Is the petitioner allowed to help translate for the beneficiary during POE interview?

[Hemutian 68]

I'll be flying from Guangzhou to SFO with my fiancee (beneficiary) next month.

I've read several reviews of the SFO POE process on VJ and almost everyone says it's a breeze.

It seems that sometimes, there is no POE "interview" (i.e. questions) at all. But sometimes there is. Which brings me to my question.

My fiancee's English level is elementary at best (for now, she plans to get to work increasing her fluency as soon as possible) and she's nervous that

she won't be able to understand or answer the questions at the POE interview (assuming there is one). 

This wasn't an issue at the Guangzhou consulate interview because the CO there was able to bring in his Chinese assistants to help translate.

But we're not sure if the SFO POE has Chinese-speaking staff (to be fair, if any US POE did have Chinese-speaking staff, it would be SFO).

Since I'll be with her, am I allowed to translate the CBP officer's questions to her from English to Chinese, and then translate her answers from Chinese back to English for the CBP officer?

They're not going to give her a hard time over this, are they?

Or would it be better to try to coach her on how to anticipate and answer the CBP's questions in English before we fly to SFO?

[SalishSea 17,829]

20 minutes ago, Hemutian said:

I'll be flying from Guangzhou to SFO with my fiancee (beneficiary) next month.

I've read several reviews of the SFO POE process on VJ and almost everyone says it's a breeze.

It seems that sometimes, there is no POE "interview" (i.e. questions) at all. But sometimes there is. Which brings me to my question.

My fiancee's English level is elementary at best (for now, she plans to get to work increasing her fluency as soon as possible) and she's nervous that

she won't be able to understand or answer the questions at the POE interview (assuming there is one). 

This wasn't an issue at the Guangzhou consulate interview because the CO there was able to bring in his Chinese assistants to help translate.

But we're not sure if the SFO POE has Chinese-speaking staff (to be fair, if any US POE did have Chinese-speaking staff, it would be SFO).

Since I'll be with her, am I allowed to translate the CBP officer's questions to her from English to Chinese, and then translate her answers from Chinese back to English for the CBP officer?

They're not going to give her a hard time over this, are they?

Or would it be better to try to coach her on how to anticipate and answer the CBP's questions in English before we fly to SFO?

I am not sure if they would let you translate, but I would be very surprised if SFO CBP did not have a Chinese-speaking officer on duty.  Most visitors from China would not even have an American traveling companion who can translate, so CBP will be used to dealing with that.

[USS_Voyager 1,972]

9 minutes ago, Hemutian said:

My fiancee's English level is elementary at best (for now, she plans to get to work increasing her fluency as soon as possible) and she's nervous that

she won't be able to understand or answer the questions at the POE interview (assuming there is one). 

Every single day, there are many thousand new immigrants landed in the US. Many of them do NOT speak a word of English and they got through just fine. The US CBP is extremely well trained in deal with this very situation. If my in-laws who were in their late 60s, early 70s and my own mother who was 63 could do it, there is no reason your fiancé can’t.

 

13 minutes ago, Hemutian said:

But we're not sure if the SFO POE has Chinese-speaking staff

Oh please. There have been Chinese people in San Francisco for what, 200 years? 

 

41 minutes ago, Hemutian said:

Since I'll be with her, am I allowed to translate the CBP officer's questions to her from English to Chinese, and then translate her answers from Chinese back to English for the CBP officer?

Yes

[Hemutian 68]

1 hour ago, USS_Voyager said:

Oh please. There have been Chinese people in San Francisco for what, 200 years? 

I know. I grew up in San Francisco, went on field trips as a kid to Angel Island. I even majored in history, specifically the history of immigration to the United States. There are many Chinese-speaking people in San Francisco, but I've never gone through a POE interview with a Chinese native speaker before, so how am I supposed to know if CBP employs Chinese speakers at the airport or not. 

 

I've seen Chinese TV shows and movies that depict Chinese people arriving in the US, and facing situations at the POE where the CBP officer expects the Chinese person to speak English, and is hostile to the Chinese person if their English is less than perfect, even threatening to send them back to China. I realize this is just TV and not real life, but so far since I've never gone through the process in real life. 

 

The main gist of my question was: when I accompany her at the POE, will the CBP officer consider it interference if I'm in there helping her do the talking, in other words, should I keep my mouth shut and let her do the talking and request a Chinese-speaking CBP officer if necessary, or is it okay if I speak up during the process. 

[Lemonslice 4,841]

If you're traveling with her, there should be no problem.  Should they prefer to have another interpreter (than you), they'll find one.

[jaysaldi 213]

2 hours ago, Hemutian said:

I know. I grew up in San Francisco, went on field trips as a kid to Angel Island. I even majored in history, specifically the history of immigration to the United States. There are many Chinese-speaking people in San Francisco, but I've never gone through a POE interview with a Chinese native speaker before, so how am I supposed to know if CBP employs Chinese speakers at the airport or not. 

 

I've seen Chinese TV shows and movies that depict Chinese people arriving in the US, and facing situations at the POE where the CBP officer expects the Chinese person to speak English, and is hostile to the Chinese person if their English is less than perfect, even threatening to send them back to China. I realize this is just TV and not real life, but so far since I've never gone through the process in real life. 

 

The main gist of my question was: when I accompany her at the POE, will the CBP officer consider it interference if I'm in there helping her do the talking, in other words, should I keep my mouth shut and let her do the talking and request a Chinese-speaking CBP officer if necessary, or is it okay if I speak up during the process. 

The CBP officer may or may not shoo you back into the line if you both walk up to the booth together.  If he does let you stand there, don't attempt to answer any questions directed to her without first asking the officer "would you like me to translate?" or "would you like me to answer that?"

[Falcon Cara 378]

POE interview?  About all they asked my fiancée was: How are you?

[payxibka 10,045]

I stood right next to my fiancee the entire time.  

[Hemutian 68]

 

2 hours ago, Falcon Cara said:

POE interview?  About all they asked my fiancée was: How are you?

Like I wrote at the beginning of this thread "It seems that sometimes, there is no POE "interview" (i.e. questions) at all. But sometimes there is."

A bunch of VJers have written "POE reviews" and some of them definitely got interviewed, so we just want to make sure we're prepared in case we do, too.

[carmel34 3,626]

I just went through POE with my spouse, entering the US for the first time on his CR-1 spousal visa, in Miami, a week ago.  I entered with him and told the CBP officer that he was entering on a spousal visa.  He sent us to secondary processing where we waited for about 10 minutes for an officer.  We both went to the window when his name was called and he gave the officer his passport.  She asked where the envelope was and I said that he did not receive an envelope with the visa, that his file was all electronic.  She responded, "okay, I'll bring that up on my computer," then took a few minutes to do that.  My husband gave her a piece of paper with his new address in the US, a home I bought two months ago, after his visa interview at the consulate abroad.  A few minutes later she stamped his passport and sent us on our way.  It was pretty simple and it was never an issue that I was speaking on his behalf since his English is not very good and the officer did not speak Portuguese.  You will be fine!

[Pitaya 2,577]

If a Chinese translator is needed at SFO, I shouldn't think that ir would be a problem for Madarin or Cantonese. Now some of the dialects spoken in the semi-autonomous zones in the south, such as, Hakkanese, may pose a surmountable situation.

 

YMMV

[payxibka 10,045]

I've experience two k1 entries, it isn't close to an interview 

[Hemutian 68]

5 hours ago, carmel34 said:

I just went through POE with my spouse, entering the US for the first time on his CR-1 spousal visa, in Miami, a week ago.  I entered with him and told the CBP officer that he was entering on a spousal visa.  He sent us to secondary processing where we waited for about 10 minutes for an officer.  We both went to the window when his name was called and he gave the officer his passport.  She asked where the envelope was and I said that he did not receive an envelope with the visa, that his file was all electronic.  She responded, "okay, I'll bring that up on my computer," then took a few minutes to do that.  My husband gave her a piece of paper with his new address in the US, a home I bought two months ago, after his visa interview at the consulate abroad.  A few minutes later she stamped his passport and sent us on our way.  It was pretty simple and it was never an issue that I was speaking on his behalf since his English is not very good and the officer did not speak Portuguese.  You will be fine!

Thanks. And congratulations!

[Hemutian 68]

On 8/28/2019 at 7:18 AM, Pitaya said:

If a Chinese translator is needed at SFO, I shouldn't think that ir would be a problem for Madarin or Cantonese. Now some of the dialects spoken in the semi-autonomous zones in the south, such as, Hakkanese, may pose a surmountable situation.

 

YMMV

Mine does in fact speak Hakkanese. But she also speaks Mandarin. And Cantonese. So shouldn't be a problem.

Now let's just try to get English added to that list.

[TandClaudia 330]

At my fiancée's POE, the officer asked me more questions than he did her.  I answered in both English and Spanish.