K-1 Travel Help

flames9
Senior Member



Joined: 08 Mar 2007
Posts: 114
Location: Falls Church VA

Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 10:12 am

 

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Ya, there aree some POE jerks,lol All I'm stating is from my experiences and what I have read on a few immigration forums, is that I have read more successes than failures.

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nelsona
CanuckAbroad Regular



Joined: 23 Jul 2007
Posts: 33

Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 10:27 am

 

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lulu's experience illustrates that despite us thinking those CBP officers are idiots, they are trained to catch and trip up liars.

lulu had pretty clearimmigrant intent, which is verboten for tourists, and despite having every intention of leaving US each time she entered (until this last time, eh), there was always a the very high risk that she would attempt to immigrate on that entry, as she as now done.

So their scrutiny on her case, albeit having come up empty, was justified, and shows that they can usually sniff out something fishy.


by the way, I have seen 2 brands of ketchup chips here in US (Herrs and Uncle Ray's) both being much sweeter than the Cdn brands.

as to smarties, maybe the same campaign thatbrought Coffee crisp to US could work for smarties (and maybe for any yellow/gold corn syrup).

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waterwaterwaterloolooloo
CanuckAbroad Regular


Jersey Shorin All Day

Joined: 10 Jul 2007
Posts: 69
Location: Roselle Park, NJ

Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 11:29 am

 

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haha

Well my intention in the beginning was not to immigrate, of course. I was still in university until April of 2006 so they were well aware of me fulfilling my obligation to my degree. Every time I did return of course because I had other things (work and school) to attend to.

But yes, in essence, I did lie the last time I entered. However, I waited 60 days to get married which my lawyer advised me to. He said that 60 days in the minimum amount of time to wait from your date of entry so that my intention looks like i WAS visiting, but on a whim I was married without knowing I was going to be before I entered. Apparently, USCIS has no problem with this.

The more I came though, the more I was interrogated. Even when my boyfriend was JUST my boyfriend, and we had no clue yet what we were going to do, with every visit came more questions. Now I do understand the job of a POE officer, however, their treatment sometimes can be absolutely insane. (ie. once when I drove here, about a year ago, I had my dad's gym clothes in the trunk of my car. it was his car i was driving. The officer continued to ask me what the hell I was doing with men's clothing. Like I had planned to disguise myself or I had killed someone and took their clothes haha.trying to convince them that they were my dad's gym clothes, they opened the actual gym bag which stunk horribly because my dad is a smelly dude when he works out.so.they got theirs!)

I'm pretty sure Canadian officials knew what I was planning though. I was in New Jersey for 2 months at the beginning of 2007 before I left to go home for a few weeks. On my return to Canada, I brought 2 pairs of pants and a couple of shirts, since a lot of my clothes were here in new jersey so I wanted to bring home an almost empty suitcase so that I could fill it up with more stuff before I came back. I got inspected and my suitcase was open. They questioned if I had been in nyc, why I had not bought anything. As the guy opens my suitcase he realizes I have little to no clothing in it. He looks at me and I'm pretty sure he knows exactly what I'm doing. His next question."When are you returning tothe United States?"

I said I wasn't sure, and he ended up letting me go. But I knew they were pretty in the know about what I was doing.

Any ways, I'm here now so.hopefully I won't have too much more trouble in the future.
_________________
Send me smarties and ketchup chips!

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flames9
Senior Member



Joined: 08 Mar 2007
Posts: 114
Location: Falls Church VA

Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 1:26 pm

 

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well in ways you made ur own stress by lying. I travelled monthly to the USA, told the truth and never had a problem, stress free! We too had a free consult with a USA immigration lawyer. she told me to just stay in USA and AOS. Sounded fishy to me,lol I guess if one TRULY came into the USA with NO intention of staying but ended up marrying then staying that is fine! But if ya didnt that is wrong! I'm quite happy that we did it the legal way, very stress free. I would have no qualms of turning in people who did it illegaly.
I was in the Canadian Forces for many yrs and did UN peacekeeping in Crotia. Conducted many road blocks looking for weapons etc. Its amazing how u ask certian questions to find if a person is lying. many people when they lie, they cannot look u in the eyes or stand/sit still. I'm sure POE officers are very well trained in rooting out liers. And if they see the signs, they dig deeper. Always easier to recall the truth than a lie. Cheers

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waterwaterwaterloolooloo
CanuckAbroad Regular


Jersey Shorin All Day

Joined: 10 Jul 2007
Posts: 69
Location: Roselle Park, NJ

Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 2:03 pm

 

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No I didn't make my own stress. I don't have any stress. My green card application has been going off without a hitch thus far.

I never truly LIED to the border patrol, so please don't insinuate that I did. I said that with mostly a funny tone. I did not know at all when my boyfriend and I were going to get married. We were still thinking about what to do when I last entered which was in March. I think you are misunderstanding me as well. All my stresses of crossing the border (I only had a few crappy times out of dozens of good ones) came BEFORE I was even engaged. They were when I was just visiting my boyfriend.literally. Nothing I did was wrong and that will not affect my green card application at all. At the end of the day, I never overstayed and I'm married to a US citizen.

You are making me out to be some liar. When the POE officers question me, the only did so because I had a boyfriend in the United States. I was NEVER detained, and never quested for more than a minute or two. I'm a Canadian born, 23 year old girl. Do you honestly think that I'm on the radar? What did I have to lie about? I told the truth. I was seeing my boyfriend. I had no signs, my situation was enough to case them to think I might eventually immigrate. Until December of 2006 I had a full time job that I was contracted to until the end of the year. Therefore, they would soon realize I was in fact telling the truth. The US/Canadian border is not comparable to a border in the former Yugoslavia.

Once again, I never lied and I would appreciate it if you didn't insinuate that what I did was wrong because I have done nothing but move my whole entire life to the US for someone when I had a good job and a nice place to live in Canada.
_________________
Send me smarties and ketchup chips!

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flames9
Senior Member



Joined: 08 Mar 2007
Posts: 114
Location: Falls Church VA

Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 2:23 pm

 

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ur statement "But yes, in essence, I did lie the last time I entered"
Not mine! Hope it works out for ya

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Reba
Moderator


Canuck in NC

Joined: 16 Jul 2004
Posts: 1495
Location: North Carolina

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 5:35 am

 

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The thing is, as soon as you have a boyfriend or girlfriend or spouse in the US, you automatically have stronger ties to the US than you do Canada, no matter if you own property, own a company, and have a million dollars in a Canadian bank. US border officials are told, EVERYONE has immigrant intent, no matter who they are, and its their job to weed us out. Sometimes it ain't pretty. And yes, I've BTDT myself, and been thoroughly humiliated and searched too. One woman even sat and read my personal journal while I looked on and couldn't say a word.

There is nothing particilarly "wrong" with what you said earlier, it was just not entirely correct. Both waterloo and nelson gave the indication that it was not at all possible for someone who currently has a petition in process to visit the US. This is not at all true. There is no law against it at all. If one is prepared, as flames has stated, there should be no problem whatsoever. And, even if someone does get denied entry, there is NO NEGATIVE affect on the later visa application interview. None. Yes, it will come up, because it is a question on the form. But unless you're denied for legal reasons (ie: you have a criminal record, or you do something stupid like threaten a border official during your interrogation) then yes, this will negatively affect your aplication. A simple denial of entry based on a border officials suspicion that you have immigrant intent will not.

btw waterloo, I don't want to alarm you in any way, but the old myth that you can enter the country and get married 60 days later and then adjust status is just that. A myth. It may not cause you problems with your application, but it is in fact a myth, and lawyers really should stop perpetuating it. Quite a lot of people have been caught by it, and a few even denied their adjustment.

The fact is, if you enter the United States as a visitor, with the intent of marrying and staying, you have in fact broken an immigration law. 98% of the time it does not become an issue at the adjustment interview, but sometimes it does.

If you enter the country as a visitor with no intent to stay and marry, and then do in fact marry on the spur of the moment and decide to stay, then you're golden. The trouble is convincing USCIS which one you did. They're going to assume the former, that's their job. You have to try and convince them it was the latter.
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READ ME FIRST!! Immigration Information for Canadians who want to move to the US for any reason.

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waterwaterwaterloolooloo
CanuckAbroad Regular


Jersey Shorin All Day

Joined: 10 Jul 2007
Posts: 69
Location: Roselle Park, NJ

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 5:56 am

 

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Well all I can do, I suppose, is convince them. It would really be horrible if we got to the interview and then they accused me of ill intent at the border. I think at that point if I wasn't approved, I'd abandoned the process and move back home. These applications have eaten me out of pocket and so has the lawyer.

For now though, and this is no offense to any one on the internet, I'm going to trust my immigration lawyer who has been in business for over 20 years doing just that. If the 60 days minimum is a myth, then it's a myth. However, you know, it irks me and at the end of the day, all of the little stuff really makes a difference. All I want to do is have a nice life with my husband, who I spent thousands of dollars on traveling to over the span of three years. I'm young, I'm educated, and I could contribute to the American economy. It's very frustrating to know that there is a chance of denial. My lawyer never advised me to leave the US and start another kind of process (like an IR-1) but they did say they would prep us for the interview extensively. So, all I can do is hope that it turns out well and I don't lose thousands of dollars.

I do understand what you are saying, Reba. I'm going to keep thinking positively though!
_________________
Send me smarties and ketchup chips!

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