B1B2 visa and boyfriend

[Paf94 0]

Hello all, 

I was researching on ways to possibly get a tourist visa approved and came across some threads from this site. So I have the very popular problem of being a US citizen with a boyfriend of another nationality who wants to visit the US but keeps getting denied and mostly for this reason. 

The more complicated specifics of our situation is that my boyfriend is French, he would have been eligible for ESTA but because of a trip to Iran (tourism) he lost his visa waiver eligibility. Which means applying for B1B2 and of course getting denied. Interestingly enough, he's been to the US before on ESTA before meeting me when he was backpacking, and the trip to Iran was also before meeting me so he had no reason to suspect he would ever have this problem at the time. But unfortunately we can't change the past and we just really want him to be able to visit at some point. 

Anyway at this point he's been denied twice already under 214b. Last time they asked questions about girlfriend in the interview and ignored the fact that I live in France now and that he has a full time job and responsibilities he can't leave to illegally immigrate to the US. 

At this point I'm very frustrated since I've been with my boyfriend over a year now and he's never been able to meet my family. And to make things worse, next year I have to return to the US for a year to finish my studies and he won't be able to visit. I saw on the other posts here people saying you should just get a k1 visa since that's why they keep denying the tourist one BUT I DON'T WANT HIM TO MOVE TO THE US. I DON'T EVEN WANT TO LIVE IN THE US. As soon as I have my degree I am OUT and I really just want this dude to meet my family and be able to visit me while we have to endure long distance again for a year. 

Like is there some kind of spouse visa for visiting? 

I guess my real question here is should we even bother for a third try on the B1B2 visa? Or do I really have to marry this guy just so he can meet my family and visit me? Even though I wouldn't even be eligible to sponsor him since I'm a student and I don't permanently reside in the US.. I mean what would happen if we applied for k1 just so he can visit but then we don't get married during that time? Would that make future visa applications automatically denied? 

[Juli. 18]

Hi there, "Spouse visa for visit" don't exist. You have immigrant visa and non immigrant visa. De B1 B2 are the non immigrant he can have it but sound like the CO don't believe that he will not go to US just for visit.

 

How long he is being working in the same place? He is a student like you? He is too young?

 

They now you guys have a relationship and because you are a student and will be going back to the US, sound (for the CO) you will be coming back forever.

 

It's complicated to your family visit you in France? Maybe is a better option. 

 

If you apply for a K1 and don't be married will not cause big problems, because people have 90 days to decided about get married or not.

 

But your intentions is not get the visa to get married so probably is not the best option.  Lie is never a good idea.

 

Best wishes. 

 

 

 

[Boiler 45,913]

What was he doing in Iran?

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

I had a friend who also had some difficulty a while back getting a US visa to visit with her USC boyfriend (who was and still is a resident of my home country). The thinking from the embassy is not that your boyfriend will be illegal there - it is that once you are both there, if you marry him and just stay he can get to “jump the line” (for a green card)  because spouses of US citizens get forgiven certain immigration violations.  People try that rather than waiting the year or so it takes for a spouse visa.

My friend did manage to get a one year visa (normally people from our country easily get 10-year multiple entry) - I guess her job etc helped, I don’t recall all the details of what she showed them.

 

i am also wondering about Iran, it not being a typical tourist destination. Does he have family there maybe? I know it wasn’t cited as a reason, but it may have been an additional factor of concern. 

Edited December 8, 2019 by SusieQQQ

[HRQX 4,145]

56 minutes ago, Paf94 said:

Interestingly enough, he's been to the US before on ESTA before meeting me when he was backpacking, and the trip to Iran was also before meeting me so he had no reason to suspect he would ever have this problem at the time.

Was the US backpacking trip after the Iran trip? If so, did he reapply for the ESTA before the US backpacking trip as he should have? "you will be required to apply for a new travel authorization. This is also required if one of your answers to any of the VWP eligibility questions changes." https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-1073?language=en_US

"Have you traveled to, or been present in Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen on or after March 1, 2011?"

[Paf94 0]

10 minutes ago, HRQX said:

Was the US backpacking trip after the Iran trip? If so, did he reapply for the ESTA before the US backpacking trip as he should have? "you will be required to apply for a new travel authorization. This is also required if one of your answers to any of the VWP eligibility questions changes." https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-1073?language=en_US

"Have you traveled to, or been present in Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen on or after March 1, 2011?"

Sorry that didn't sound clear when I said it, he definitely did not lie on his ESTA and he went to the US like a year before his Iran visit (which was like almost three years ago). 

I'm actually very grateful he didn't try to pull some like that before meeting me cause it'd make things even worse, and one thing I've learned from this situation is a lot of french people are privileged European passport holders who don't realize how serious visa violations are. Like literally everyone in his family has at some point asked me "well why didn't he just renew his passport and then not mention Iran to keep the esta" and I'm like I'm pretty sure that's how you get banned from ever entering the US again lol

[Paf94 0]

20 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

I had a friend who also had some difficulty a while back getting a US visa to visit with her USC boyfriend (who was and still is a resident of my home country). The thinking from the embassy is not that your boyfriend will be illegal there - it is that once you are both there, if you marry him and just stay he can get to “jump the line” (for a green card)  because spouses of US citizens get forgiven certain immigration violations.  People try that rather than waiting the year or so it takes for a spouse visa.

My friend did manage to get a one year visa (normally people from our country easily get 10-year multiple entry) - I guess her job etc helped, I don’t recall all the details of what she showed them.

 

i am also wondering about Iran, it not being a typical tourist destination. Does he have family there maybe? I know it wasn’t cited as a reason, but it may have been an additional factor of concern. 

Yes I wonder how much Iran plays into the decision even though both times they only cited 214b. He just went to visit with his brother and their friend, they have a yearly tradition to travel together to somewhere far (they've gone to Mexico, cote d'Ivoire, Vietnam, etc). Out of the countries that are on the no go list for getting your visa waiver revoked, I think Iran is probably the safest and most normal to visit. Like yeah not a lot of people go to South Sudan or Iraq for pure tourism, but in Europe it's not unheard of at all for people to visit Iran. 

 

Yeah I wish they would just make it so it wasn't possible to adjust on a tourist visa so that it wouldn't even be a consideration. At the same time I also wish the EU would grow a pair and be more aggressive to the US when it comes to visa agreements, it's clear that Europeans are treated way worse on average than Americans when using visa waivers. It's helpful for me that it's super easy and painless for me to enter the EU, but I know it's not fair that I pay nothing and have no conditions to lose my visa waiver when that's not the case for Europeans. 

[Paf94 0]

42 minutes ago, Juli. said:

Hi there, "Spouse visa for visit" don't exist. You have immigrant visa and non immigrant visa. De B1 B2 are the non immigrant he can have it but sound like the CO don't believe that he will not go to US just for visit.

 

How long he is being working in the same place? He is a student like you? He is too young?

 

They now you guys have a relationship and because you are a student and will be going back to the US, sound (for the CO) you will be coming back forever.

 

It's complicated to your family visit you in France? Maybe is a better option. 

 

If you apply for a K1 and don't be married will not cause big problems, because people have 90 days to decided about get married or not.

 

But your intentions is not get the visa to get married so probably is not the best option.  Lie is never a good idea.

 

Best wishes. 

 

 

 

Hi thanks for your response. My boyfriend is youngish (like in his 20s) but he finished studying and has been working for two years at his current job. I don't think the CO really was able to consider any other factors like whether I was living in France or his job documents. The second time my boyfriend said the interviewer seemed nice but said he couldn't approve the visa after asking questions about his US girlfriend and didn't look at any of the documents provided. 

 

I've tried to be honest this entire process cause I know lying is worse but it is frustrating because it feels like we are being punished for telling the truth. Some of my family are coming to visit me this year but not all of them as it would be very expensive. It also just sucks for the long distance aspect of when I have to go back... 

[Juli. 18]

I got it and I understand you. All Visa process are complicated and a lot of time makes no sense!!

 

Maybe some of the people who have more experience here in the VJ will answer you with some good tips.

 

 

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

12 minutes ago, Paf94 said:

 

I've tried to be honest this entire process cause I know lying is worse but it is frustrating because it feels like we are being punished for telling the truth. Some of my family are coming to visit me this year but not all of them as it would be very expensive. It also just sucks for the long distance aspect of when I have to go back... 

You’re being punished for the precedent set by other people, unfortunately, not for “telling the truth”. 

By the way, just having esta/VWP is not a guarantee of anything either. We’ve seen a number of reports here involving people on VWP going to visit romantic interests in the US being denied entry. At least he gets to save airfare costs by finding out beforehand...

 

 

 

[Boiler 45,913]

First time I have seen someone who went to a travel ban country have an issue getting a B, mind you I think all the ones I have come across were Governmental/Charity type visits, not somewhere you go to lay on the beach.

[geowrian 22,338]

Only option for visiting here is a tourist visa. There is nothing special for spouses, parents, etc.

K-1 wouldn’t apply here either as you would be signing documents that you intend to marry within 90 days of entry, which doesn’t appear to be the intention here.

 

Unfortunately, he’s just in a tough position due to being ineligible for an ESTA from a VWP country. He now has to go through the same types of scrutiny that other countries go through, which is a tough bar to overcome when dating a USC.

[Paf94 0]

2 hours ago, Boiler said:

First time I have seen someone who went to a travel ban country have an issue getting a B, mind you I think all the ones I have come across were Governmental/Charity type visits, not somewhere you go to lay on the beach.

Well my boyfriend read a blog of someone who did the same thing as him and had no trouble with getting a visa, but it was older. And the person in question was probably just lucky and also probably older and with a better job. But this blog post said that it's easy and the visa process is "just a formality" where you have to pay up more. Of course this is SO wrong and I think he really wasted his first try by not taking it seriously enough. 

 

Although I do wonder if there's a general decline in visa issuance overall with the way our administration is handling things. I know for immigrant visas this is the case but not about non-immigrant visas. 

[Paf94 0]

2 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

You’re being punished for the precedent set by other people, unfortunately, not for “telling the truth”. 

By the way, just having esta/VWP is not a guarantee of anything either. We’ve seen a number of reports here involving people on VWP going to visit romantic interests in the US being denied entry. At least he gets to save airfare costs by finding out beforehand...

 

 

 

Yes I feel like if we did actually get a visa then I would be just be stressing over the airport arrival. It's crazy cause the US is really one of the only countries that regular denies border entry to people it approves visas for. 

 

I understand that it's strict because people break the rules, but at the same type our system is incredibly slow and being together with a spouse or family is pretty important. To sponsor a spouse (not the k1 but to sponsor their residency) it takes like a year doesn't it? A year of just waiting in your country without getting to live with your spouse. And then k1 still takes time and it doesn't make sense for the sponsoree since they won't be able to work nor leave the country for a while once they arrive. So I don't blame someone who lied because they didn't want to spend a year waiting to see their loved on, I'm blaming our system for being inadequate. 

 

Out of curiosity, I checked to see how long it would take for me to do the same thing in France if I got married. TWO WEEKS. 

[debbiedoo 2,339]

if youre planning on moving to france anyways, just wait.

 

yes it sucks. but he wont come here on a tourist waiver, not with that trip to Iran. fair or not, the way things are is the way things are. If you were planning on staying here, and him moving here, you could apply for the k1 or a cr1, if you got married.

 

Until you move, it looks like youre in a long distance relationship. You will have to go to him, or meet in a 3rd country somewhere to visit. perhaps canada or mexico (or pick any of hundreds of others)