Love online

[Kajikit 65]

Sounds like you're panicking about nothing. As long as you meet the requirements for the visa waiver program, you can use it to visit family or friends... but immigration has the right to turn you back if they decide that you might possibly be going to break the waiver and stay in the country. Demonstrate plenty of ties back home and good reasons to return, and don't abuse the problem by over-visiting, and you should be as fine as any other tourist.

[jenoral 3]

Sounds like you're panicking about nothing. As long as you meet the requirements for the visa waiver program, you can use it to visit family or friends... but immigration has the right to turn you back if they decide that you might possibly be going to break the waiver and stay in the country. Demonstrate plenty of ties back home and good reasons to return, and don't abuse the problem by over-visiting, and you should be as fine as any other tourist.

Thanks Kajikit,

I guess as usual it depends on where the lines are drawn...as in..what`s the definition of òver-visiting`?....everything is very ambiguous because it`s all down to the opinion of the immigration official on the day .

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Thanks Kajikit,

I guess as usual it depends on where the lines are drawn...as in..what`s the definition of òver-visiting`?....everything is very ambiguous because it`s all down to the opinion of the immigration official on the day .

You are right that there is no set standard. That is done purposely because 1) if there was a set standard people would learn to abuse it and 2) because each case is different and does deserve to be judged on its own merits.

A general rule of thumb though, is that you should spend at most equal times in and out of the country. The visa is not for de-facto living in the US, and anyone that is able to come and visit for 90 days, go back for a day, and come back again obviously doesn't have strong ties to their home and probably isn't working. A normal visitor has to return to their job and their life at some point.

Everyone on this site is trying to point out all the possibilities in an effort to be perfectly "correct" in their advice, but most chances are that you'll be waived in with little or no questions.

[jenoral 3]

Just an update on our situation.

My girlfriend traveled to me for 2 weeks and has now returned home to the USA.

We plan on getting married in the USA and are just beginning to apply for the I-129F K1 visa.

How long should it take before I can travel to her on this visa....or in other words how long does the K1 visa take to be issued?

Thanks again....

Jenoral.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

K1 takes about a year. 8 -10 months ish, but could be longer.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Harpa Timsah

[jenoral 3]

Thanks again Harpa.

It`s so cruel and inhumane to be kept apart from the one you love like this, especially when we are dealing with a country which promotes itself as being so upholding of human rights

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Thanks again Harpa.

It`s so cruel and inhumane to be kept apart from the one you love like this, especially when we are dealing with a country which promotes itself as being so upholding of human rights

Well, the delay is just because there are so many people trying to immigrate. They are working to make it faster, but that requires either raising fees for the immigrants or using tax money to get more adjudicators. Everyday people think that they shouldn't have to pay taxes for immigrants, and the fees are already expensive enough. The wait is too long, but I hope you can understand the issues with speeding it up.

You can still visit like normal.

[Asia 2,498]

Thanks again Harpa.

It`s so cruel and inhumane to be kept apart from the one you love like this, especially when we are dealing with a country which promotes itself as being so upholding of human rights

There are thousands (or probably much more) of people who want to live in the US with their SO, so the queues to get there are quite long.

[jenoral 3]

Well, the delay is just because there are so many people trying to immigrate. They are working to make it faster, but that requires either raising fees for the immigrants or using tax money to get more adjudicators. Everyday people think that they shouldn't have to pay taxes for immigrants, and the fees are already expensive enough. The wait is too long, but I hope you can understand the issues with speeding it up.

You can still visit like normal.

I hope I can visit without too much suspicion, I plan to go back for 3 months in the next few weeks.

My problem is that I`m 52, retired, renting a house from a friend of my niece`s who is living abroad so I have no physical lease/rental agreement to show. All I have is my car and my bank accounts here so I`m sure eyebrows will be raised by immigration control.

I have no intention of breaking the terms of my visa (90 day waiver visa) by getting married but I cant show any real ties to home .

I guess all I can do is tell the truth and hope that the immigration officer believes me.

Thanks to Asia too for her reply above.

[NickD 203]

Was easy for us, wife was working for an American based corporation and had her B1/B2 visa plus one for her daughter. just came here as tourist, heck, at that time, we didn't know if we were going to get married or not, so why even bring up that subject. Furthermore, extra complications were involve, there was no way this woman of interest was going to leave her daughter behind, and if she did, I would no longer have an interest in her. Since her ex left the country, took time to locate him, and even more time to get him to court to get his permission for him to let his daughter come here. In engineering, we call this the uncertainty region.

Back then was easy for me to go down to her country with my US passport, was very welcomed, ha, spend a lot of money was told. But that recently changed, do have a stepson down there, now he is required to hire a notary to get a piece of paper, saying that I am welcomed to visit him. Either that,or I must show I have hotel reservations.

[jenoral 3]

Just to update this thread...I visited again for 16 days returning home to ireland on the 28th July. I was asked no questions at all and the immigration lady just wished me a nice vacation...

Edited July 31, 2013 by jenoral

[NickD 203]

This is when the misery starts, just quite by accident, met this woman on the internet, we started chatting. No intentions of getting married. Both were divorced with no intentions of making that mistake again. Often made the comment if they recited the divorce laws, especially this real stupid no fault divorce law, no one would be dumb enough to get married.

This went on for about nine months with occasional emails, then daily emails, then phone calls, she even gave up her Friday night bowling so we could talk. Then I made the bad mistake of saying, isn't it about time we met? She was very apprehensive on this, what if we don't like each other, just replied, we will always be friends. This was the strangest day of our lives, we developed a very strong platonic relationship and knew everything about each other. And meeting of the first time was pure magic for us. I didn't even have a US passport, but she had a tourist visa so we decided to meet here. I quickly got a US passport. But parting was the most miserable day of our lives.

Traveling back and forth was never a problem, spent time with my future 13 year old daughter-in-law, even met my future mother-in-law, was willing to sell her apartment so we would have money to get together, but wasn't necessary. A discussion with my potential stepson, he was over 21, unmarried, I could not petition for him, but had no restrains about his mom nor sister coming here. A real major disappoint was for my potential stepdaughter was to locate her didn't give a care father to get his permission to leave the country. That was also time consuming and expensive.

But those long days passed and we were finally able to live together. Since my wife was working for an American based company with immigration going on constantly, got a hold of their immigration US based law firm. Very reasonable and a great help in dealing with those many USCIS unknown to me forms.

Never was shook up with the USCIS, even at our AOS interview, just said, if you won't accept my wife and stepdaughter, that there are many countries that would. But after we were settled here, that ROC stage was a nightmare. And all those promises from our high school was BS teaching my stepdaughter with her homework, when the bell rang at 2:50 PM, they were long gone. So I spent literally hours with her with her homework every night and on weekends. Also with my wife with college courses, both paid off, stepdaughter graduated from college on the high honor role and has a nice paying job. Same with my wife. Most important, we enjoy spending our time together.

Another issue was with my own family, she's marrying you to come here. But after they met her, love her, especially our grandkids.

[jenoral 3]

We mailed off our I-129F visa info today !! Whoop Whoop. I have two items of interest, as my girlfriend is incredibly detailed and goes through everything with a fine tooth comb, but I am deeply in love so I will let her be..(for now ..lol).

1) Family name ..My girlfriend is divorced and didn't change her name back to her maiden name after the divorce. Therefore, her Family name = legal name, in this case, its her married name. It may look obvious to some, but it was a little ambiguous to us, so we called USCIS and got clarification.

2) Make sure that the form you are filling out is the CORRECT version. I downloaded one from Visa Journey and it was the wrong version. She caught it as she was going through the paperwork for the umpteenth time. lol. Its best to download from the USCIS site so you get the correct version.

I copied this from the USCIS site :

Edition Date : The current edition is dated 06/13/13. (USCIS will accept editions dated 06/22/12, 11/23/10, 06/14/10, and 02/19/10 until September 16, 2013. After September 16, 2013, we will only accept the 06/13/13 edition.)

[Ketsuban 1,034]

Just to update this thread...I visited again for 16 days returning home to ireland on the 28th July. I was asked no questions at all and the immigration lady just wished me a nice vacation...

Great seems in most cases they don't ask many questions. I arrived on the 25th July and was asked "what is the purpose of your visit?" (visiting boyfriend) and "how long are you staying?" (two weeks and two days) then he stamped me in. Weirdly, this time I only had to give the prints from the four fingers on my right hand, and that was it...

Didn't ask me at all about intent to stay or about marriage, so we went ahead and got married <3 though I am going back home of course as planned.

I hope everyone else here visiting a partner on the VWP has an equally easy experience with CBP.

[NickD 203]

You quickly get the idea, the only thing of importance is your place of birth, something none of us had any say in. Heck, both of your parents can be here illegally, but if you were born here, you are a US citizen! And entitled to all the benefits, like food stamps, free medical, free education, etc. The only piece of paper you need, is a born in the USA birth certificate.

With those dated forms, comparing those with the same form even over ten years ago, the only thing that was changed was that date. Could get a hardhead that will reject your application, keep your fees, just because its not the latest date. Even though the form in every other aspect is exactly the same.

And can do the same thing by leaving off a N/A to a portion that does not even apply to you. Since I was sending a huge check for two people, mother and daughter, elected to find a top US immigration firm with a comparatively low fee to check over our forms. With the additional benefit of filing a G-28 for each of us that told the USCIS they were dealing with a top US immigration firm and not us as individuals. They found minor errors.

That bit for the sponsoring US citizen with threats of a $250,000 fine and five years in a federal prison didn't help either, everything had to be 100% correct. Ha, quickly realized that same exact fine and prison term applies to copying a DVD.

Both my wife and I worked hard together on that stack of forms, that is exactly how we spend our honeymoon. But had to be done, and done now back then, so we just could stay together.

Caused me another issue to wonder about, with the fortune we pay in fees, why can't we just go into a field office and have an officer ask us questions, explain those to us, and fill out the forms for us? As it is, can't even call the USCIS on that 800 number and get the correct answer to a simple question. That is because they don't do that or even know how to answer these simple questions.

Having Emilio Gonzales appointed by Bush to head the newly formed USCIS didn't help either. A Cuban refugee that can't even speak good English. I did look over the previous INS forms that made perfect sense. But he did one hell of a job to mess these up.