questions about tourist visa affecting K1

[jward1966 4]

Asking this for a friend.

I know a couple that has met twice and intend to apply for K1.

He is in U.S and her in Russia. She applied for tourist visa B1 through an agency, they advised her not to say she has a boyfriend in U.S. and indicated on the application that she had a russian boyfriend. Under marital status, it

says common law marriage. When I learned of this, I became worried that this could be a problem when they apply for K1.

Thoughts, and advice?

[phd1974 17]

I can see why it could be a problem - petitioning for one visa and stating a common law marriage - then petitioning for a K-1 visa and have no record of a divorce from this common law marriage ... I can see how this could be problematic.

Then if they tried to say that is was a mistake and she is not in a common law marriage and has no boyfriend in Russia, then they could take it as lying on a visa application.

I can see how that would be worrisome. I have no advice on this. If what I believe is true (above), than that's tough noodles.

Edited May 11, 2016 by phd1974

[JFH 12,190]

Oh yes. It will be a problem. They keep records of what you put on these forms. If they catch you lying once, then will assume you are lying about every thing else.

In a similar but reversed situation, a poster recently wrote of her experience in trying to get a B2 tourist visa and failed to mention on the forms she had previously applied for a K-1 (the relationship fell apart before the visa was approved, nevertheless an application had been made). The officer called her out on it in the interview. She was denied.

[YecaCruz 379]

Lying to the government or speaking in half-truths (which is still lying i.e. deception) like "oh I'm going to see a friend" is never wise to do. Not sure what kind of issues could present when applying for a K1 but there would definitely be issues lying on those documents. Those government bros have their ways and questions to dig and find when someone is lying

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

They should prepare for the visa to be denied. Material misrep.

[NikLR 13,227]

She should find out what constitutes a common-law marriage and if it actually needs a divorce. I know in some states you need a divorce from common-law status but in Alberta, for example, you just need to be separated for 90 days and let the CRA know you are no longer together. There is no divorce from being common-law. She needs a much better lawyer to handle this.

[jward1966 4]

thank you for the replies, this is what I suspected.

she has not yet scheduled her B1 interview. I will tell them that they need to revise the information.

[jward1966 4]

They are worried she will not be granted a tourist visa. Facts:

1. She is currently unemployed.

2. She owns an apartment.

3. She owns a car.

they wonder if this will be enough and frankly so do I

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

She might not get the tourist visa.

But is that worth getting a permanent ban to the US?

She wants to lie on her tourist visa application, omit a US bf, and pretend she is married in Russia, which are lies. This will get her banned from the US permanently for lying.

Which is worse, tourist visa denial, or tourist visa approval with permanent ban to the US once it's found out?

[NikLR 13,227]

As far as I can tell, Russia doesn't even have common-law marriage in the manner that we have it in the USA. You can co-habitate but everything is still separate.

http://russian-divorce.com/questions/q1300/

Edited May 11, 2016 by NLR

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

This common law marriage and Russian boyfriend is a fabricated lie anyway.

[JessDak 27]

Asking this for a friend.

I know a couple that has met twice and intend to apply for K1.

He is in U.S and her in Russia. She applied for tourist visa B1 through an agency, they advised her not to say she has a boyfriend in U.S. and indicated on the application that she had a russian boyfriend. Under marital status, it

says common law marriage. When I learned of this, I became worried that this could be a problem when they apply for K1.

Thoughts, and advice?

I'm a little bit confused but I don't understand why she would list a relationship with her boyfriend as a common law marriage especially if they have only met twice. As far as I know...this doesn't constitute any type of 'legal relationship' it possible that it is different in Russia?

The travel agent might be concerned that if it comes up in the application that they will assume that she is applying for the visa only to run to the US and get married, but I think it is a HUGE mistake to lie and say that she is in a common law marriage with a person in Russia. Personally I would list N/A under common law marriage just because to me, it doesn't not seem like their relationship qualifies.

If she is dating an American it should not be an issue since having an american boyfriend does not constitute fraud neither does it give reason for them to deny her B1 application. They would only deny it if they had reason to believe she might be trying to circumvent the K1 process.

[jward1966 4]

Jess dak. She is trying to get a tourist visa to visit her boyfriend

[Cathi 5,748]

why oh why do people think it's OK to blatantly lie to immigration? Material misrepresentation has a lifetime ban

[jward1966 4]

Just to clarify, she didn't list it as a common law marriage, the agency did.