Fiancée threatened with deportation by customs agent after arriving at airport for false accusations. How concerned should we be?

[Gary Rich 292]

 Discretion of CBP. They are the judge and jury. One time( I visited my fiancee now wife.) and when I returned to the States and was entering customs.. they questioned my whereabouts. and I'm a U.S. citizen 

[aerokkaido 3]

2 hours ago, Rocio0010 said:

Not needed. What they need to do is to actually get very acquainted with the process themselves. Nothing an attorney can do that you can't.

 

Not really. Why do you say this? If she has a visa she can enter, as long as she leaves on time and answers questions truthfully.

 

Also not true.

To be clear, I did talk to an immigration attorney and since she was let in, this does not affect the K-1 visa. Only denial of entry or denial of visa will affect the K-1 visa. 

Therefore we are doing what most people and the attorney suggested and waiting until she gets the K-1 visa to visit in the USA; or in the scenario where the K-1 visa is not processed within a year, we will compile a ton of documentation to prove her ties to Ecuador (lease, transcripts, bank statements, etc) and make a brief visit. Therefore we are waiting twice as long as our cumulative time together this year. But ideally, we will wait until the K1 is approved.

Theres a lot of misinformation on this thread, so if anyone reads this in the future I highly recommend getting a free consultation with an attorney. If you are poor, you can use free services like the Catholic church's immigration office or the volunteer legal association, 

Edited February 13 by aerokkaido

[aerokkaido 3]

23 hours ago, Rocio0010 said:

That's the key word in all your narrative. B1/B2 visas are NOT meant to live in the US. And CBP knows that. Just because the visa has a six month validity it does not mean she's entitled to stay the full six months. CBP does not own her anything, and any entrance until you're a resident is at their won discretion. So, whether you like it or not, don't push them because they will deny her entry next time, and that will result in a bar. Go to Ecuador or meet somewhere else until she gets the K1. Keep those encounters to a minimum.

This experience has led to me believing that there should be better defined rules on the B2 visa. It's not very clear to anyone what exactly is "living" vs "visiting" and it's entirely subjective, to us, we believed it was clear that my fiancee was visiting because she would need to go back for college and leases an apartment in Ecuador. To others, that she is sleeping in my apartment constitutes "living" with me. 

I had no idea this was such an important distinction and a mistake we made was not being prepared how to answer CBP about this. Still, the two of us are very organized and plan a lot. The official documentation on the B2 visa is very lacking: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/tourism-visit/visitor.html/visa

Edited February 13 by aerokkaido

[Rachel n Tyler 113]

13 minutes ago, aerokkaido said:

This experience has led to me believing that there should be better defined rules on the B2 visa. It's not very clear to anyone what exactly is "living" vs "visiting" and it's entirely subjective, to us, we believed it was clear that my fiancee was visiting because she would need to go back for college and leases an apartment in Ecuador. To others, that she is sleeping in my apartment constitutes "living" with me. 

I had no idea this was such an important distinction and a mistake we made was not being prepared how to answer CBP about this. Still, the two of us are very organized and plan a lot. The official documentation on the B2 visa is very lacking: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/tourism-visit/visitor.html/visa

This is the case with all visas. One simple misunderstanding or a wrong version of a word and your visa can get denied. In the future, I'd make sure you read up on what can cause a visa to be denied, because I'm sure there's a lot of documentation on examples like 'living'.

But I understand your frustration. I was going to be in the US for 3 months on my ESTA and called it a temporary move to friends too. Would I have said that at the border, they likely wouldn't have let me in. I never did the 3 months as my K1 got accepted before it though, so I  thankfully never had to experience it.

My husband always says that anything to do with the government and immigration is vague, hard to understand and a mess. Welcome to the journey 😞

[Crazy Cat 42,563]

1 hour ago, aerokkaido said:

Theres a lot of misinformation on this thread,

Please elaborate.  

[aerokkaido 3]

1 hour ago, Crazy Cat said:

Please elaborate.  

Main points:

- This has no effect on K1 visa approval or rejection process.
- You are allowed to visit on a B2 visa while you have another visa pending; it may raise suspicion but it's allowed. 
- If she is denied entry in the future, it's not necessarily a ban as others have said. It's up to the officer, in this case the officer would have revoked the B2 visa and sent them back but she would not have been banned from entry if the K1 visa was approved.

Theres also lots of good advice on this thread, I've been looking at the reputation of long term members and taking their advice. I also talked to an attorney to confirm some questions this post raised, such as above. 

[aerokkaido 3]

1 minute ago, aerokkaido said:

Main points:

- This has no effect on K1 visa approval or rejection process.
- You are allowed to visit on a B2 visa while you have another visa pending; it may raise suspicion but it's allowed. 
- If she is denied entry in the future, it's not necessarily a ban as others have said. It's up to the officer, in this case the officer would have revoked the B2 visa and sent them back but she would not have been banned from entry if the K1 visa was approved.

Theres also lots of good advice on this thread, I've been looking at the reputation of long term members and taking their advice. I also talked to an attorney to confirm some questions this post raised, such as above. 

I've been getting a million different answers on what happens if she's denied entry or not. If there's any good resources here that would be great to share with others! I believe it would just be a revoke in her case since she's never done anything illegal (overstayed, worked, etc). 

[Crazy Cat 42,563]

1 hour ago, aerokkaido said:

Main points:

- This has no effect on K1 visa approval or rejection process.
- You are allowed to visit on a B2 visa while you have another visa pending; it may raise suspicion but it's allowed. 
- If she is denied entry in the future, it's not necessarily a ban as others have said. It's up to the officer, in this case the officer would have revoked the B2 visa and sent them back but she would not have been banned from entry if the K1 visa was approved.

Theres also lots of good advice on this thread, I've been looking at the reputation of long term members and taking their advice. I also talked to an attorney to confirm some questions this post raised, such as above. 

 

You are correct in that:

-  Denied entry due to lack of ties to home country would not affect a K-1.  

-  A person can visit the US via a B2 while a K-1 (for example) is pending.  There is a Mega-thread on that very subject here.  In addition, many, many people visit while K-1s and spousal visas are pending.  However, every visit is at the discretion of CBP if they think a person is just trying to bypass the long waits associated with the legal immigration process.

-  Denied entry would not be a guaranteed ban.  However, your GF is already on CBP's radar.  The most troubling aspect is "The agent was aggressive from the start and insinuated that my girlfriend was working illegally".  There are documented cases, here on VJ, in which that exact issue has resulted in expedited removal and an automatic 5 year ban.  CBP needs only suspicion. That would affect any re-entry attempt in the future for 5 years.

-  There is no clear guidance as to what determines abuse of a B2 or what circumstances dictate denial of entry.  Those are purely subjective on the part of CBP officers. 

 

Good luck on rest of the journey.  This is a great place for info and sharing.   Most of us are not licensed to give legal advice, but we sometimes spot bad advice given by those who are.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 13 by Crazy Cat

[TBoneTX 46,288]

14 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

every visit is at the discretion of CBP

OP, others have alluded to the same, but I'll hit you between the eyes with the unvarnished truth:  Even in the case of completely innocent visitors (and returning USCs), CBP agents will often be in a foul mood and be looking to nail somebody.

[Gary Rich 292]

5 minutes ago, TBoneTX said:

OP, others have alluded to the same, but I'll hit you between the eyes with the unvarnished truth:  Even in the case of completely innocent visitors (and returning USCs), CBP agents will often be in a foul mood and be looking to nail somebody.

Did you see my post... CBP.. questioned me upon arrival.. for no reason!

[Rachel n Tyler 113]

1 minute ago, Gary Rich said:

Did you see my post... CBP.. questioned me upon arrival.. for no reason!

Sadly is their job 😞

[TBoneTX 46,288]

16 minutes ago, Gary Rich said:

Did you see my post... CBP.. questioned me upon arrival.. for no reason!

Sometimes they think they see something suspicious.

Sometimes they're in a foul mood.

Sometimes it's a training exercise.

Sometimes it's "every license plate with a 'W' in it" or "every 6th car or deplaned passenger."

But it's crucial to remember that CBP thrives on the truth -- never ever LIE.

[aerokkaido 3]

51 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

 

You are correct in that:

-  Denied entry due to lack of ties to home country would not affect a K-1.  

-  A person can visit the US via a B2 while a K-1 (for example) is pending.  There is a Mega-thread on that very subject here.  In addition, many, many people visit while K-1s and spousal visas are pending.  However, every visit is at the discretion of CBP if they think a person is just trying to bypass the long waits associated with the legal immigration process.

-  Denied entry would not be a guaranteed ban.  However, your GF is already on CBP's radar.  The most troubling aspect is "The agent was aggressive from the start and insinuated that my girlfriend was working illegally".  There are documented cases, here on VJ, in which that exact issue has resulted in expedited removal and an automatic 5 year ban.  CBP needs only suspicion. That would affect any re-entry attempt in the future for 5 years.

-  There is no clear guidance as to what determines abuse of a B2 or what circumstances dictate denial of entry.  Those are purely subjective on the part of CBP officers. 

 

Good luck on rest of the journey.  This is a great place for info and sharing.   Most of us are not licensed to give legal advice, but we sometimes spot bad advice given by those who are.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for this. I assume a source of concern on the CBP's part about working illegally is that they stayed for four months instead of the original 4 weeks they stated. We have totally valid reasons for that delay, and I do understand the suspicion on part of the CBP for this, but I just wish they would actually interview us instead of trying to intimidate us. I guess it's also unusual for a 24 year old like myself and a 21 year old like my fiancee to be as self sufficient as we are (we work extremely hard). I knew this in the back of my head but some of the replies here made it obvious that were more of an outlier then usual. 

If for whatever reason we need to visit in the USA we'll keep the visit short to avoid suspicions of working and have ample proof of their ties in Ecuador (college transcripts, leases, their job is in Ecuador, etc). I was already planning on visiting her in Ecuador anyways before this so I am in a lucky position, or at least as lucky as someone can be when they have to wait a while to live with someone they love.

Thank you and thanks for helping the site, it's been a huge help before I even made an account. People might not believe me but I did actually do a lot of research to try and avoid any issues, there are so many different variables involved that its really hard to cover everything. People keep saying we got lucky, but we had a good understanding of the process around the K-1 visa and this helped us convince the border control agent: "The harder I work, the luckier I get". 

Edited February 13 by aerokkaido

[PGA 261]

16 minutes ago, Gary Rich said:

Did you see my post... CBP.. questioned me upon arrival.. for no reason!

When my wife and I were dating, every single time I travelled to see her (which was a lot), whenever I was on my way back I was always moved into a secondary inspection line for searches and questions. I'm guessing it was more associated with travelling back and forth to Peru. On my very first return trip, I was kindly offered to be examined in Peru through one of those full body scanners (the officers were trying to make it seem like I won some sort of prize), then had a stop in Ecuador and found myself being questioned in the narco office at the airport by a couple of officers, then, when I finally landed in the US, I was put in a secondary line and questioned and searched by CBP.  Anyway, they may be looking for a variety of things, particularly from certain countries. 

 

On another note, I know some of the CBP officers can be mean, believe me I have met a few, but you also need to understand that they see hundreds of people each day, many of whom I am sure are not being completely honest with them which I imagine is pretty frustrating and I am sure they have heard some absolutely crazy stories.  

[TBoneTX 46,288]

2 hours ago, PGA said:

On another note, I know some of the CBP officers can be mean, believe me I have met a few, but you also need to understand that they see hundreds of people each day, many of whom I am sure are not being completely honest with them which I imagine is pretty frustrating and I am sure they have heard some absolutely crazy stories.  

Two separate CBP agents at two different ports have told me, "We see a lot of weird stuff."