raf rose

Hi, I am in a huge mess and need some advise ... my husband is in states, we got married few months ago, i went there on esta, came back on time and didnt overstay... we wanted to change status to my husband's so the lawyer advised i shud go back and apply B1 in london cuz the status will change visa to visa, i did that but got rejected, i didnt want to lie so i told them i got married in US, i need this visa to see my husband but we havnt decided who will move so till then i will keep visiting him like that and officer said this dosnt make sence and on top of that esta is the same thing... so after few weeks i travelled back to US on esta and on the airport they questioned why i am there i told them to see my husband (again i spoke the truth cuz i thought whatever i said in london they will have it in records) he asked if i have job in england i said no, so he didnt let me in the country on the basis that i cant see my husband on esta and stamped my passport with entry denial... i really dont understand what to do now!!

hungryhorace

Your lawyer gave you very bad advice. Being married to a USC and applying for a B1/B2 makes it VERY difficult to not show immigrant intent.

You need one of the visas listed here: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigra...ypes_1315.html

I would also junk your current attorney, and source another one.

The important thing to remember is this can ALL be over-come. It just might take a bit of time. Don't worry too much.

Duncan Roberts

Since you were denied the visa you should have re-applied for ESTA since your original application was no longer valid as your circumstances changed. I don't know how that would be handled with any other visa application but it would seems that along with being denied entry you also tried to enter with an invalid ESTA.

What is your husbands status? Is he a US citizen or is he on a visa? You may be able to get all this sorted but it might take a lot of time, effort and money and you really need a good immigration lawyer.

civilservant

If he is a USC and has the funds for the I-864 its a simple matter of an I-130 application and a CR1 visa. Granted it means the best part of a year apart but it's not difficult.

The denial of the visa and the denial of entry are not difficult things to overcome in the context of a CR1 visa.

First thing to do is to calm down and begin to assess your options. People in desperate states of mind make bad decisions.

Michael

Everything told to you by your lawyer is about as good as if you stopped anyone on the street and asked them what to do. He shouldn't be practicing immigration law.

I'm not quite sure what you were trying to do but I suspect that you were going to try to adjust status while in the US which is illegal if you had intent to get married and remain in the US. If you would have done that, you may have possibly been successful or you may not have been successful and if you weren't successful, you don't have any right to appeal the decision if you entered under the visa waiver program. So I suspect that in all his lack of knowledge, your lawyer advised that you get a B2 visa and reenter the US and adjust status so that if the adjustment of status is denied, you could spend tens of thousands of dollars on his fees to keep appealing the decision over the years.

However your immigration lawyer doesn't even seem to know that USCIS seldom issues a B2 visa if a person is allowed entry on the visa waiver program. Also he doesn't seem to realize that once you were denied your B2 visa, you then are required to use ESTA again to get approved and you would likely be denied for at least 6-12 months. If you would have used ESTA, you would have known then that you were denied entry to the US and wouldn't have wasted your time and money flying to the US.

If your lawyer would have told you to do everything legally which was to have you husband to petition you as an immediate relative and you returned to the UK until the visa was granted, you could have visited him (maximum 90 days at a time but not constantly) while the process was going on. Now with everything in a mess, your only option is to start the petition now and wait in the UK until your visa is approved.

If you would rather have your husband immigrate to the UK, that has become even more difficult due to the high support requirements that you would have to prove and joint sponsors are not allowed.

So likely your only option if you want to immigrate to the US is to start the CR-1 immigration process. It will likely take about 8-10 months and many on BE do it themselves without an immigration lawyer but you have to pay attention to detail to do it correctly. If you decided to follow that route, post messages in the "Marriage Based Visas" forum and they can assist you in the paperwork. Be very clear when you ask questions since if you are not clear, you may get the same unclear answers in return.

ketsuban

A girl I met on the plane to Ohio and became friends with has a fiancé in England. She had been visiting the UK for 6 months and was on her way back home. She wanted to see him again for another 6 months right away and was also thinking of moving there, so went to see a lawyer.

The lawyer told her to go to school in England due to her age (she was 18 at the time). He didn't tell her to apply for a visa though, he told her to go back to the UK as a visitor with tons of university prospectuses, and tell the POE officer she was going to be visiting for 6 months while looking to apply to schools so she can live with her fiancé.

After a month of being back in Ohio, she travelled back to the UK and did what her lawyer told her to.

She was lucky enough to be paroled into the UK for 6 weeks after being detained for 3 hours, but now she can't come back without a visa.

I'm not sure if her attorney and your attorney practice immigration law, but if they do, I hope they are disbarred!

I know the US and UK are two different countries, but I felt this story was another good example of rogue lawyers.

A good place I have found to begin the CR-1 application: http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide1

sir_eccles

Where do people find these lawyers? The Lionel Hutz correspondance school for lawyering and stuff?

ketsuban

My mother spoke to a lawyer friend recently who told her that getting married in the States on a visit then applying for a CR-1 would 100% look like immigration fraud and to not do it! However I'm pretty sure this one wasn't an immigration lawyer

In most cases you don't even need a lawyer, just a knack for using Google.

Michael

I suspect the probability is pretty high that an adjustment of status would be approved but if you are in the 1%-10% that gets denied, life can be hell. Therefore even if there wasn't prior intent to remain and a person got married on the spur of the moment and remained to adjust status, a good immigration lawyer should point out the possibility that the adjustment of status could possibly be denied since the person adjusting status may have to convince the interviewing officer that there wasn't any intent and back it up with things such as still renting a home in the UK, didn't quit his/her job prior to coming to the US, and/or didn't sell possessions prior to entering the US. Sometimes the interviewing officer doesn't even ask about intent but when adjusting status, the person should be prepared.

ketsuban

Sorry, I was referring to coming back to the UK and then filing for CR-1. I know there are risks with adjusting status after going in for a visit on the VWP, but filing for a CR-1 from home in no way by itself is a fraudulent action (unless of course the marriage was a sham in the first place).

Ray

spousal visa
http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigra...ypes_2991.html

Michael

Sorry I misread read your previous post. I would think that filing CR-1 is near 100% approval except in cases of criminal background (even many of those can be gotten around) or other extenuating circumstances.

S Folinsky

From time to time I would have people tell me that advice given to them by a "lawyer" and it turned out that the advisor was not an attorney at all.

I do agree that the "advice" has me scratching my head.

scrubbedexpat099

Sounds like Husband is on a temporary work visa and English may not be her native language.

civilservant

Her lawyer friend is an idiot, or has no idea about immigration law and should not be advising on it. That is the CORRECT way to apply for the CR1 visa after marrying on the VWP. Many of us (including myself) on BE have done this.

Honestly where do these people come from