Fiancee flying in alone, immigration at which stop?

[madmanmike 196]

My fiancee will be getting her K1 next month, the interview is on the 12th. My question is regarding her flight over here after the completion of the interview.

She will be flying here alone, from Bangkok, ultimately to Vegas. I am wondering about where she will have to go thru immigration. If the flight stops in LA, and then she transfers to a flight to Vegas, which stop will have her 'welcomed' to america?

If not until Vegas, I will just meet here here, but if she has to go thru the process in LA, I will probably fly there and meet up with her there, in case there are issues, and then fly us both back to vegas.

Comments? Suggestions?

Thanks,

Michael

[bora bora 1]

My fiancee will be getting her K1 next month, the interview is on the 12th. My question is regarding her flight over here after the completion of the interview.

She will be flying here alone, from Bangkok, ultimately to Vegas. I am wondering about where she will have to go thru immigration. If the flight stops in LA, and then she transfers to a flight to Vegas, which stop will have her 'welcomed' to america?

If not until Vegas, I will just meet here here, but if she has to go thru the process in LA, I will probably fly there and meet up with her there, in case there are issues, and then fly us both back to vegas.

Comments? Suggestions?

Thanks,

Michael

Her POE will be LA if that is where she passes through immigration (which I believe she will). Make sure that her layover there is long enough that if she is delayed by immigration she will still have time to catch her next flight to Vegas.

[Dan J 277]

She will go through immigration at the first airport entering the US. So that will be LAX if her flight goes through LAX.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Generally (with a few exceptions***), the first point where the traveller lands in the US.

***Exceptions List

• If the flight goes through Dublin or Shannon (both in Ireland), there are immigration-only PFI's there where the visa will be activated; customs must be cleared upon landing in US.
  
• If the flight goes through one of Canada's eight PFI's (caution, as Canada is not set up for transit passengers, and the traveller will need to clear Canadian Immigration/Customs to be able to proceed to the US PFI), both Immigration and Customs are cleared at the PFI--and the traveller can then land at home "scot-free"
  

Edited June 18, 2007 by CherryXS

[shawnloveskat 0]

Just a little extra info. My wife flew in to Vegas from LAX (her POE) and they did not stamp the I-94 correctly. They could not read the number of the immigration officer who stamped it. I got a random phone call stating that I needed to go to the airport to get it re-stamped. After figuring out they weren’t calling from LAX I went to the airport, and not only did they Re-stamp the I-94 they also put "Employment Authorized". I guess that it is a really random occurrence to get it stamped "Employment Authorized" so you might want to call LAS immigrations and see if they can help you out.

[madmanmike 196]

Wow, great information everyone, thanks a lot! I guess I am going to LA next month. Ugh. At least it is for a happy reason!

Another, smaller detail. I am hoping I can buy a one way ticket for her? I know when I visited Thailand, I had to have a round trip to show I was planning on leaving, but that is not the case here, as she is staying. So, I can save a few bucks by getting a one way?

Thanks again to everyone, I wish I had found this site LONG ago.

Michael

[Kang Lang 7]

michael,

congrats on getting your interview. tickets are pretty dang expensive right now. one way tickets i was looking at on the way back for my bf were pretty close to 1k so you save but gosh not very much. something to consider (what i did) was to use my miles and gamble on approval. so if not it will only cost me $140 to get my miles back if it does not work out.

GOOD LUCK!

Lin

[lucyrich 20]

Wow, great information everyone, thanks a lot! I guess I am going to LA next month. Ugh. At least it is for a happy reason!

Another, smaller detail. I am hoping I can buy a one way ticket for her? I know when I visited Thailand, I had to have a round trip to show I was planning on leaving, but that is not the case here, as she is staying. So, I can save a few bucks by getting a one way?

Thanks again to everyone, I wish I had found this site LONG ago.

Michael

You can buy whatever ticket is cheapest for her, one way or round trip. Immigration won't care. They know she's coming to stay, so there's no need to show a return ticket.

Note that she'll have to go entirely through the immigration process before you can meet her in LA. So while it may be a nice gesture to fly there, and once you do meet up, you'll be able to help her find her connecting flight, you won't be able to help get through the line and be admitted into the US.

If you want to help her enter the US, then you'd have to fly outside the US (to Thailand, presumably) and then the two of you could enter the US on the same flight.

OTOH, after the whole process involved in getting the visa, the immigration process at the port of entry is normally an anticlimax. She just needs to show her passport/visa and the mysterious brown envelope. They don't normally re-question the validity of the relationship or things like that.