Questions about sibling F4 and B2 visa and parent B2 visa

[Daisy.Chain 317]

First, WOOHOO! My husband naturalized yesterday, and I am THRILLED that we can finally consider applying for sibling visas! My husband might like to petition his sister. We know it will take 15+ years at this time for the process to go through. We are planning to file and forget about it, and then she'll have an option way down the road.

 

That said, I wondered if anyone has a perspective on these questions:

Backstory:
My SIL was granted a 10 year multiple-entry tourist visa in 2015. For a 39-year old working in a family business with a child, we thought that was amazing! She came in June for 1 month for the wedding, then visited from the mid-November to mid-March on a return trip. She originally had planned to stay until New Year's, and we even had her return ticket, but then her plans changed due to some family circumstances. She did not work, but did travel the country visiting relatives. The CO did NOT write a date in her passport - NO DATE AT ALL. We thought she had six months (as it said on her I-94), and she left at about a 4 month stay with 2 months left in the 6-month visa. Three years later, in 2018, she applied for a tourist visa for her minor son to travel with his grandmother (my MIL) to spend summer vacation with us. SIL got a steady government job in 2017 and couldn't get time off to leave. When they went in for the interview, nephew was denied and SIL's visa was revoked with prejudice. The official asked her why she had stayed so long and told her she had broken the law. She very politely asked him which law, but he grimaced at her and said nothing. She said every person who went to his window was denied (but it wasn't the fraud window in the back).

 

Now:
Anyway, it's now been more than a year, SIL still has the steady job, minor child, and is about to enroll in college courses, and now my FIL (married to MIL with his own well-established business and people dependent on him) would like to apply for a tourist visa. He and my MIL can't leave at the same time - at least one of them has to man the family business, and we were wondering if maybe it would be a good time for my SIL to reapply for a visa so she could accompany him for a two-week trip and also visit us. (She got her original visa accompanying MIL to our wedding.) I'm worried, though, that because we don't know what "law" she broke, that this could get both her application denied and FIL's visa denied.

 

We would also (probably - we're still considering it) like to apply for a permanent resident F4 sibling visa for SIL, to file and forget about and give her an option down the road. Even if one was immediately available, she wouldn't be able to leave her job right now anyway. But I know without even asking that that would be a huge red flag - what CO would grant a tourist visa with a revocation on file, US citizen sibling in the US and an F4 petition?

 

 

Question 1) What do you guesstimate the chances of SIL's tourist visa being approved? Could it be as simple as the officer having a bad day? Am I overthinking this? What are the chances of SIL's visa WITH FIL visa being approved?

 

Question 2) If we apply for the F4 visa (perhaps waiting until after the tourist visa interview and after the trip on the chance it is approved), would the revocation of the tourist visa cause an issue for the F4?
I get that it depends why the visa was revoked, but is there a way to find out the specific reason why it was revoked? Even if the CO had assigned in a ONE DAY limit of time in the US, SIL would not have overstayed 180 days because she wasn't here 180 days and could not have incurred a ban for overstaying. Surely if she had committed an inadmissable offense, she would know what it was?

 

Question 3) Worst case scenario: If we apply for an F4 and there IS some issue with it due to the mysterious tourist visa issue and the F4 is denied, would it be denied within that year or so after application, or after 15 years?
It would be rough to be denied after waiting 15 years

 

Question 4) MIL is planning to visit for 2-3 weeks this month (FIL later this year if things work out). However, my husband just became a US citizen. MIL was granted a 10-year multiple entry visa in 2015 and has used it once for one month in 2015. Would having a son who naturalized in March affect her entry to the US in May or June? She has no plans to move here and has several people dependent on her in her home. She wants to see her son graduate.

 

Additional note:
We are RULE FOLLOWERS, and it drives me nuts that she got in trouble after I was the one who assured her that changing plans to stay longer and visit others was ok (I thought that reading all the fine lines and spending YEARS leveling up on Visajourney) and that we were obeying all the rules. This is the SIL that had the opportunity years ago to come illegally and immediately chose against it. I'm not desperate for her to come - in fact, even if everything works out, she might stay happily in the DR, but I really want her to have the best options available to choose from.

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited March 21, 2019 by Daisy.Chain

[aaron2020 11,651]

 

1.  This is not a chance based process.  With a revoked visitor visa, she is fighting an uphill battle.  Accompanying her father and his situation are irrelevant facts that the CO will not consider.  She will be judge solely on her ties and previous visa revocation.  Your FIL getting a visa has no bearing on your sister's chances of getting a visa.  Each application will be judge on its own.   

 

2.  Depends on the reason for the revocation.  Visiting the US is not a right, it's a privilege.  The US Government does not have to explain why it deny or revoked a visitor visa.  If there is a something that would prevent your SIL from getting an immigration visa, you will have to address it then. 

 

3.  It would be denied at the visa interview.  The I-130 will be approved since only showing birth certificates that they have a common parent is all that is required to approve the I-130.

 

4.  No.  Coming in with documents or things that looks like she might AOS with a son who recently naturalize might be a problem since parents have been known to use visitor visas to enter the US with the intent to immigrate by AOS.  

 

All she can do is apply for the visitor visa and find out. The US Embassy doesn't need to know anything about her parents.  The application is about a 39 years old woman, not her parents.  

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

I’m going to give brief rather than detailed answers:

 

- chances of a tourist visa are slim if the previous visa was cancelled with prejudice 

- assuming it was either an unintentional overstay or a 214 revocation just because they didn’t like how long it was, it shouldn’t have any implications for an immigrant visa. (Presumably if it was something criminal you’d all know about it.)

[Daisy.Chain 317]

1 hour ago, aaron2020 said:

 

1.  This is not a chance based process.  With a revoked visitor visa, she is fighting an uphill battle.  Accompanying her father and his situation are irrelevant facts that the CO will not consider.  She will be judge solely on her ties and previous visa revocation.  Your FIL getting a visa has no bearing on your sister's chances of getting a visa.  Each application will be judge on its own.   

 

2.  Depends on the reason for the revocation.  Visiting the US is not a right, it's a privilege.  The US Government does not have to explain why it deny or revoked a visitor visa.  If there is a something that would prevent your SIL from getting an immigration visa, you will have to address it then. 

 

3.  It would be denied at the visa interview.  The I-130 will be approved since only showing birth certificates that they have a common parent is all that is required to approve the I-130.

 

4.  No.  Coming in with documents or things that looks like she might AOS with a son who recently naturalize might be a problem since parents have been known to use visitor visas to enter the US with the intent to immigrate by AOS.  

 

All she can do is apply for the visitor visa and find out. The US Embassy doesn't need to know anything about her parents.  The application is about a 39 years old woman, not her parents.  

Ok thanks. When is the visa interview - a few months or year after the initial application, or 15 years down the road? 

 

I beg to differ on the "chance-based" comment. CO's have the discretion to approve or deny without specifically saying why. Anything subjective has an element of "chance", in my opinion. I don't know if that was the case in this scenario and probably never will, though!

[Daisy.Chain 317]

1 hour ago, SusieQQQ said:

Presumably if it was something criminal you’d all know about it.)

That's what I thought. I figured it was that she stayed too long (despite being within her six months), but got confused when he said "you have broken the law". She didn't break any law! She said he was really angry and yelling at the people that went before her. Regardless, we can't think of any law she could have broken or appear to have broken.

[Daisy.Chain 317]

1 hour ago, aaron2020 said:

If there is a something that would prevent your SIL from getting an immigration visa, you will have to address it then.

When would we know if she would be denied? I am new to this process. Do they call her in for an interview before assigning a priority date? Or is the interview after the 15 year wait? Would they tell her why she would be denied an f4 visa?

[Daisy.Chain 317]

Hmm.. what if she were to be accepted for a green card, take it, then hand it back in and reapply for a tourist visa? Assuming the rules stay the same until then, I bet SIL would look more promising as a B2 candidate?

[WeGuyGal 1,052]

Who knows what the rules would be 15-20 years from now. There may not even be a sibling visa category. 

[Daisy.Chain 317]

4 minutes ago, WeGuyGal said:

Who knows what the rules would be 15-20 years from now. There may not even be a sibling visa category. 

By the same token, there may still be a sibling category. There has been talk about getting rid of it for 20+ years. I think it's best ro plan for the forseeable future but with a backup plan.

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

 

16 minutes ago, Daisy.Chain said:

When would we know if she would be denied? I am new to this process. Do they call her in for an interview before assigning a priority date? Or is the interview after the 15 year wait? Would they tell her why she would be denied an f4 visa?

The interview is only after her priority date is current, so 15 or whatever years down the line.  That’s when they determine eligibility (all sorts of things to affect eligibility could happen between now and then so they can’t interview before they are ready to issue) and when you’d know if denied or not. The priority date is just the date uscis receives the petition.

 

[Daisy.Chain 317]

4 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

 

The interview is only after her priority date is current, so 15 or whatever years down the line.  That’s when they determine eligibility (all sorts of things to affect eligibility could happen between now and then so they can’t interview before they are ready to issue) and when you’d know if denied or not. The priority date is just the date uscis receives the petition.

 

Thanks. How long after filing is the priority date?

Edited March 22, 2019 by Daisy.Chain

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

9 minutes ago, Daisy.Chain said:

Thanks. How long after filing is the priority date?

However long it takes them to receive it after you mail it - as I said above, it’s when they receive the petition. 

[aaron2020 11,651]

37 minutes ago, Daisy.Chain said:

When would we know if she would be denied? I am new to this process. Do they call her in for an interview before assigning a priority date? Or is the interview after the 15 year wait? Would they tell her why she would be denied an f4 visa?

The interview is the last step before granting a visa.  It happens at the end of the wait.  They would give her the reason for a denial.  

[aaron2020 11,651]

35 minutes ago, Daisy.Chain said:

Hmm.. what if she were to be accepted for a green card, take it, then hand it back in and reapply for a tourist visa? Assuming the rules stay the same until then, I bet SIL would look more promising as a B2 candidate?

You can deal with this scenario in 15 years.  There's no guarantee of a B2 after turning in a green card.