Travelling on tourist visa whilst waiting for I-130

[SalishSea 17,818]

Just now, Alexandra Delgado said:

Yes I know, but I don’t have other options because I don’t have enough leave and also I can’t suspend my active duty.

Okay, well in that case I think you will have a much harder time getting a B visa.

[umith 2]

Here is my wife's experience:

 

Immigration at Washington IAD with B2, pending I130, India that happened last week.

 

Questions:

1. What's the purpose of your visit (visiting my husband with my in-laws and traveling to different states, my in-laws have return tickets and they will be flying back in July)

2. Is your wife a LPR or USC ( He is a USC)

2. How long will you be staying (provided return tickets and date in the last week of Oct, also showed my(USC husband) return ticket as we'll be flying back together to India for a short trip (only I'm coming back)

3. Where does your husband live ( location/etc)

4. What does your husband do for a living (Job type, etc)

5. Fingerprints and enjoy your trip.

 

My wife got the automatic 6months. 

 

Some points:

1. She did travel with my in-laws/brother, they are

 USC and also temporarily visiting. I am in the US and didn't travel with her, I'm planning to travel back with her in Nov.

2. We prepared all documents before hand incase they were suspicious, small business registration , property docs, NOA1 receipt, marriage cert.

3. She has no real ties to home country unfortunately, like no rent, lives with parents etc. Her small clothing business and Property document was gonna be out Trump card incase she went to secondary, and she had a good $6-7k in the bank which she was gonna use anyways for our trips around the US.

4. She will not be coming back to the US for a very long time as she has to take care of her business and restart operations again.

5. Didn't volunteer any information other than what the officer asked. He never asked about our greencard application, so my wife never mentioned it. I had a call with my wife previously and we practiced questions and what can we expect.

6. Also my Wife got her B2 back in 2016, so it was still valid.

7. Due to unforeseen circumstances, she didn't travel in 2016 to the US. This 2023 trip was her first time ever traveling or the US, and to any foreign country too.

 

 

 

I think my wife got lucky, probably the Officer saw my mom and brother USC and gave him confidence that she's telling the truth maybe, or that she won't do anything bad? Again, speculation. NGL, my wife and I were tensed for at least 1-2months before her trip. We weren't sure what was gonna happen :(. I'm glad things worked out. Now I'll have more proof of bonafide marriage incase we receive an RFE!

 

But again, my wife won't be doing anything illegal (work/overstay) , don't want to affect future travels or complicate our i130 process In any way.

 

Good luck to anyone else who is trying!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 18, 2023 by umith

[Alexandra Ale 0]

On 5/18/2023 at 3:37 PM, umith said:

Here is my wife's experience:

 

Immigration at Washington IAD with B2, pending I130, India that happened last week.

 

Questions:

1. What's the purpose of your visit (visiting my husband with my in-laws and traveling to different states, my in-laws have return tickets and they will be flying back in July)

2. Is your wife a LPR or USC ( He is a USC)

2. How long will you be staying (provided return tickets and date in the last week of Oct, also showed my(USC husband) return ticket as we'll be flying back together to India for a short trip (only I'm coming back)

3. Where does your husband live ( location/etc)

4. What does your husband do for a living (Job type, etc)

5. Fingerprints and enjoy your trip.

 

My wife got the automatic 6months. 

 

Some points:

1. She did travel with my in-laws/brother, they are

 USC and also temporarily visiting. I am in the US and didn't travel with her, I'm planning to travel back with her in Nov.

2. We prepared all documents before hand incase they were suspicious, small business registration , property docs, NOA1 receipt, marriage cert.

3. She has no real ties to home country unfortunately, like no rent, lives with parents etc. Her small clothing business and Property document was gonna be out Trump card incase she went to secondary, and she had a good $6-7k in the bank which she was gonna use anyways for our trips around the US.

4. She will not be coming back to the US for a very long time as she has to take care of her business and restart operations again.

5. Didn't volunteer any information other than what the officer asked. He never asked about our greencard application, so my wife never mentioned it. I had a call with my wife previously and we practiced questions and what can we expect.

6. Also my Wife got her B2 back in 2016, so it was still valid.

7. Due to unforeseen circumstances, she didn't travel in 2016 to the US. This 2023 trip was her first time ever traveling or the US, and to any foreign country too.

 

 

 

I think my wife got lucky, probably the Officer saw my mom and brother USC and gave him confidence that she's telling the truth maybe, or that she won't do anything bad? Again, speculation. NGL, my wife and I were tensed for at least 1-2months before her trip. We weren't sure what was gonna happen :(. I'm glad things worked out. Now I'll have more proof of bonafide marriage incase we receive an RFE!

 

But again, my wife won't be doing anything illegal (work/overstay) , don't want to affect future travels or complicate our i130 process In any way.

 

Good luck to anyone else who is trying!

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you very much for your reply! It gives us a little bit of hope, happy to hear good experiences!

[Forward23 1]

My wife has traveled at least 8 or 9 times to the US since we have been waiting on our i-130.  They hardly ask any questions.  I do think the extended history of short stays plays into our favor though 

[millefleur 5,046]

**One hijack post removed. Please start your own thread if you have your own question.**

 

VJ Moderation

Edited July 8, 2023 by millefleur

[rubym2020 24]

Hi all! Does anyone have any experience with applying for an ESTA while waiting on an I-130? 

 

 We want to do a visit in the next few months while putting our NVC documents together. I also need to pick up our marriage certificate for my eventual interview. Any experiences from anyone? 

 

Thanks!

[BLC 112]

4 hours ago, rubym2020 said:

Hi all! Does anyone have any experience with applying for an ESTA while waiting on an I-130? 

 

 We want to do a visit in the next few months while putting our NVC documents together. I also need to pick up our marriage certificate for my eventual interview. Any experiences from anyone? 

 

Thanks!

Yes. No issues at all with getting the ESTA approved. 

[AJ19962346 12]

Hi everyone 

I am planning to visit my husband in Texas with pending i130,  i already have a visitor visa for USA. 

Is there anyone who travelled to USA recently from Toronto Pearson and what all questions they asked ? 

 

[EstambulPR 16]

On 6/30/2022 at 6:52 PM, intothelight2021 said:

Do you normally go through together or separately?

 

We always go as a family and use the non-citizen line. Granted, we also have small children so we prefer to go together. We have not yet travelled to the US since we submitted the I-130 but I think we would still go together, using the non-citizens line.

 

The reasoning: some border officers may find it funny (i.e. question your partnership) if you go separately. Having the US citizen right there may alleviate some of their concerns and would also allow the border officers to ask him/her questions, should they have any. It would also allow your US citizen partner to corroborate your statements. I do not really see any downside to this approach (but maybe I have a blind spot there, if so, let me know lol).

 

The reason we use the non-citizen line is that some border officers do no appreciate if non-citizens are in the line for citizens (since they technically should not be there), even if they are part of the family. We have experienced that and were also told the same by one or two officers. Yes, it will probably be a longer wait but it may be worth it. Some border officers in the past were appreciative that we chose the non-citizen line "even if you did not have to".

 

Just my two cents.

  

Kind of late reply but your comment is excellent.  I can tell you the agents in the field appreciate the consideration and respect. 

[DrBiologist 0]

Hello, does anyone have experience with going to usa as student or lab programs while green card through marriage is pending?

[fusion58 0]

My wife has held a B-2 visa for the past eight years and has made numerous visits to the U.S. during that period. We also have an I-130 application in process. My question: What happens if my wife is in the U.S. on a visit if/when the I-130 is approved? Would she have to make an extra round trip to her home country to take possession of the sealed envelope w/  documents and return through U.S. immigration with it? 

[Chancy 6,241]

2 hours ago, fusion58 said:

What happens if my wife is in the U.S. on a visit if/when the I-130 is approved? Would she have to make an extra round trip to her home country to take possession of the sealed envelope w/  documents and return through U.S. immigration with it?

 

I-130 approval is only the first part of the process.  Next is NVC document submission and review, then consulate processing including visa medical and interview.  Consulate interview can only be conducted outside the US.  Check the official DOS visa process flow to familiarize yourself with the next steps -- https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-1-submit-a-petition.html

 

Please start a new thread if you have further questions on the visa process.  This thread is only about US travel on ESTA/B visa.

 

[garebear397 69]

Adding our experiences (because reading all your alls good experiences really helped our nerves!): 

 

- My wife is Chilean, we all live in Chile 

- She used to be a GC holder through our marriage, but we moved to chile about 4 years ago, and now are in process to move back to the US 

- She applied for and got a 10 year B2 visa last december, she had overstayed by a couple weeks on accident as a teenager, so that is why she couldnt use ESTA and had to apply for a B2 visa. We had not applied for the I-130 at that time, but she did have "risks" of being married to a US citizen and having 2 US citizen kids. But there was no issue with the approval of her B2 visa. 

- We all entered the US in April through JFK (before applying for the I-130): the CBP officer was a very harsh with us becase we all went to the US citizen line (because we asked and they told us to), but she said my wife wasn't a citizen and shouldn't be in this line so she chewed us out a bit. My wife was then called to the back room and another officer was super chill and just asked her about the ESTA thing and her old green card, and then let her pass through without problems. 

- We visited the US again just now in October through LAX (after applying for I-130), we were going to go to the visitors line as a family to not repeat the problem, but they saw us and said again we should go to the US citizens line as a family. This time the officer was very nice and only asked if she was a GC holder or not, and how long our stay was. Took our pictures and passed us through. Didn't mention anything about I-130, old GC, or ESTA issue.

 

I do think each additional visit she makes and comes back to Chile will make it easier and easier for the CBP to pass her through. So we were very happy with the last visit! 

[SummerRoses 6]

On 8/13/2023 at 2:34 AM, Jasmine John said:

Hi everyone 

I am planning to visit my husband in Texas with pending i130,  i already have a visitor visa for USA. 

Is there anyone who travelled to USA recently from Toronto Pearson and what all questions they asked ? 

 

My mom came for a visit for almost two months from Toronto Pearson June this year and no questions asked. Her I-130 just got approved last month. She came to visit me twice while her I-130 was pending. 

[RedAndSharpe 0]

Hi everyone, I was referred to this forum by a friend who suggested I ask this question here. I hope I'm posting it in the right place.

 

Background:

I (Philippine citizen) have been living and working in the UAE for over 10 years, and my USC husband has been here for 6 years. We've been together for 4 years and married for 7 months. I had applied for a B2 visa back in September 2022 with the intent to meet my then-boyfriend's (now husband's) family in the USA. However, because of the very long queue of applicants in the UAE, the earliest we could schedule the interview appointment was November 2023, over a year away.

Instead of waiting until after we visited the USA, we got engaged last December and married this past April here in the UAE, with both our families in attendance. We decided not to cancel the B2 visa application because we'd still like to be able to visit his family. We have no intention of leaving the UAE to live in the USA yet as my husband has a job here for the next couple of years, but as we realize the process will take a long time we decided to start. We have since begun looking into the I-130 process (through Boundless) and we are expecting to receive the application package for USCIS sometime this week.

 

Situation:

I went to my B2 visa interview at the US consulate today and I was approved for 10-year multiple entry. We would like to visit my husband's family for a few weeks in spring 2024, but by that time we would have already filed our I-130 application. Would I be allowed to enter the USA on my B2 visa after submitting the I-130? And if I do enter the US on a B2 visa, how would that affect the immigration process? I hope someone can help us with this. Thanks in advance!

Edited November 13, 2023 by RedAndSharpe
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