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Dear experts,
I am a Canadian citizen who wants to start a job in the States and has
applied for J1 visa. Before receiving the J-1 visa, I decided to enter
the states to find an apartment to rent. But at the border, I was
refused to enter US.
I think the refusal was because of a misunderstanding on my part. A
few months ago I was having 25 interviews which I forgot to tell the
officer, and I stayed in US for about three months to do all of those
interviews and provided a US address which was a hotel where I stayed
to attend the interviews. After the interviews, I was asked a few
times to stay for a few days to do some clinical rotations for a
better evaluation. This was not a job, I was not paid, it wasn't a
university course either. It's a well-known procedure for medical job
interviews. However, it seems that the officer was under impression
that I was working in a hospital while being paid/trained illegally.
He noticed my US address on my job contract and told me that I had no
rights to have a residency status in US while entering based on a
visitor visa and doing those clinical rotations.

However, the officer was kind enough to tell me to bring the J1 visa
next time, and I might get it stamped or not. Right now, I am really
worried and am wondering how much this will affect my J1 visa, and if
there is anything I could do to clear this matter, like going to US
embassy to show all of my documents or...

Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate any input.

Sapphyre

I'm not an expert, but I'll comment since no one else has...

If you're attempting to cross and you don't have the right visa, they
just refuse you entry and return you to Canada (or whereever), and
tell you to get a visa. Now that being said, if you attempt to enter
again later as a bona fide visitor, you will possibly be flagged for
evaluation as someone who may be possibly living/working in the US
without the proper visa (basically being illegal in status, or out of
status... whatever they call that).

I've crossed quite a few times, although not as many times as some
people I know who travel frequently for vacation/shopping. Since I've
had extenuating circumstances that make it look as if I have the
desire to move to the US, I'm asked more frequently than other
travellers to prove that I have employment and residency to return to
(ie. the ties...) and am questioned more intently about those ties
than other travellers because of my "history" with US Immigration.
(History being, an I-129f was filed by my ex-boyfriend, and it never
materialized, not to mention the number of times I told them I was
going to visit him). Draw your own conclusions, but from their point
of view, they might think I'll just marry and adjust status, or I've
just been "staying" there. I could tell by the questionning that they
were trying to determine if I lived in Canada, or just used an address
for mail and "said" I lived there. That happened with my passenger,
when he was in a room with the officer, he was asked to answer
questions about our house because they thought he was just using the
address and didn't really live there (and was seeking work in the US,
which they deemed would make him inadmissible).

So, if you're getting a Visa to do what it is you want to do, you
won't have issues with that. When asked if you've been refused entry,
explain. What's the worst that can happen? The Visa is denied? If
that's the case, it doesn't make you special, they deny visas all the
time. Don't sweat it until the interview, and tell the truth. If there
was a misunderstanding about the rules, they're not going to give you
the benefit of the doubt at the border, but explaining on an
application is the right way to go, seeing as how they probably ask if
you've ever been refused entry, and they can just find that out from
USCIS anyway.

So out of curiousity, as a Canadian being refused, how long does it
take for them to decide that? I just ask, because on my crossing I
think we were there four hours (but we only saw an Immigration
officer, or an officer who presented himself as such, even though they
do both jobs, after three hours of waiting for them to get around to
talking to us). The last person I know who was flat out refused entry
(not enough ties), it took two hours for her to be processed and
returned at the Detroit Tunnel. Just curious how other people's
mileage varies. For the record, despite four hours of waiting, they
still let us through, probably only because I assured them I was
responsible for my passenger and that he was not seeking work, just
keeping me company and helping me drive the car (which I signed for
with the rental agency). I don't think my intentions were in doubt,
but that had to be proven none the less.

Good luck,
S.

On May 10, 1:19 am, [email protected] wrote:
> Dear experts,
> I am a Canadian citizen who wants to start a job in the States and has
> applied for J1 visa. Before receiving the J-1 visa, I decided to enter
> the states to find an apartment to rent. But at the border, I was
> refused to enter US.
> I think the refusal was because of a misunderstanding on my part. A
> few months ago I was having 25 interviews which I forgot to tell the
> officer, and I stayed in US for about three months to do all of those
> interviews and provided a US address which was a hotel where I stayed
> to attend the interviews. After the interviews, I was asked a few
> times to stay for a few days to do some clinical rotations for a
> better evaluation. This was not a job, I was not paid, it wasn't a
> university course either. It's a well-known procedure for medical job
> interviews. However, it seems that the officer was under impression
> that I was working in a hospital while being paid/trained illegally.
> He noticed my US address on my job contract and told me that I had no
> rights to have a residency status in US while entering based on a
> visitor visa and doing those clinical rotations.
>
> However, the officer was kind enough to tell me to bring the J1 visa
> next time, and I might get it stamped or not. Right now, I am really
> worried and am wondering how much this will affect my J1 visa, and if
> there is anything I could do to clear this matter, like going to US
> embassy to show all of my documents or...
>
> Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate any input.