JayJay2o

I was in a similar situation, on F-1 visa and met a US Citizen in college (love happens). My boyfriend at the time proposed and I said yes, then convinced me to get married in the US immediately before my visa expired. When we got married I immediately filed my I-485 AoS along with I-765 EAD and I-131 AP. While waiting for the GC interview my EAD and AP got approved within a few months so I was able to work and travel while waiting for my AoS interview(my visa has already expired at this time while still waiting for GC). We flew to my home country of Vietnam to get married while waiting for GC to get approved and came back to the US with no problem. During my interview I mentioned that I travelled abroad but this did not cause me any hiccups to get approved for GC in 2018. My timeline from NIV to LPR was 16 months. If you want a third option, this is the one. And if you're going to do this route, don't forget to provide I-864 and fill out G-325A. Also if going this route, it's important to mention that your future Vietnamese spouse shall not travel overseas with expired visa (if expiring before getting GC) until she gets AP. I'm probably forgetting something else as it has been 9 years since I got married so just carefully read all mentioned forms' instructions in their entirety. I hope this helps.

From a very similar experience, I applied for my sister's tourist visa to help us babysit our child once she was born, but my sister was denied a visa. In her DS160, she only had estimated arrival and departure dates (no plane tickets backing up her round trip), I provided our address as her place to stay, and that we planned for her to stay for 4 months. Though she was going to come to the US for the purpose of babysitting our daughter, we believe that the denial did not come from that; rather, it may have come from the fact that we mentioned in her DS160 that my sister would be planning to stay in the US for at least 4 months, not to mention she was also going to stay in our residence. The first and only question that my sister was asked before she was told that she was not granted a visa was "how long are you planning on staying in the US?". To the interviewing officer's judgement, my sister's case was easily a strong case of an applicant with an "intent to immigrate or overstay," even though we are truthful and honest about her arrival here as a "babysitter" for just a few months. I hope my ignorance gives you a little bit of an idea on how you are going to fill out your sister's DS160 if filing as B1/B2 applicant. Best wishes!

@mitzab thank you and that is a great suggestion! Though, I do not think I will get a solid response as I have sent them inquiries before and they would only tell me that my case has already been forwarded to Vietnam consulate and that I need to contact them instead (which I have also done already but with no luck in getting a response). I will still follow your advice so I will definitely inquire with NVC and hope that they'll give me a definite answer. If not, I think it is still safe for me to assume that the I-130s are still active (for now).

@Boiler @nastra30 thank you so much for all the replies. Yes I had no idea we weren’t going to be qualified for the I-601. On a side note, I do not know how to edit my post so I just want to point out that I have a correction: where it says February 2021 that was a typo it’s supposedly February 2022. Thank you again all for being helpful. I hope this topic will help the future applicants who are in the same situation as I am. I will try to post update for my parents’ case on here when the time comes.

@nastra30 First of all I would like to say thank you very much for your response. To answer your question about the status of my parents’ case from the USCIS, it states that both of their I-130 petitions have been approved and forwarded to NVC for consular processing. No further updates after that. From the CEAC, it states that both DS260 immigrant visa was refused at interview (my parents both got a letter that simply states that they were refused a visa because they were subject to 3-year ban due to overstay of over 180 days but less than 1 year and that they may file for I-601 waiver to overcome the 3-year bar) no further information after that.

Good evening, I would like to ask this question here and hope to find an answer because I do not have the funds to hire a lawyer. I am a naturalized US Citizen from Vietnamese descent and I applied for my parents' I-130 petition which was approved in October 2022; but ultimately, they were denied a visa at the consulate level interview in January 2023 due to an overstay of over 180 days but less than 1 year. They overstayed because at the time during covid we could not afford the tickets to fly them back to Vietnam before overstaying their visa (the country took advantage of the situation for the most desperate ones and the cheapest one-way flight we could find at the time was $15,000 per person!!!). They have a 3-year bar in which I assume it ends in September 2025 (their tourist visa expired in February 2021 they left the US in September 2022). The CO said they are eligible for I-601 waiver. When I looked into the waiver at the time it would take about 34 months before they would look at the applications so I decided for my parents to wait out their 3-year bar because I did not want to wait out the I-601 processing time. Now here are my questions: 1. After the 3-year bar is served, do I still need to file I-601 for them anyways (I do not think so based on my research, but I wanted to ask for a second opinion about this in case I am wrong)? 2. Since they were barred from entering the US due to overstay, does that mean the I-130 becomes void, and that I need to file new I-130 along with new DS260 for my parents? 3. If the I-130 is still valid, then I am assuming that I only need to file new DS260 for both of my parents? Please advise. Thank you very much and I am looking forward to future answers.