Time spent backpacking... could it be a problem?

[AshleyLCBaker 7]

Hi everyone,

I haven't even gotten my NOA2 yet, but I'm trying to get everything organized for the rest of the process. My husband is Australian and he lived in the UK/various European places on a two year working holiday visa when he was younger. We're getting a UK police report for those two years, so I think it should be fine. However, there's a period of about 14 months after his visa ended where he just kind of traveled around... he came back to Australia to visit, he visited me in the US, he traveled around Europe. He spent a lot of time visiting friends in Switzerland, but the Swiss don't normally stamp passports, so there's pretty much no proof that he was there.

Basically, my question is: will it be okay to just say in the DS230 that he spent that period traveling and backpacking? Will that throw up any red flags? Or do I need to say anything, since he didn't actually live anywhere longer than six months? I just didn't want to leave off a big chunk of time, lest it look suspicious. He honestly wasn't up to anything shady, he was just bumming around, but I just worry that an assumption will be made. I'm sure several people on here have had similar traveling experiences they had to report and I was just wondering how you did it. I want to do it all correctly and not risk an RFE! Thanks, y'all!

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Not a problem at all; just tell the truth.

[Moomin 292]

Just having visited a country won't require a police record. Not unless he stayed for more than 6 months in the same country. But It is Question 30?

Look at it this way -

2003-2008 : Australia

2008-2010 : UK address

2010-present: Australia

Even if the trips to Switzerland and the US may have been after 2010, your husband still returned to his home country to live, whether it was with his parents living for free or on his own apartment registered in his name doesn't really matter.

If it'll make you feel more relaxed, you could have your husband write a timeline of his adventures and bring it with him to the interview in case he's asked about the trips and he can't remember all the dates of entering/departuring.