What should I say for my wife's intended duration of stay for a tourist visa?

[ohcharles 3]

I would like for my wife to apply for a Tourist visa while we wait for our i-130 form gets processed. She is from Pakistan. I would like her to stay as long as possible. She's unemployed but is a recent graduate. She doesn't own any property in Pakistan(where she's from). I have a good job and would provide for her while she's here. I would like her to stay the maximum amount of time. I am worried about the CBP officer and them denying her entry because of the length of time I'd request to stay. We are fine with her leaving when the VISA is up, but I'd like to maximize time staying with her while we wait for the i-130. Should I just do 6 months or is that even a stretch?

Edited May 18, 2021 by ohcharles

[Ontarkie 14,221]

~~Moved to Tourist Visas, from Bringing Family of UCS. - The question is about visiting.~~

[aaron2020 11,651]

The US Embassy is unlikely to grant her a visitor visa.  They will not believe that she is going on vacation.  They will view this as her attempting to come live with you for 6 months.  

[SalishSea 17,829]

7 minutes ago, ohcharles said:

I would like for my wife to apply for a Tourist visa while we wait for our i-130 form gets processed. She is from Pakistan. I would like her to stay as long as possible. She's unemployed but is a recent graduate. She doesn't own any property in Pakistan(where she's from). I have a good job and would provide for her while she's here. I would like her to stay the maximum amount of time. I am worried about the CBP officer and them denying her entry because of the length of time I'd request to stay. We are fine with her leaving when the VISA is up, but I'd like to maximize time staying with her while we wait for the i-130. Should I just do 6 months or is that even a stretch?  That's not how that works.

What do you mean what should you say?   Even in Pakistan, women must apply for a B visa on their own merits/ties to home.  You have nothing to do with it.  Providing for her if she travels to the US has nothing to do with it.

 

If she doesn't even have a B visa yet, you worrying about what to say to CBP is premature.

 

[Boiler 45,493]

You have no involvement, her application.

[ohcharles 3]

I am pretty sure I can prepare the application for her. She just needs to sign it. It's a simple question. Is there a number of months that'll automatically disqualify her for a B2 Visa?

[Boiler 45,493]

No

3 minutes ago, ohcharles said:

I am pretty sure I can prepare the application for her. She just needs to sign it. It's a simple question. Is there a number of months that'll automatically disqualify her for a B2 Visa?

 

[mushroomspore 3,044]

18 minutes ago, ohcharles said:

I am pretty sure I can prepare the application for her. She just needs to sign it. It's a simple question. Is there a number of months that'll automatically disqualify her for a B2 Visa?

No, but keep in mind that there's no way to know for sure how long she will be allowed to stay until she gets to CBP at the airport. They decide whether or not to let her in and how long to let her stay. Sounds unlikely she'll get the visa, tbh.

[Chancy 6,241]

1 hour ago, ohcharles said:

I am worried about the CBP officer and them denying her entry because of the length of time I'd request to stay. We are fine with her leaving when the VISA is up, but I'd like to maximize time staying with her while we wait for the i-130. Should I just do 6 months or is that even a stretch?

 

Because your wife does not have a tourist visa yet, what CBP will ask is irrelevant at this point.  Only the consul officer's assessment will matter for the tourist visa application.  On the DS-160 application form, whatever is entered in the section for travel plans will not matter much to the CO because they know that plans can change.  So there is no recommended travel duration that improves the chance of approval.

 

Note also that whatever is listed in the DS-160 travel plans will have no bearing on what CBP will decide later on at the point of entry, if your wife does get a tourist visa.  If the CBP officer wants to check any document related to the traveler's intended duration of stay, they will ask to see the flight ticket.

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Chancy
clarification

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

Look at it a different way. COs are oh so used to people saying they’ll stay for 3 weeks when they want to stay for months. And they’re trained to read people. If you purposely misrepresent the intended length of stay on her application and they start asking her about it, it’s going to look like she lied to try get a visa under false pretenses. No way they’ll issue her a visa then. Be truthful.

If you ask me, the bigger issue is not how long you list the visit for (as another pointed out above this can always change), it’s the fact that she (1) has a husband in the US and (2) obviously does not have any big ties to Pakistan (if she can be out the country for 6 months). 1 + 2 very likely = no visa regardless the length of time you put.

[ohcharles 3]

1 minute ago, Chancy said:

 

Because your wife does not have a tourist visa yet, what CBP will ask is irrelevant at this point.  Only the consul officer's assessment will matter for the tourist visa application.  On the DS-160 application form, whatever is entered in the section for travel plans will not matter much to the CO because they know that plans can change.  So there is no recommended travel duration that improves the chance of approval.

 

Note also that whatever is listed in the DS-160 travel plans section will have no bearing on what CBP will decide at POE if your wife does get a tourist visa.  If the CBP officer wants to check any document related to the traveler's intended duration of stay, they will ask to see the flight ticket.

 

Great. Thank you very much for your detailed answer.

 

Thank you for that note about the travel plans.

 

So The CBP will make the call at POE. I see on a lot of websites that we should provide evidence that she won't stay here past her visa. We would love for her to stay here forever of course, but we aren't going to break the law. We want everything to go smoothly with the i-130. But it would be nice to know what we could do to prevent her from being denied. I've read that it's good to show her social life being tied to her home country. Would her not being employed or owning property be a confounding factor in her denial by the CBP? She just graduated a few months ago. But she doesn't plan to get a job. She has considered doing her masters in Pakistan to take time. But Her entire social life is in Pakistan. She has never left the country, and all of her friends and family live there. I imagine that would help her case. I guess what I am asking is what we could prepare to help solidify her case to get pass CBP.

[ohcharles 3]

Just now, SusieQQQ said:

Look at it a different way. COs are oh so used to people saying they’ll stay for 3 weeks when they want to stay for months. And they’re trained to read people. If you purposely misrepresent the intended length of stay on her application and they start asking her about it, it’s going to look like she lied to try get a visa under false pretenses. No way they’ll issue her a visa then. Be truthful.

If you ask me, the bigger issue is not how long you list the visit for (as another pointed out above this can always change), it’s the fact that she (1) has a husband in the US and (2) obviously does not have any big ties to Pakistan (if she can be out the country for 6 months). 1 + 2 very likely = no visa regardless the length of time you put.

Yeah that is a good point you bring up about 2. I mean she will be homesick of course, but yeah she has no legal or financial ties to the country. It is her home, but she also really wants to be with me. 

[Letspaintcookies 2,310]

You're in a process to make her permanently move away from her social life. How should it help on her tourist visa application that all her family and friends are there and that's the reason why she'll come back after her allowed tourist stay is up if she's already showing intent to leave them behind for good? 

 

She has all the red flags even if y'all want to do it right. The least would be to be already enrolled in the master program you're talking about. 

[ohcharles 3]

8 minutes ago, Letspaintcookies said:

You're in a process to make her permanently move away from her social life. How should it help on her tourist visa application that all her family and friends are there and that's the reason why she'll come back after her allowed tourist stay is up if she's already showing intent to leave them behind for good? 

 

She has all the red flags even if y'all want to do it right. The least would be to be already enrolled in the master program you're talking about. 

What do you mean do it right? How else would I want to do it? I am not intending to skirt around anything. I just want to be with my wife. Like I am sure a lot of people who are going through this process. If the tourist visa isn't the right way to go about it, I'll go about it in a different way.

Edited May 18, 2021 by ohcharles

[ohcharles 3]

2 hours ago, aaron2020 said:

The US Embassy is unlikely to grant her a visitor visa.  They will not believe that she is going on vacation.  They will view this as her attempting to come live with you for 6 months.  

What if I just have her come visit for a month at a time, go back to pakistan and come back after two months? (Flight is brutal). And just keep that going until i-130 is done?

Edited May 18, 2021 by ohcharles