Travelling to USA while I-130 Pending? Family emergency

[pingpong32 0]

Hi,

 

I was wondering if there would be any issues visiting the states while our I-130 is pending. Something terrible has happened to my wife and she is in the hospital recovering. I was asked to go support her for a while during her recovery. I am from Finland and no visa is needed in general to travel to USA, just the ESTA.

 

How likely is it that they will send me back at the border upon arrival? I have quite strong ties to my home country, I have good paying job, renting an apartment, car, motorcycle etc.

 

 

Thanks for replies in advance.

Edited February 21, 2020 by pingpong32

[Crazy Cat 42,215]

You can visit.  Just be prepared to show evidence of the things you mentioned.  Every entry is at the discretion of CBP...Good luck. 

[vincentlina 74]

19 minutes ago, pingpong32 said:

Hi,

 

I was wondering if there would be any issues visiting the states while our I-130 is pending. Something terrible has happened to my wife and she is in the hospital recovering. I was asked to go support her for a while during her recovery. I am from Finland and no visa is needed in general to travel to USA, just the ESTA.

 

How likely is it that they will send me back at the border upon arrival? I have quite strong ties to my home country, I have good paying job, renting an apartment, car, motorcycle etc.

 

 

Thanks for replies in advance.

You can visit as often as you like. Having an I-130 application does not preclude one from visiting.

[Crazy Cat 42,215]

5 minutes ago, vincentlina said:

You can visit as often as you like. Having an I-130 application does not preclude one from visiting.

Every entry is entirely at the discretion of CBP......and one should be prepared to convince the CBP that he/she will return to home country after the visit. "as often as you like" is a pretty broad statement.

Edited February 21, 2020 by missileman

[vincentlina 74]

6 minutes ago, missileman said:

Every entry is entirely at the discretion of CBP......and one should be prepared to convince the CBP that he/she will return to home country after the visit. "as often as you like" is a pretty broad statement.

It is, but if the CBP denied your entry, then common-sense would pretty much dictate that you have issues preventing you from entry (or further entry). The point I wanted to get across is that legally there really is nothing stopping him from making plans to visit the US (his family).

[Boiler 46,034]

We have a mega thread about people visiting whilst the application is in process, very few have issues and those that do tend to be for obvious reasons.

[Crazy Cat 42,215]

2 minutes ago, vincentlina said:

It is, but if the CBP denied your entry, then common-sense would pretty much dictate that you have issues preventing you from entry (or further entry). The point I wanted to get across is that legally there really is nothing stopping him from making plans to visit the US (his family).

My point is that I have seen people denied for visiting "too often"......rare, but possible.  I doubt the OP will have any issues based on his post.

[vincentlina 74]

1 minute ago, missileman said:

My point is that I have seen people denied for visiting "too often"......rare, but possible.  I doubt the OP will have any issues based on his post.

Yeah, he's from Finland...remember, Trump loves visitors/immigrants from these countries.

[Crazy Cat 42,215]

Just now, vincentlina said:

Yeah, he's from Finland...remember, Trump loves visitors/immigrants from these countries.

At least one case I recall was a visitor from Canada.........Trump is irrelevant to this subject.

[vincentlina 74]

4 minutes ago, missileman said:

At least one case I recall was a visitor from Canada.........Trump is irrelevant to this subject.

It was sarcasm!

[Crazy Cat 42,215]

Just now, vincentlina said:

It was sarcasm!

I see......🙂

 

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

21 minutes ago, vincentlina said:

legally there really is nothing stopping him from making plans to visit the US (

That sentence doesn’t really say anything. Legally nothing can stop anyone from “making plans” about anything, really. Of course he can plan to visit, and is allowed to visit, but he does not have a right to legally demand entry. Entry is always at the discretion of CBP, if they suspect he will misuse his ESTA they can deny him. If you do a search here for something along the lines of denied entry esta/VWP, you will find plenty of results. Hence the advice about brining evidence of his ties home, for this trip.

Edited February 21, 2020 by SusieQQQ

[pingpong32 0]

7 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

That sentence doesn’t really say anything. Legally nothing can stop anyone from “making plans” about anything, really. Of course he can plan to visit, and is allowed to visit, but he does not have a right to legally demand entry. Entry is always at the discretion of CBP, if they suspect he will misuse his ESTA they can deny him. If you do a search here for something along the lines of denied entry esta/VWP, you will find plenty of results. Hence the advice about brining evidence of his ties home, for this trip.

 

Thanks for the replies. I will do some more research and check the threads here. I will ask employer to also write a statement that I am expected back at work at some point.

[vincentlina 74]

Just now, SusieQQQ said:

That sentence doesn’t really say anything. Legally nothing can stop anyone from “making plans” about anything, really.

 

Entry is always at the discretion of CBP, if they suspect he will misuse his ESTA they can deny him. If you do a search here for something along the lines of denied entry esta/VWP, you will find plenty of results. Hence the advice about brining evidence of his ties home, for this trip.

That's not entirely true. Although I can concede that with immigration, it's probably best to err on the side of caution. However, "legally" in this case simply means he is "sound" in terms of being from a country that is apart of the visa waiver program which "permits" travel to the US (via ESTA) once you meet CPB inspection criteria. As an example, someone who is "not" legally sound to travel to the US are citizens from Iran for example.

[JFH 12,191]

5 hours ago, vincentlina said:

Yeah, he's from Finland...remember, Trump loves visitors/immigrants from these countries.

Recently I’ve seen 2 British VWP visitors being turned away for “visiting too often”.