Can husband re-enter U.S. on B visa after overstay?

[HFM181818 750]

By the time you got married, he had already overstayed by 5 weeks....knowing that he had....therein lies much of the issue. There was nothing stopping him from departing on the correct date. That's what I meant by a conscious decision....a simple phone call to USCIS would have provided him with the correct procedures, had he bothered. But the vast majority of VWP citizens know the basic rules...it is not rocket science....90 days....period. There is nothing in the regs that say that if a VWP traveler relies on poor advice from an attorney, why, everything remains peachy. It is up to the VWP traveler to remain a responsible adult while enjoying that privilege. That's what I mean about trust. Easily lost, hard to get back.

[christine55 5]

I appreciate your expertise and your experience, and you taking the time to write all this, but believe it or not, not everyone wants to live in the U.S. I love being an American and don't ever plan to renounce my citizenship, but it's not any place I would want to live again. Not at least in the near future. The only reason my husband wanted to be there was for me, and was totally turned off after he saw how difficult it was to sustain a decent life there on the wages I made. It's not like we are coming from east Asia or Africa, this is Scandinavia. We make 10 times the amount we did back home, I have a full paid maternity leave, and he gets a fully paid paternity leave afterwards - just a few of the many perks we have living over here. We are very happy. None of this can be proven to an officer at the embassy, all we can provide are our bank statements of course. But I'm just saying, we are in no way trying to go back to that life, especially with a child.

[HFM181818 750]

Well, glad you have it better in Norway...(ever watch 'Lilyhammer'?)....sounds like the social system in Norway is much better than what passes for same here.

[christine55 5]

I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's worked out well for us. I haven't watched it, but have heard of it. Maybe I'll give it a try I really do appreciate everything you had to offer and I understand where you're coming from.

Not being optimistic, but we'll give it a shot and see what happens.

[EmilyW 1,462]

I'd say give it a shot. You've got nothing left to lose.

I do love the Norwegian social structure, even though Norwegians are taxed to the moon and back for the privilege. Personally, I'd always prefer to be taxed less and have more control over how I spend my income.

Edited November 29, 2015 by EmilyW

[Boiler 45,730]

Well, you make it sound like he is either damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

The story is:

We met and dated for several months. Him and hi friend bought tickets to visit me. The contract for his job ended the day before he left for the U.S. They arrived August 30th. We decided that this was the real deal and we wanted to be together. We met with an immigration lawyer who advised for him to stay, us to get married, and for him to apply for a green card. He also advised us to hire an immigration attorney to help with the green card process. His ticket to leave was Sep. 21. His friend left, he stayed, and we got married on Oct. 31. I was working as a veterinary nurse in an animal hospital, so I wasn't make a whole lot of money. He couldn't work because it was illegal. I couldn't afford to hire an immigration attorney. I couldn't afford the fee to apply for a green card. It was a horrible existence and we were both miserable as I couldn't make ends meet and support the both of us. So, we decided to move to Norway. He got a job working for the same company a few weeks after he came back. I got residency after being here for 3 months. I got a job 6 months after moving here. He was offered a better job at a different restaurant (he's a chef). Worked there for 9 months, was promoted to sous chef, got a huge salary increase, and a new permanent contract. By the time we hope to visit the U.S. he will have been there almost 2 years. I was pregnant, had the baby in June, have been on maternity leave since but have a permanent contract through my job as well. The baby also has residency here. We have a 3 year lease with for our apartment and live alone, just the 3 of us. The apartment is in his name. We don't have savings, so it's not like we've been saving all this money up and are taking it to the U.S. with us (which might look suspicious), but on our salaries we can certainly afford to visit for a few weeks.

Not sure if you needed all that information or if the consulate would want to hear all that.

Of course it's his fault for overstaying. I get that. But it was total ignorance on our part. We never looked up the cost of a green card or the repercussions of overstaying a visa and not changing status. It was young, naive, stupidity.

Certainly worth a go.

[mallafri76 1,012]

Hi and thank you so much for your quick response!

I didn't know about the adjustment of status, I really wish the lawyer we spoke with would have told us about this. Grrrrr.

We live in Oslo, Norway, so that's the embassy he will have to file from. I'll look online and see if I can get any information.

Thank you again!

P.S.

I'm from Austin too!

My husband's the USC, so he's the one from Austin. I'm from Sweden, so Scandinavian like your husband. I love Austin though, such a relaxed, open-minded and just super nice place.

It might be a little easier for your husband to get that B2 visa since you're in Scandinavia but mainly because you both live in Norway with strong ties. So just gather all those ties, like letter from your employers, rental agreement/mortgage deed, maybe something to show that he has a son in Norway and the custody arrangement. No harm in trying, right?! Good luck.

[mallafri76 1,012]

As you may know, one cannot extend one's visit after entering on the VWP, and the only COS allowed (foolishly, IMHO) is when someone marries their Amcit SO....all of this information is relatively common knowledge, which returns to what constitutes a good reason for violating the trust given to someone...there was no life or death decision, only convenience.

Over the span of nearly 30 years, I did have some of my decisions (denials) overturned by a handful of supervisors, and they were proven wrong in every case save one.

In the case of having worked in a VWP country for about 3 years, 7 denials I made of people who allegedly had 'good reasons' for having disregarded the rules of the VWP (but not in my opinion) were overturned after the supervisor received some tear jerking missive....all 7 promptly disappeared into the US never to be seen again on their very first return to the US...

In a different country (non-VWP), 5 people had been abusing their B2 visas, mostly by working illegally in the US....I denied all five when they got sent home by CBP with cancelled visas....weeks or months later, they reapplied (separately, of course), got denied by me and subsequently overturned by a supervisor....all five promptly went back to the US and never returned...I can remember one and only one case in which a person who had their 'good reasons' for ignoring our laws, whose new visa application was denied, and had it overturned by a supervisor, did not use it to go and stay or work in the US...I relied heavily on my judgment, which was remarkably accurate...and did not fall prey to tears, 'character letters' written by some clergy member, whining pleading letters from some congressman, nor anything else, because statistics beyond my own had proven that a decision to believe any of that nonsense was unwise at the very least...

For someone who claims to have worked with immigration for the US State department, you sure don't seem to know a lot about immigration... First off, YES you most definitely can extend your visit when entering the US on the VWP, as long as you don't stay longer than the allowed 90 days.

And US immigration law DO allow for someone to enter the US under e.g. the VWP with the intent to visit, then life happens and you get married to a USC and adjust status. You can think that's wrong all you want, I do too, but it doesn't change the fact that's it allowed, as long as the intent wasn't there from the start.

[mallafri76 1,012]

I appreciate your expertise and your experience, and you taking the time to write all this, but believe it or not, not everyone wants to live in the U.S. I love being an American and don't ever plan to renounce my citizenship, but it's not any place I would want to live again. Not at least in the near future. The only reason my husband wanted to be there was for me, and was totally turned off after he saw how difficult it was to sustain a decent life there on the wages I made. It's not like we are coming from east Asia or Africa, this is Scandinavia. We make 10 times the amount we did back home, I have a full paid maternity leave, and he gets a fully paid paternity leave afterwards - just a few of the many perks we have living over here. We are very happy. None of this can be proven to an officer at the embassy, all we can provide are our bank statements of course. But I'm just saying, we are in no way trying to go back to that life, especially with a child.

You can still mention these things to the embassy though, when your husband has the interview, even though it's not something that can be used as proof. Especially when you have a child, why would you want to give up paid maternity and paternity leave, free medical care, free dental care, pretty much free day care and later on free school, a clean environment, paid sick leave if you or your child gets sick, 5 to 6 weeks paid vacation. There's a reason why Scandinavia ranks in the top percentage of all those "best countries to live in" surveys and studies. And since the COs at the US embassies in Scandinavia actually lives in Scandinavia, I'm sure they can relate.

[Hypnos 6,577]

There is no extension on the VWP; entrants are usually given 90 days, and it cannot be extended.

Edited November 30, 2015 by Hypnos

[Boiler 45,730]

VWP is 90 days or nothing.

[HFM181818 750]

_{For someone who has never worked in the field of immigration, it is obvious how little you 'know' about the processes....the VWP does NOT allow extensions...period. The traveler gets 90 days....that's it. Yes, I know that someone can do the AOS from the 'gosh, we never had the intent to marry' marriage....(no one ever seems to have the intent)....but one cannot change to F1 or H1B status, for example....when you have interviewed upwards of 200,000 applicants, then you'll have close to the experience I've had in the field of immigration and immigration law -}

still haven't read any of those 'good reasons' for having violated the terms of a privilege given to someone....

[jan22 3,056]

By the time you got married, he had already overstayed by 5 weeks....knowing that he had....therein lies much of the issue. There was nothing stopping him from departing on the correct date. That's what I meant by a conscious decision....a simple phone call to USCIS would have provided him with the correct procedures, had he bothered. But the vast majority of VWP citizens know the basic rules...it is not rocket science....90 days....period. There is nothing in the regs that say that if a VWP traveler relies on poor advice from an attorney, why, everything remains peachy. It is up to the VWP traveler to remain a responsible adult while enjoying that privilege. That's what I mean about trust. Easily lost, hard to get back.

Sorry to appear rude, but I can't help myself....if you would come down off your high-horse or the pedestal on which you have placed yourself, you might be able to see a calendar a little better. The OP said he entered on Aug. 30 (or 31st -- can't quite remember) -- they got married Oct. 31st -- which means he still had almost a month on his 90-day VWP entry left at the time they got married. He had NOT "already overtayed by 5 weeks". So, if "therein lies much of the issue" in your, obviously, humble opinon, there really shouldn't be much of an issue, right? Since you were mistaken on "..much of the issue".

[Teddy B 17,252]

_{For someone who has never worked in the field of immigration, it is obvious how little you 'know' about the processes....the VWP does NOT allow extensions...period. The traveler gets 90 days....that's it. Yes, I know that someone can do the AOS from the 'gosh, we never had the intent to marry' marriage....(no one ever seems to have the intent)....but one cannot change to F1 or H1B status, for example....when you have interviewed upwards of 200,000 applicants, then you'll have close to the experience I've had in the field of immigration and immigration law -}

still haven't read any of those 'good reasons' for having violated the terms of a privilege given to someone....

Obviously the op's husband had a good enough reason to overstay his VWP, it was to be with his wife. They are not making excuses or looking for a break, they are simply asking what the best way to go about getting a new tourist visa is. Life happens to people and they have to face some tough choices. Sure there are consequences for those choices, but not everyone who overstays a tourist visa is some diabolical criminal mastermind, in fact most of those people are just like you or me, but they aren't fortunate enough to have a permanent stay with their loved ones.

Your hard line co act is getting old.

[HFM181818 750]

according to this 'logic', there must be good reasons to rob banks, steal cars, etc....rationalization is the term you are looking for....when people decide to disobey rules and regulations, they often try to find something that was more important than being a responsible adult....and if everyone did that whenever they felt like it, what would our cultures, economies, etc, look like in very short order?

And when someone consciously decides to ignore the laws, but then wants their privileges restored, on what basis should that happen? If your child goes to a party, drinks, then wrecks the car, would you be rushing out to buy him or her a new one? When your child lies to you, how quickly do you start believing them again?

Your 'soft line' of rewarding lawbreakers no matter what appears to reflect how little you think of our laws....

Border controls/visas, etc, are in place to protect the American culture and economy....visas, like tourist visas, are an object of trust....(like the VWP)...I've interviewed countless thousands of visa cheats who, after being shown the door in various ways, thought they could just show up the next day, waving some weepily worded letter of apology (often written by their American SO), promising never to violate the terms of a visa again (statistics do not support this claim) and then expect that their 'good reasons' will be given a front row seat during the adjudication process and a new visa given to someone who has yet to demonstrate that they merit one....such promises, being self serving and totally non-enforceable, had no positive impact on my decision making ....I watched colleagues fall prey to such nonsense and pay the price....

I just don't have a soft spot in my make up that turns a blind eye to those who have thumbed their noses at our laws...