'not know anyone' on Tourist visa, now doing K1, and an arrest record

[Mike_bike 0]

My Thai girlfriend had applied a year ago for a Tourist visa, with plans to see Disneyland, San Francisco, etc (and me), but marked on the DS-160 that she didn't know anyone in the US.

In the interview, they asked if she had a sponsor, she said 'no'.  She was denied.  Since then, we applied for a K1, and are at the stage where sends-in packet 3.  The K1 application shows that we knew each other at the time of the Tourist DS-160 application.

Is that going to be big deal with the Immigration officer?  Anyone here that went through the same thing?  Is it reasonable to say that she was given bad advice, that she really did want to see several places in the US (she had a trip itinerary)?

 

Next question:  Several years ago she had been arrested in another country, Malaysia, in a 'shake-down-foreigners for money', on suspicion of being on drugs.  We have the court and police records certified by the embassy that she was not guilty and discharged.  It took about 6 or 7 months for officials there to find any records.  In the Tourist visa, she had said she had never been arrested.

If we mark 'yes' for the K1 visa DS-160 for an arrest record and include the court judgement, but was 'no' on the Tourist visa, what happens?  Would Immigration automatically put her file to the side and delay and reject it and I'd have to submit a waiver?  Am I making a big concern out of something that is ok to an Immigration officer?   How would Immigration even know, since it took us 6 months to find any records ourselves?  Every agency files every arrest record with Interpol?

 

Her old passport at that time showed her being in Malaysia for over 6 months, so that would look bad I suppose without the arrest record and story above?  How would losing an old passport look to an Immigration officer?  Are they going to bother to investigate all the countries immigration offices to see where you have been?

 

I appreciate anyone's advice (hopefully based on experience)

 

 

 

 

[Crazy Cat 42,683]

Let me put it like this:  Consulate Officers have been known to discover previous lies on tourist visa applications.  Consulate Officers have also been known to discover arrests in past.  It is what it is.......all your fiance can do is answer all questions truthfully.....good luck.

[JonSeattle 202]

The more lies you have to make along the way, the more you will be worrying about when something is going to go wrong, and it will. Lying to federal officials is not going to end well for you. While immigration might not find out about the inquiries you made to the government of Malaysia, other people do know, and you never know when one of them is going to run into a financial problem that they want you to solve for them. That's the part I have experience with, when someone I know hid something that was harmless at first, but the secret grew worse over time. Eventually I found out about it when other people tried to cash in on it.

Edited March 2, 2020 by JonSeattle
typo

[JFH 12,191]

How will they know? Well, the very fact she was there for more than 6 months after the age of 16 means she will need a Malaysian police certificate for the interview. Presumably the certificate will last the arrest.