Girlfriend denied re-entry after her current stay is over. Advice please?

[Hannah B 16]

I'm surprised the officer took this view with your girlfriend. Did she have evidence of strong ties to the UK with her? My understanding is that you are fine on the vwp as long as you don't spend more than 6 months in any 12 month period in the US. I'm also from England. I visited my fiancé in the US 7 times in the 14 months during the K1 process. Each visit was kept short 10 - 20 days. Each time I made sure I had a letter from my job stating how long a had planned vacation from work, bank statements, ownership of property, car insurance documents etc. I was never asked for these or given much scrutiny. Everytime I entered I was honest about the fact I was visiting my boyfriend, and then fiancé once we got engaged. I've been in the US for 15 months. My family visit a lot. My mum has probably made 6-7 trips here, the longest was 7 weeks. Again, no problems on the VWP about a minimum requirement between each visit. She comes about once every 3 months. All of my entries into the US, and that of my mum, have been via Chicago. I had no problems with the immigration officials there, I was only asked 3-4 questions each time. Its scary though because in the event that your girlfriend does get denied entry, then this may cause problems for your K1. I can't remember where but i'm sure it was a question I was asked either in one of the application forms or at my interview about being denied entry to the US.

[Kiwinyc 62]

I made 3-4 visits a year for about 3 years on VWP but never for more than 2-3 weeks at a time so I would agree that its not the frequency of travel but the length of stay that's the issue here.

Id say do more shorter trips, and have her fly into Newark and pick her up from there, flights are cheaper to NYC area airports from the UK anyway.

[Jamie & Izzy 98]

I had the same problem but i managed to convince the agent that i am just visiting ! after he asked me questions for almost half an hour and made me cry .. he then said "don't you cry on me now, i already had one cry today", then he let me go, it was right then and there that i decided that i won't let them treat me like that again ! they already picked me twice in a RANDOM search they took me out of the plane and searched me i was so scared and the entire plane looked at me while they escorted me out .. few month later we decided to file for spousal visa and hopefully they wont treat me like that anymore since than i refused to enter the US until i have my visa in hand... one can hope.

[engineer21 51]

She's here now. I'm with some of the other users: get married and adjust her status now. She was going to visit here for 3 months anyway right? It will take around 3 months to get thru the process here. Give a few more weeks on top of that for preparations. But no time spent away from each other while waiting for a fiancé visa.

[Hypnos 6,577]

Rushing into a marriage is a good way to ensure that marriage will not be successful.

[Jon and Krissy 452]

Rushing into a marriage is a good way to ensure that marriage will not be successful.

It depends on a lot of things. I would never have gotten married if there was another way for us to be together, I don't believe in marriage - to me it's just a bloody piece of paper. Yet we wanted to be together, so we agreed that we'd discount it and pretend we are boyfriend and girlfriend. It's worked great so far.

[Hypnos 6,577]

I'm glad it's worked for you, but it's not a one-size-fits-all kindof thing. Several people have advised the OP to rush into marriage as a mechanism to solve the problem now, and I think that's poor advice. I would never advise anyone to see marriage as a solution to a problem.

[CrabKitty 0]

If you are prepared to file a K-1 at this time, why not just get married and adjust her. Her intent at the time of entry was that of a tourist, so she has broken no laws. Also, although it is a VWF entry, USCIS has been adjusting those cases without a problem assuming that there are no underlying problems with the petition.

Get married now and have her adjust status while in the USA. Solved.

A big thank you to everyone who has posted! You've all made us feel a lot better about this.

But many of your replies have also created new questions for us. For any of you that have suggested we get married while she's here (like the two people quoted above), can you explain to us how to go through those steps? We both would rather wait to be married, but at the same time we've technically lived together in person a total of over a year now. And we both feel like we're ready if that is what is required of us to be together. So we had decided to apply for the K-1 Fiance Visa, because we were under the impression that it is our best option at this time. But if we're able to get married while she is here, and then have her status adjusted; that would be much easier. We were also under the impression that we can't be legally married if she doesn't have a Visa. She and I both would really appreciate any further information anyone could provide; such as, a general time frame, legal documentation to complete, and other such details. Thanks again to all of you!

[2ndMessiah 184]

The K1 visa is not a permission to marry visa(no such thing exists in the US AFAIK). It is a one time entry visa for your fiancee to enter the US with the intent to emigrate. You then have a 90 day window to marry then adjust status.

As your fiancee had no intent to emigrate at the time of entry, there is no immigration fraud.

What you do is concurrently file I130 and I485 forms with appropriate fees, ancillary forms and fees. Once your receive the NOA's your fiance has the right to remain in the US while the paperwork is processed. If all goes well a green card mailed from Corbin, KY will be in your hands.

One thing is your fiancee should NOT leave the US under any circumstances. If she does then the application is considered abandoned.

I think there is a guide here on how to go about this.

[2ndMessiah 184]

The K1 visa is not a permission to marry visa(no such thing exists in the US AFAIK). It is a one time entry visa for your fiancee to enter the US with the intent to emigrate. You then have a 90 day window to marry then adjust status.

As your fiancee had no intent to emigrate at the time of entry, there is no immigration fraud.

What you do is concurrently file I130 and I485 forms with appropriate fees, ancillary forms and fees. Once your receive the NOA's your fiance has the right to remain in the US while the paperwork is processed. If all goes well a green card mailed from Corbin, KY will be in your hands.

One thing is your fiancee should NOT leave the US under any circumstances. If she does then the application is considered abandoned.

I think there is a guide here on how to go about this.

Forgot to say. Get married first.....

[CrabKitty 0]

Forgot to say. Get married first.....

Thank you very much for the help. I'll go look for the guide now. I hope you don't mind answering one more thing that my girlfriend asked me to mention? The duration remaining for her stay is 43 days, is this enough time to start this process without her being forced to leave?

[Boiler 45,730]

Yes

[2ndMessiah 184]

Thank you very much for the help. I'll go look for the guide now. I hope you don't mind answering one more thing that my girlfriend asked me to mention? The duration remaining for her stay is 43 days, is this enough time to start this process without her being forced to leave?

I take it, it was your Fiancee asking the question, she has stopped being your girlfriend...... Silly I know but things are removing fast now lol.

And as Boiler said the answer to the question is 'Yes".

[SennaBrigante 92]

I got married in the US with a tourist visa but we went the CR1 route and I flew back home.