Ideal time to file for CR-1 visa

[CantThinkOfOne 22]

2 hours ago, ronnieshih said:

 So whatever you guys are saying here does give me a lot of fear.  Scary stories that can immediately invalidate the $1200 I've spent on her and $1400 I've spent on myself to go get her back here safely on 5/13, just for a short visit.  What am I ultimately doing this for?  FOR LOVE?  So why all the unnecessary BS?

Yes, for LOVE, if you care for your SO no effort is too big. No way around. End of story. "Get her back" ?!?! are you for real? what is she? your toy? even then she needs to clear POE on her own!! 

OP: How about YOU move to Taiwan and see how the marriage works, and then try the Immigration route? (In all honesty I fear for his wife.... but then again, no legal, just personal observation)

[CantThinkOfOne 22]

8 minutes ago, ronnieshih said:

This isn't an English class and we aren't going to pick on words and grammar in this manner.  Sending my wife back means she'll return at the time of the return plane ticket, it's as simple as that.  I was planning on keeping her here for 3 months so we can be a newlyweds together for 3 months but after reading all of the above, I don't think so at this point.  And some people's experiences here, including myself's bring back haunting memories of customs officials I encountered.  Did I get stopped for no reason? Sure of course I did, for the pure amount of canadian custom stamps I had in my passport seeing my ex-wife in the past, I got stopped.  Did I answer my questions to them in rude manners while crossing?  No, they just stopped me because I looked suspicious and I went there a lot.  Were the questions similar?  Yes.  Why did you go to canada?  What did you do there?  How many days?  It's almost always the same questions until an official decided to give me hard times.  I once got full body searched up to my crotch while asking where I worked and where I went to college?  Was that necessary?  No.  Did I answer anything different?  No.  If you've never experienced this yourself, then please don't criticize.

Wording, exactly that! I wish you no luck, actually hope your wife wakes up from the US dream and decides for herself..... 

[bcking 3,157]

4 minutes ago, CantThinkOfOne said:

Yes, for LOVE, if you care for your SO no effort is too big. No way around. End of story. "Get her back" ?!?! are you for real? what is she? your toy? even then she needs to clear POE on her own!! 

OP: How about YOU move to Taiwan and see how the marriage works, and then try the Immigration route? (In all honesty I fear for his wife.... but then again, no legal, just personal observation)

While you may be right, I think you could also be reading into the way he is writing a little too much. If english isn't his first language, he may say things like "Keeping my wife here", which to you means one thing, but to him may be intended to just mean "bringing". You don't know his situation, and you will never know on these forums so I would try to refrain from "assuming" things just based on how he is writing. A lot of people here aren't native english speakers/writers. 

 

Ultimately the OP needs to decide whether to take the risk or not. None of us can change that. All you can do is be prepared and deal with what happens. Is the system unfair? Yes I agree it is. Is the system illogical and poorly thought out? Yes of course. Have I been angry at the system over the course of the application process? Countless times.

 

Unfortunately no matter how much you, I and everyone else thinks the process is stupid, unfair, overly tedious, unnecessarily, poorly organized or anything else. That doesn't matter. It is what it is. If you want her to gain permanent resident status you have to go through this process. If you want her to visit, she has to go through immigration and risk an interview and risk being refused entry. You can't change that.

[CantThinkOfOne 22]

2 minutes ago, bcking said:

While you may be right, I think you could also be reading into the way he is writing a little too much. If english isn't his first language, he may say things like "Keeping my wife here", which to you means one thing, but to him may be intended to just mean "bringing". You don't know his situation, and you will never know on these forums so I would try to refrain from "assuming" things just based on how he is writing. A lot of people here aren't native english speakers/writers. 

 

Ultimately the OP needs to decide whether to take the risk or not. None of us can change that. All you can do is be prepared and deal with what happens. Is the system unfair? Yes I agree it is. Is the system illogical and poorly thought out? Yes of course. Have I been angry at the system over the course of the application process? Countless times.

 

Unfortunately no matter how much you, I and everyone else thinks the process is stupid, unfair, overly tedious, unnecessarily, poorly organized or anything else. That doesn't matter. It is what it is. If you want her to gain permanent resident status you have to go through this process. If you want her to visit, she has to go through immigration and risk an interview and risk being refused entry. You can't change that.

Exactl that, with the difference that if the OP is given the option to fill an i-130, means he's at least a LPR; I'm no USC nor LPR, but working with it, thus his wording being disturbing.... And NO, it's not the OP taking risks, it's his wife... but as I have said, each to their own.....

[bcking 3,157]

6 minutes ago, CantThinkOfOne said:

Exactl that, with the difference that if the OP is given the option to fill an i-130, means he's at least a LPR; I'm no USC nor LPR, but working with it, thus his wording being disturbing.... And NO, it's not the OP taking risks, it's his wife... but as I have said, each to their own.....

See that is exactly my point. When I said it was the "OP taking risks" my intention was the OP as a unit between him and his wife. To me it was implied.

 

I think you could look at what how is writing and assume something nefarious, or you can assume that english isn't his primary language, or even if it is, he just isn't very good at sentence construction to convey the point he is trying to make. You are heavily implying that something horrible is going on, and you are just basing that on huge assumptions. I don't think it's appropriate here.

[CantThinkOfOne 22]

14 minutes ago, bcking said:

 Is the system unfair? Yes I agree it is. Is the system illogical and poorly thought out? Yes of course. Have I been angry at the system over the course of the application process? Countless times.

 

Unfortunately no matter how much you, I and everyone else thinks the process is stupid, unfair, overly tedious, unnecessarily, poorly organized or anything else. That doesn't matter. It is what it is. If you want her to gain permanent resident status you have to go through this process. If you want her to visit, she has to go through immigration and risk an interview and risk being refused entry. You can't change that.

The system is not unfair, the system is made so that fraud is made as difficult as possible....

[bcking 3,157]

6 minutes ago, CantThinkOfOne said:

The system is not unfair, the system is made so that fraud is made as difficult as possible....

The system is designed to identify fraud cases (positive cases). The way it is designed it has a very high sensitivity, but very poor specificity. That means they focus on having very few false negatives (cases that they think aren't fraud but turn out to be in reality after they let them in), but in return they end up having more false positives (cases that they say are fraud even though they aren't but since they are overly concerned they call it fraud). 

 

In addition to that it has a very significant impact on those who aren't committing fraud, despite the fact that they are the majority. The "number needed to treat" to prevent 1 fraud case is very high. That unfairly focuses on the criminals at the expense of those who are not.

 

Sorry I'm using terminology from evidence based medicine, but it is the best way I can explain it. Any time you institute a test you have to consider the impact it has on false negatives and false positives. You have to consider the number you need to test in order to catch 1 person.

 

It is my opinion that the system, as it is designed now, is not the most efficient and doesn't properly balance them out.

Edited April 13, 2017 by bcking

[CantThinkOfOne 22]

Typical "bla bla bla", while immigration laws and guidelines are pretty specific. 

Take me as an example: I can visit my SO as often as I want on the VWP ( did so already, completely truthful at POE, no problems), could have applied for adjustment several times already, yet made it clear everytime that all I want is to make sure that HE IS THE ONE. CBPs are humans too, so as long as your case makes sense, +reasons to get back home(I was never asked for evidence, but I always have it with me, evenmoreso for being selfemployed), there should be no reason to worry..... the ones that worry too much (as far as my experience reaches) are the ones that get denied anyways..... just my 2 cents, but meh, I have no legal competence, so who knows....

[jakelake 222]

 

ronnieshih, let us know what you decide to do and what the outcome is.

I think that we can all learn from your case. Thanks for sharing.

[3rd 84]

Even with a Green Card you can still be questioned in secondary. I don't think this is a 'harsh' thing, it's just the nature of the job they have to do. I had to have the stamp in my passport as my Green Card wouldn't be ready in time as I was flying the day after my interview. When we came back I was under the impression the stamp wouldn't cause an issue, yet I was put in secondary without my USC husband who had to go and get our luggage and wait for me without being told anything or when I'd even be out. It's not nice in secondary, especially being treated like a criminal, but I do know that the US Government has a responsibility to the people to do their job and weed out the undesirables. I was in there for maybe 2 hours, got questioned twice until they realised the stamp I had was the I-551 and that I was in fact a legal permanent resident just without the physical card. I'm a Caucasian, young, British woman and still got the same treatment anyone else did.

 

I'd highly suggest filing before you wife comes, and the worst case scenario would be that she'd get turned back at POE. It's a risk all of the non-USC's take when coming back home. Visa or Green Card.

[CantThinkOfOne 22]

5 hours ago, ronnieshih said:

I am accompanying my wife because it is her first time in united states and she is not fluent in English.  Speaking broken English back to a customs officer in a nervous manner can possibly trigger problems.  I don't want her to feel nervous and that's why I am doing this and is the only reason.

 

Read my story I just posted about another customs official with superiority complex which put me in the small office for no reason for two hours, while travelling alone from canada back to chicago, driving by myself.  Who accompanies with me does not matter, and whether I am a citizen does not matter either.

My SO just visited me for a week, and flew back to the US, of course I was with him at the airport when he left. There was a lady questioning EVERYONE ,regardless whether USC or not, about this or that, and you can't even imagine the looks she gave me for just being there (asked my man: "who's she? why is she not travelling with you? why are you travelling alone? why so little luggage? when did you arrive here? who is she?!?!? and on and on for about 5 more times, I was there to hear it all) , so yes, USC with blonde hairs and blue eyes get grilled too, and they can get grilled outside the US, and even more than a non-USC at a POE inside the US (at least to my own experience). The most grilling I personally got was from the airline I was flying into the US with.

 

At POE they were like: " Why are you here? I am visiting with my boyfriend!

Did you meet? (here I am not sure whether the question was "did you meet" or "how did you meet") We met in person last month!

For how long will you visit? He booked me a flight for the whole 90 days allowed, but I'm not sure I'm able to stay that long!

90 days is a long time, how does your job handle it? I'm a selfemployed, so I can work from anywhere with a decent internet connection!" 

I had my papers in hand though, with my appartment lease, the car papers, bank account statements, all advice from another website, he didn't ask for none; Got asked to take my glasses off for a pic, then fingerprints, then "Have a nice visit", and that from not the friendliest CBP ever, he actually looked kinda angry, for whatever reason. And that repeated for my second, and third visit. On my fourth I was already a "familiar" face, the lady sorting the people into USC and Visitors was like "dahell you doin' girl? Still in the visitors' line?"   So yeah, as long as you're for real, and have nothing to hide, you should be fine ( or your SO for that matter) 

 

OT: will it be considered bribe if I bring "real" chocolate to POE next time? jk  

[Ryan H 3,812]

***Thread closed to additional discusssion as OP has stated when they intend to file the I-130 which is the actual subject matter of this thread; discussion has since verred far from the topic to warrant this thread's closure.  The OP is free to start a new thread with any questions or updates on their case.***