scrubbedexpat099

What do you both do that gives you 4 months holiday?

You apply for the VWP through ESTA and now tick the box saying you have been refused a visa and see what happens.

Hannahpep

so there's a difference is there? I'm suddenly eligible in 6-12 months but not now? I don't know when I am going to re apply. But I wasn't informed I would not be eligible to travel on an esta ever again.

mikelincs

The decision is up to the US visa people, who do not need to inform you of anything to do with their decision, but anecdotally from people on here it appears that applying for an ESTA earlier than 6 months is likely to be denied, and of course you would have to include that denial on any future application. People have found that the longer you leave it after a visa denial the more likely you are to get a positive outcome, which is where the 6 - 12 months comes from, keep applying and getting denials just puts things further and further back.

Jerseygirl

Where did I post “ever again”?

You posted the above...I was replying to this.

Hannahpep

That's what I thought.

I didn't think it meant I wasn't eligible to apply again. Ovbiously it is so frustrating when you've been welcome into a country for 5yrs and suddenly just because we were honest and staying those extra few weeks it's caused more problems than it should have. We've always gone for a month or two of the year so not out staying our welcome ect always stuck to the rules. Was the day after the New York attack maybe everyone had there guards up.

Hannahpep

In your original post you put I wasn't eligible for an esta and now you've changed it to 6-12 months. The clarity was unclear

Pulaski

I can see why she was confused - I always think of eligibility as a permanent, or semi permanent thing, and some people definitely are ineligible for the VWP (such as if you have a criminal record), but in this case they are eligible to apply for an ESTA immediately, .... they probably won't be approved, of course.

There is also a myth, repeated occasionally, that a visa denial makes you permanently ineligible for an ESTA, but that is totally untrue. I assume that people have confused a VWP overstay with a visa denial - and a VWP overstay does make you permanently ineligible for the VWP.

Hannahpep

Thata correct I thought it was being said as because I've been refused a visa under 214b I was now not eligible to travel under the esta. But of course people are saying try again in 6-12 months.
I'm guessing no one knows why your current esta stays active if they already know I've been denied a visa now???

Jerseygirl

If you had a current ESTA it is no longer current because of the visa refusal.

If you wish...why don’t you re-apply for ESTA or wait a while then apply. Please let us know the outcome.

Good luck.

Edit: please keep in mind that most of us haven’t had a B2 denied...we are posting based on the experience of others.

Hannahpep

Which I throughly appreciate.

Will post outcome.

Jerseygirl

That would be great...thank you.

Rete

Look, Hannah, it is frustrating but you have to realize that you are asking for entry into a foreign country. You were given the use of, what some call a luxury, the ESTA/VWP for entry to the US for up to 90 days. This is all that the US considers ample time for a visitor to be a tourist in the US. A visitor who has ties to their own country and will leave the US before the 90th day of the allowed visit.

The VWP does not ask you to document your ties to your own country. It assumes that since you are coming from a VWP approved country that you are just coming to the US for a visit and will leave. To the US, 90 days = a visit. Anything over 90 days is suspect to entering the US for something other than a vacation / visit.

For those that want to come to the US for more than 90 days, there are the B visas. Your husband decided, well 90 days is not enough for me and I want to go to the US for 120 days or longer. Thus, you applied for a B visa.

You used the VWP previously for an activity that might not have been allowed under the VWP but that is neither here nor there. When you applied for the B visa, you had to show your concrete ties to the UK and why it is that you will, without doubt, return to the UK.

Yes, you have school age children but you have shown that your children are being allowed by the school system in the UK to be absent from classes for 120 days. You have shown that employment is not an issue for either you or your husband as you have employment or non-employment which will allow you to be away from work for 120 days.

The officer looks at your application, your list of ties and as is his right, makes a judgment call and denies you and the family a B visa because he feels that you don't have sufficient ties to the UK.

If you set aside your frustration and anger, you will see that he is correct. You do not have strong ties to the UK. You are able to uproot your entire household to come to the US to live for 120 days. There is really nothing left for you in the UK that you can't liquidate from abroad or through agents or family. You show the classic symptoms of a family who is coming to the US with a high risk of never leaving.

Now that might make you even madder but that is what it is.

The reason why most people eligible for the VWP don't get approved B visas is because the risk of their not leaving the US is too great.

Your husband was greedy and wanted to stay longer than 90 days. The denial of the B visa was the consequence.

You can apply for the VWP again, but the rule of thumb is to wait 6 to 12 months to reapply for the ESTA. No one here ever said you can't use the VWP for the rest of your life. Until you try it again, you don't know that you can't use it this time.

Although I have to say, I'm of the opinion that since your ESTA was approved for traveling and is showing that it is still approved, why you have to redo it. Perhaps a brief phone consultation with an immigration attorney might be warranted.

Hannahpep

Of course I realise that now. As we have no intentions of staying we should have just stuck with our original estas. But I can see how it may look. It's just everything they ask for then goes against you. It is what it is. I don't think he was being greedy he just has a big fight in London and needed to get the extra training in. But the price is paid like you said. so that's that.

Hannahpep

As for what my husband does in the USA - no different to an American going to the gym daily that is all he was doing going to a gym to train twice a day.

shiversaint

I suspect the CEAC system which records visa data and the ESTA system are not directly linked - at least from our perspective any way. It's a question I would have asked at the consulate, to be honest.

The Consular Officers do seem to be being quite harsh at the moment, and with that in mind, I can see why one would be suspicious of your application.

Someone above said that B1/2 visas are used for when people want to stay longer - whilst that is in part true, it's worth bearing in mind that there seems to be very few reasons that the Consulate accepts when it comes to awarding ESTA eligible travelers a B1/2 visa when the length of time is the issue at hand.

The ability to uproot your family for 4 months is not a usual one - very few families would be able to do that, and when there are children involved, the ConOff is definitely going to be thinking about what happens to their schooling. Whilst they would probably be entitled to American schooling with no questions asked, that's obviously not a situation that they want you to get into in the first place, hence the denial.