Visa Waiver in to the US while I-130 in process...

[Fofire 0]

My wife (U.S. citizen) and I are planning visiting the U.S. for a few weeks while we are waiting for our I-130 to be processed in Frankfurt. We got married in January.

What I was wondering, at passport control they have a section for U.S. citizens and one for foreigners. Last time we travelled together I explained to the POE officer that my (back then) girlfriend was travelling with me but had to go through the U.S. citizen section. Since we are married, would it perhaps be a better idea to walk up to a POE officer in the 'foreigners' section together? We are both living in The Netherlands currently, my wife has been here for the past 3.5 years (legal resident). I thought together we might be able to ease the mind of the POE officer more easily in case he/she thinks I want to become an illegal immigrant.

I'm sure most of the POE officers understand that it's not very likely that people from Western Europe (or other countries with a quality of life comparable to that of the U.S.) would want to become an illegal immigrant in the U.S. without any rights, benefits, medical care, insurance and so on.

I don't believe she can enter through the US Citizens line because she does not hold a US Greencard or US passport. Maybe someone else can enlighten us on this situation.

Im not an expert either but I agree I think you need at least a greencard to go through the US Citizens line. The thing that you have to keep in mind that if you're not a US Citizen then you will have to go through extra checks like biometrics and so on that citizens and green card holders dont have to and those lines may not have the facilities or (knowing the gvmnt) have competent ppl working them.

BTW his wife is the USC not him. . . . sorry I just thought I would point that out.

[dinmir 0]

BTW his wife is the USC not him. . . . sorry I just thought I would point that out.

Exactly, also, we wouldn't go into the U.S. citizen line, but instead both go to the non-U.S. citizen line.

Anyway, we decided not go ahead with it since we got great news today : USCIS Frankfurt approved our I-130 (in 2 weeks!). Hope we will hear from the U.S. Consulate in Amsterdam soon. I didn't expect them to be this fast!

Edited February 13, 2007 by dinmir

[iluvmymac 0]

My wife (U.S. citizen) and I are planning visiting the U.S. for a few weeks while we are waiting for our I-130 to be processed in Frankfurt. We got married in January.

What I was wondering, at passport control they have a section for U.S. citizens and one for foreigners. Last time we travelled together I explained to the POE officer that my (back then) girlfriend was travelling with me but had to go through the U.S. citizen section. Since we are married, would it perhaps be a better idea to walk up to a POE officer in the 'foreigners' section together? We are both living in The Netherlands currently, my wife has been here for the past 3.5 years (legal resident). I thought together we might be able to ease the mind of the POE officer more easily in case he/she thinks I want to become an illegal immigrant.

I'm sure most of the POE officers understand that it's not very likely that people from Western Europe (or other countries with a quality of life comparable to that of the U.S.) would want to become an illegal immigrant in the U.S. without any rights, benefits, medical care, insurance and so on.

I don't believe she can enter through the US Citizens line because she does not hold a US Greencard or US passport. Maybe someone else can enlighten us on this situation.

Im not an expert either but I agree I think you need at least a greencard to go through the US Citizens line. The thing that you have to keep in mind that if you're not a US Citizen then you will have to go through extra checks like biometrics and so on that citizens and green card holders dont have to and those lines may not have the facilities or (knowing the gvmnt) have competent ppl working them.

This is something I have never figured out.... I don't even know if they have explicit rules. One time after we were married and visiting the US, we entered at Minneapolis from Tokyo and I went to the citizen's line and my wife went to the foreigner's line. When it was her turn, the officer told her that if we are travelling together as a family (with our daughter who has dual-citizenship) we should go through the citizen line together. Then the next time we visited the US, this time arriving at Detroit, we went together through the citizen line and the officer yelled "Why is there an alien in my line!?" and she had to go over to the foreigner's line.

[Mephibosheth 0]

that stinks... One time I was in Chicago and the lines explicitly said "Citizens Here" "Non-citizens Here". After the citizen line went through quickly, the officers yelled at us from theri booths to come over and why the heck we weren't coming... most of the foreigners weren't budging for fear of loosing their place in the line I suppose and also because the signs were so clear, and what the officers were yelling wasn't.

[Guinavere 0]

that stinks... One time I was in Chicago and the lines explicitly said "Citizens Here" "Non-citizens Here". After the citizen line went through quickly, the officers yelled at us from theri booths to come over and why the heck we weren't coming... most of the foreigners weren't budging for fear of loosing their place in the line I suppose and also because the signs were so clear, and what the officers were yelling wasn't.

The last time we visited the US we had no idea what line we were supposed to be in. My husband is Australian. We asked one of the officers directing traffic and were told to go through the US citizens line because we were travelling together as husband and wife. So that is where we went. They fingerprinted my husband, asked a few questions about our trip and then told to have a nice visit. This was at LAX.

But hey! who knows...the next time we visit, we might have to do something different. Consistency would be nice!

[iluvmymac 0]

that stinks... One time I was in Chicago and the lines explicitly said "Citizens Here" "Non-citizens Here". After the citizen line went through quickly, the officers yelled at us from theri booths to come over and why the heck we weren't coming... most of the foreigners weren't budging for fear of loosing their place in the line I suppose and also because the signs were so clear, and what the officers were yelling wasn't.

The last time we visited the US we had no idea what line we were supposed to be in. My husband is Australian. We asked one of the officers directing traffic and were told to go through the US citizens line because we were travelling together as husband and wife. So that is where we went. They fingerprinted my husband, asked a few questions about our trip and then told to have a nice visit. This was at LAX.

But hey! who knows...the next time we visit, we might have to do something different. Consistency would be nice!

That is my experience with LAX as well. Of course, they have the biggest POE in the western half of the US. They are used to it.