My wife was refused a tourist visa

[Chris Dawson 0]

I am a U.S Citizen and live in the U.K. I want to go to the U.S. with my family to see my sick 90+ year old grandmother but my wife was refused a tourist visa due to her being a full time student. My wife overstayed in the US in 2002 and was banned for 10 years which was over in 2012. The person at the embassy said that the refusal had nothing to do with the ban as that was over 5 years ago. She also said that when my wife finishes university (which will be in 2021), and gets a job, then she can reapply. I find that disgraceful! I was there with her at the US embassy London as she is disabled. Then she received a letter from the woman explaining everything but it did not explain everything, it said that she was refused because they think that she is going to overstay her visit. Is there anything that I can do?

[Coco8 1,042]

You cannot do anything.

 

I know that for other people, being a full-time student was a positive. Did she just start studying? I'm just calculating in a 4 year program she would graduate 2021. If so, that could be the case, that she just started so being a full-time student is not a strong enough tie. 

 

 

[JFH 12,191]

Unfortunately, as your wife has discovered, spouses of USCs often struggle to get visitor visas for the US. There are hundreds of members of this forum in the same situation all over the world. In order to be granted a visa as a tourist, one must overcome the automatic assumption that there is immigration intent. A spouse or another immediate family member in the USA makes this difficult to overcome - and the previous overstay does not help matters.

 

No one has an automatic right to enter the USA except USCs. 

 

There is nothing you can do. Your wife can re-apply in a year or so and try again and hope for the best. 

[Chris Dawson 0]

She started January last year. She is becoming an architect. The degree consists of 10 modules. She has completed 3 (which she passed), is working on 2 which started this month and has 5 to go. She has to be here in the U.K. while studying. If I wanted to move my family to the US, I would apply  for them but she doesn't want to live there. We are happy here in the U.K. I work and we have bought our home here.

Edited October 29, 2017 by Chris Dawson
adding more text

[JFH 12,191]

*~*~*moved from "bringing family members of USCs" to "tourist visas"*~*~*

[Scandi 4,178]

It always amazes me when people who have the privilege of travelling on ESTA make stupid decisions (like overstaying) and lose that privilege, especially if they complain about how "unfair" it is later on when they realize that they will have a hard time getting back into the US again.

Yes, it had nothing to do with the ban since the ban has been over and done with for a few years. However, she has a history of overstaying so the IO was completely correct in denying her the visa. It's not a disgrace, it's the IO doing her job and keeping her eyes open to people who have broken the rules before as they could very well do it again.

 

Like others have said, there's not a whole lot you can do about it. She made her bed and now she has to lay in it. =/

[Going through 5,671]

1 hour ago, Chris Dawson said:

it said that she was refused because they think that she is going to overstay her visit. Is there anything that I can do?

Unfortunately, no, there's nothing you can do since she has to apply and is approved/denied based on her own merits.

 

Since she overstayed previously, and showed clear disregard for the law from that decision to overstay, it's not that much of a stretch for the CO to believe she could readily overstay again.

 

Going forward, she is free to apply again later on down the road, so that's a plus.

[Coco8 1,042]

39 minutes ago, Scandi said:

It always amazes me when people who have the privilege of travelling on ESTA make stupid decisions (like overstaying)

He never said his wife was from the UK. 

[jakelake 222]

21 minutes ago, Coco8 said:

He never said his wife was from the UK. 

Regardless of the country, she did overstay.

[az2014 381]

1 hour ago, Chris Dawson said:

She started January last year. She is becoming an architect. The degree consists of 10 modules. She has completed 3 (which she passed), is working on 2 which started this month and has 5 to go. She has to be here in the U.K. while studying. If I wanted to move my family to the US, I would apply  for them but she doesn't want to live there. We are happy here in the U.K. I work and we have bought our home here.

Nothing you have posted so far shows any major ties to the UK.

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

I know someone, albeit a girlfriend rather than wife of USC, who was refused a B1/B2 visa despite having a job etc because they were concerned that the actual intent was immigrant intent - this despite the fact that apparently like the OP here, the USC involved also lived outside the US with house, job etc. objectively it seemed perfectly clear that all the ties were in my home country and there was no logical reason for them to be trying to use a tourist visa to stay in the US.

 

however...it must also be said that there seems to be increased difficulty in general getting tourist visas to the US more recently from my country as more people seem to be overstaying, and it seems in general all those who overstay, and all those who enter as tourists and “change their minds” later and do AOS do start a negative feedback loop making it more difficult for genuine tourists to get visas. (In this case obviously the wife’s own previous overstay in itself is a big factor.)

[Boiler 45,940]

Often we get just part of the story, as a general comment credibility is key and there is little here.

[Hypnos 6,578]

It sounds as if her negatives outweighed the positives, and thus she was properly denied. 

 

- Married to a US citizen

- Ineligible to use the VWP due to prior overstay

- Began a program of study only very recently

 

All of these together equals tenuous ties to the UK (or whatever her home country is) at best. 

[Springrain22 427]

No, there's nothing you can do to get her a visa in a year or so unless you do a spouse visa which she's doesn't want.

 

She made her decision by overstaying and breaking the law with no respect to it, so now she's paying her price. Considering the fact that she had a 10 year ban, she overstayed A LOT, a few years. This is what you should call "disgraceful", not the fact she was denied.

 

Good luck with her degree, though.

Edited October 30, 2017 by Springrain22

[Chris Dawson 0]

Thanks for all your comments! GOD bless