DS230 help

[jynxNdragnfly 0]

Ok so I've searched and I've pm'd and nothing as of yet. It's time for me to send off the DS230. The hardest part will be every entry into the US for my lifetime. I've been over there on random, sporadic shopping visits my whole life. For the last 2 + years I've been there every weekend. Sometimes one night during the week. Sometimes for long weekends. Sometimes for a week vacation. I can't recall exact dates.

Anyone else who has filed the DS230 that is also a cross border couple where you've gone over on a very regular basis please shed some light on how you recorded your visits. It would be of much help.

Thanks in advance.

Subtopic should be border..... I know how to spell... really

Edited March 11, 2008 by jynxNdragnfly

[Sprailenes 47]

I just recorded my latest visits. I didn't remember details tbh...I just recorded what I remembered.

[jynxNdragnfly 0]

Define 'latest'. Last year, last 2 years?

[neiks 19]

I put somthing to this effect: "Multiple entries to the US in my lifetime consisting various shopping day trips and vacations ranging from 2 days to 2 weeks. Consecutive time spend in the US never exceeded 3 weeks" I never put any dates down.

There was no way I was ever going to be able to list the number of trips in to the US. I was approved fine with no questions. The people reviewing these applications do have the common sense to realize that some Canadians living in border communities do travel to the US frequently.

[SonoranSongbird 3]

You should be okay if you list any major trips (like if you did a three-week road trip or something) and say something like what Neiks suggests. They are aware that people who live near the border cross it often.

Heh, my fiance is actually a bit concerned that he may appear freakish because he CAN remember all his trips to the US, but then, he is not from a border town.

Side note: my favorite take-out place has a "South of the Boarder" grill on the menu. They still have not corrected themselves.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

I did my best to list the exact dates as far as I could remember. Since I also did historical re-enacting at the time, I spent a significant number of weekends every year at one re-enactment or another, many of them in the States. Remembering the weekends they were held helped me remember when I was there. Also, for a few years I dated an American ( another re-enactor several years before I met my husband), so I know that most weekends that we weren't at re-enactments we spent at his place (he had custody of his children so it was easier for me to travel than him). I also had a few week long holidays in the US. I had to add a full second page of dates as I gave the reasons for the visits as well. I went back to cover my whole adult life. I didn't put childhood visits on.

Edited March 11, 2008 by Kathryn41

[Marilyn. 340]

i just listed the major trips I took and then for the others I put something like, "from such and such a date to the present I have made numerous trips to the US"...

[jynxNdragnfly 0]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I guess I will do a 'half and half' version of specific dates and a generalized statement of sorts.

[samaci 0]

I didn't realize it at the time, but I left that question blank on the form, and at my interview, she wanted me to fill it in. She just told me to fill in the dates of my most recent visits to the US (even if it was just one night), so I did.

[Carlawarla 1]

I ONLY included my visits to the USA while I was involved with my now husband. I didn't put any of the dates that I'd been in the US prior to meeting him. Don't know if that's right or wrong, but that's what I did, and I'm here now and no one ever said anything about it!

[Gypsyangel 11]

On the form, I filled in "numerous" with no other details. I think there's a place on the form where you fill in your two most recent visits, so I filled those in. For the interview, I spent more time than I'd like to admit documenting my almost-100 lifetime visits. I was ready to hand it over, in case they asked. It didn't come up in the interview. So, saying "numerous" seemed to suffice in my case.

[Flames9_RN 358]

I believe I filled in the most recent dates to the USA, as well I included on a separate piece of paper more dates and brief explanation that it was to the best of my memory and signed it!!

[thermophile 0]

we put the dates that he was in the US on a J-1 and any of the longer visits. then the same "numerous visits over the past 40 years" or something like that. basically enough detail to show that we've actually seen each other fairly regularly plus any visit that was likely to be in some CBP database somewhere. It didn't even come up during the pointless 3 minute interview