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!