Visiting Visa While IR1-CR1 Is Pending

[Crazy Cat 41,888]

I have seen this question asked many times, and it was the very first question I asked my attorney's office when we filed our CR1 form I-130 in April 2016. The technical answer is Yes, you are allowed to temporarily visit your husband while waiting if you possess the proper travel document. However, the CO has the power to deny entry based on his/her interpretation of the intent and purpose of your visit. As always, you MUST be completely honest when answering the CO's questions.  I think having a return ticket, USCIS documentation of your petition, and other documentation which you can use to prove to the CO that you are not entering in an attempt to adjust status (as well as your intent to return to your country before issuance of the visa) would be beneficial.  However, there is no guarantee that you will be allowed to enter.........just my opinion.  

I wish you well.

[isaac124 1]

my wife has visited the USA 3 times in the past year without any incident or even the slightest suspecting questions.. We are also currently waiting to receive an interview letter... we just got plane tickets expecting that she will have the cr-1 visa on or before august 5th... this is kinda risky but i have some faith... we completed the DS-260 and other forms on may 1st... 11 weeks after that would be mid july... sooo can't imagine she wouldn't have it by august 5th...

[Bengal 3]

17 hours ago, Redheadguy03 said:

If you have a pending application they may not let you in because you are an intending immigrant. I wouldn't recommend trying it because it usually doesn't seem to work out. Just be patient and wait for your visa. 

Thank you  

Edited May 31, 2017 by Bengal
Replied the wrong person

[Bengal 3]

16 hours ago, missileman said:

I have seen this question asked many times, and it was the very first question I asked my attorney's office when we filed our CR1 form I-130 in April 2016. The technical answer is Yes, you are allowed to temporarily visit your husband while waiting if you possess the proper travel document. However, the CO has the power to deny entry based on his/her interpretation of the intent and purpose of your visit. As always, you MUST be completely honest when answering the CO's questions.  I think having a return ticket, USCIS documentation of your petition, and other documentation which you can use to prove to the CO that you are not entering in an attempt to adjust status (as well as your intent to return to your country before issuance of the visa) would be beneficial.  However, there is no guarantee that you will be allowed to enter.........just my opinion.  

I wish you well.

If I can show the CO that NVC has already done reviewing my case and I'm just waiting for the interview date. And will be back to my country just after getting the call. Then I guess they won't have a problem about my visiting there. 

Thank you anyway. I'm just waiting for my case to be completed soon.

[Bengal 3]

11 hours ago, isaac124 said:

my wife has visited the USA 3 times in the past year without any incident or even the slightest suspecting questions.. We are also currently waiting to receive an interview letter... we just got plane tickets expecting that she will have the cr-1 visa on or before august 5th... this is kinda risky but i have some faith... we completed the DS-260 and other forms on may 1st... 11 weeks after that would be mid july... sooo can't imagine she wouldn't have it by august 5th...

Hope she gets her interview date soon. Can you tell me if she sent her Police clearance certificate to NVC? And the went to the US?  I don't know if it's okay to travel just after issuing the police certificate from your own country that the CO might want to see in the interview. 

[Crazy Cat 41,888]

7 minutes ago, Bengal said:

If I can show the CO that NVC has already done reviewing my case and I'm just waiting for the interview date. And will be back to my country just after getting the call. Then I guess they won't have a problem about my visiting there. 

Thank you anyway. I'm just waiting for my case to be completed soon.

Seems reasonable to me........but I'm not the CO.....Hope you get through this process soon.

[isaac124 1]

56 minutes ago, Bengal said:

Hope she gets her interview date soon. Can you tell me if she sent her Police clearance certificate to NVC? And the went to the US?  I don't know if it's okay to travel just after issuing the police certificate from your own country that the CO might want to see in the interview. 

Hi thanks for your well wishes. Yes we submitted a police report. This paper simply says that Luciana has no criminal record in her native country of Brazil. But I don't know for certain if we are talking about the same thing. The report needs to be current within some few months. I don't remember how many but it shouldn't matter as far as travel is concerned since the report says nothing about travel..

[bcking 3,157]

I don't think visiting the US would do anything to the validity of a police certificate in the immigrant's home country. It is my understanding the police certificate is to show whether there are any past problems with law enforcement in your home country. If you were to visit the US and do something in the US, they wouldn't need a foreign police certificate to show that.

 

My wife travelled to multiple countries after getting her police certificate for the UK (didn't travel to the US though, but went to Norway, Germany, France, Ecuador) and didnt need an updated police certificate from the UK.

 

As for visiting,

 

I concur with what has been said. Yes you can visit, and I would actually say the odds are in your favour that you will be let in for a visit. However the officer CAN always refuse to give you entry. There is no paperwork that guarantees that they can't refuse you. They don't need to provide a reason. They have complete country in that scenario. The one time my wife came to visit in the US she was in secondary for awhile. She had all the paperwork people say to bring (return flight, information on her apartment in the UK etc...) and the officer flat out said "None of this proves beyond reasonable doubt that you will enter the US and never leave". He eventually let her through but it was ultimately his choice (or his superior).

[isaac124 1]

1 minute ago, bcking said:

I don't think visiting the US would do anything to the validity of a police certificate in the immigrant's home country. It is my understanding the police certificate is to show whether there are any past problems with law enforcement in your home country. If you were to visit the US and do something in the US, they wouldn't need a foreign police certificate to show that.

 

My wife travelled to multiple countries after getting her police certificate for the UK (didn't travel to the US though, but went to Norway, Germany, France, Ecuador) and didnt need an updated police certificate from the UK.

 

As for visiting,

 

I concur with what has been said. Yes you can visit, and I would actually say the odds are in your favour that you will be let in for a visit. However the officer CAN always refuse to give you entry. There is no paperwork that guarantees that they can't refuse you. They don't need to provide a reason. They have complete country in that scenario. The one time my wife came to visit in the US she was in secondary for awhile. She had all the paperwork people say to bring (return flight, information on her apartment in the UK etc...) and the officer flat out said "None of this proves beyond reasonable doubt that you will enter the US and never leave". He eventually let her through but it was ultimately his choice (or his superior).

Jesus.. sounds like that officer had recently had a bad night at the poker table or something

[bcking 3,157]

3 minutes ago, isaac124 said:

Jesus.. sounds like that officer had recently had a bad night at the poker table or something

I still wish we had his name and I would have reported him. I was there (he separated us into two windowless rooms and interviewed us separately). He flat out called us idiots (Something like "I've seen your type before. You both think you are so smart with your good jobs, but you really are just idiots when it comes to things like this"). This was before even asking myself (or my wife) what our situation was (So at that point he didn't even know my wife had applied for her green card, that it was approved by USCIS and we were awaiting arrival to the NVC. he hadn't seen her return flight, or let us explain why she was coming with me for 3 weeks).

 

It was also going through Dublin (pre-flight screening) because my wife has anxiety with flying. So in the future I'd say maybe avoid those "pre-flight" screening places because I think maybe their threshold to be a**holes is lower. Maybe they get more fraud than other places, not sure. My wife just didn't want to get on a 10 hour flight, to then have someone turn her away at the end.

Edited May 31, 2017 by bcking

[mrtravel 40]

Why would documentation of your immigration be needed?  Wouldn't the CO have access to that information already?

I mean, when you show them you passport, do they see that you have a visa or petition in progress and what the current status is?

[Bengal 3]

I actually don't know about this. But it would be great if they have that already. I can just tell them about my short visit and they would surely understand. 

[bcking 3,157]

1 minute ago, mrtravel said:

Why would documentation of your immigration be needed?  Wouldn't the CO have access to that information already?

I mean, when you show them you passport, do they see that you have a visa or petition in progress and what the current status is?

If you have a visa they obviously see it (it's in your passport).

 

I would also assume that when they plug in your information into their computer, a petition in progress shows up.

 

From our experience, it was definitely "news" to the Officer when I showed them the approval letter from USCIS. The problem was he rambled on and was a total jacka** for a good 20 minutes before he let me say anything. The first thing I said was "By the way, here is our approval from USCIS" and he was genuinely surprised and was irritated I didn't show it to him earlier (even though he never let me speak).

 

So at least from our 1 experience of her trying to travel here while her visa was in process, they had seemingly no idea that it was in process.

[bcking 3,157]

1 minute ago, Bengal said:

I actually don't know about this. But it would be great if they have that already. I can just tell them about my short visit and they would surely understand. 

Definitely bring copies of everything you have received from USCIS or the NVC. Or at least the most recent update. Whether it is the NOA1, NOA2, the interview scheduling appointment letter thing. Whatever you have for whatever stage you are in. Don't assume that they know.

[Bengal 3]

26 minutes ago, mrtravel said:

Why would documentation of your immigration be needed?  Wouldn't the CO have access to that information already?

I mean, when you show them you passport, do they see that you have a visa or petition in progress and what the current status is?

I'll surely carry with me all the papers. In case they want to see those. 

Thank you