really frustrating sometimes.

May I ask another question? Are you planing to do the K3 or CR1 visa? as I read the CR1 is better as there is no need to apply for permanent residency later on (this is already included in the CR1 process). Therefore it saves you over $1000,00 !!!!