mb2010

Hi,

I've just come across this forum and I wish I had a few months ago!

I am currently working in California on a J1 visa which expires on March 31st 2011. My girlfriend applied at the embassy in London for a B2 visa as she was planning to stay with me for around 6 months while I am here. She got refused the visa because she would not be using it for strictly tourism purposes. Unfortunately, we did not realise this would be unacceptable at the time. The denial letter she got from the embassy states she failed due to section 214(b) of the immigration and nationality act.

She has subsequently changed her plans and is now going to try to enter under the VWP and stay for around 85 days. She has applied to ESTA, stated the previous denial, and was approved. This will be her first trip to the US and she has enough money to cover her expenses.

For some background information, she is mid-twenties and is just completing her NQT teacher training year, so she doesn't have a job at the moment or at least she won't when she travels. She is also currently one year through a Masters degree in education. She doesn't own a house but does have a car and she has a 2-year old niece and lots of other family in the UK (I'm trying to establish strong ties here). We are both UK nationals.

I am expecting her to have problems at the POE due to the previous visa denial. What can she expect and how should she go about building a case to convince the authorities that she is only visiting and has no plans to stay permanently (which is true).

Any help would be greatly appreciated as we are both extremely worried about what might happen.

Thanks,

Matt

Noorah101

You are right, she will probably get a trip to secondary for questioning about the denied visa.

Unfortunately it seems she currently has no strong ties to the UK to show, that works against her.

However, the bright side is that you yourself are not a USC so she would have no way of remaining in the USA even if she wanted to. That probably works in her favor.

Perhaps she can take a copy of your J-1 visa to show who she's coming to visit, and that you are not someone who can keep her in the USA and get her a green card.

Other than that, just hope for a sympathetic POE agent who will let her in.

Rene

mb2010

thanks for your quick reply!

I agree that the strong ties will be the major issue. Unfortunately, we are young and still in or just out of university so have no major UK assets yet. I think it's fairly easy to prove that she has stronger ties to the UK than the US, especially since she has lived in the UK all her life, but I understand that is not entirely what is necessary to prove she will not stay in the US.

I think taking copies of all of my documents with her is a good idea and hopefully it will help.

How do you rate her chances? (I'll not hold you to it! ) Is there anything she should/shouldn't say which could improve things?

Noorah101

Thanks for not holding me responsible, but I really have no idea. LOL It really all depends on the POE agent.

She should only answer the direct question asked. She should not volunteer any information. She should always tell the truth.

If the POE agent asks "do you know what time it is?" The answer is either "yes" or "no", and no further information. Until he asks what time it actually is.

(Thanks to Folinskyinla for these tips).

Rene

retzie

Does this mean she has to return to study in the UK? If so, some sort of official confirmation that she is enrolled after her planned trip would definitely be worth bringing.

mb2010

Noorah101, thanks for the advice about how to answer the questions, I'll have to hammer that point home because she likes to talk!

retzie, it's a 2 year masters program and she has already completed the first year. She has a student card, which expires in 2015 or something like that, and presumably some sort of enrollment letter. She has already enquired about deferring for a year and I don't think it's a problem.

I'll see if she can get a letter from the uni saying she has to come back to complete the course.

Noorah101

If she can get such a letter, it will be helpful to have the date of her return to school to be shortly after she wants to return from her VWP visit. It won't be very helpful if she has a general letter that says she can complete the course whenever.

Rene

mb2010

As far as I understand it, she has another 4 years in which to start the final year but once she's enrolled, must complete it within that year (if that makes sense!)

I'll get her to find out what the uni can give her letter wise.

Thanks for your help so far!

crg

I would expect her to be admitted without much hassle based unless she has a history of frequent long trips. If they really had that much of a problem with visa denials, they would have denied the ESTA. She should come prepared to overcome the presumption of immigrant intent just in case.

mb2010

this is what i'm hoping, she's never been out of the uk for more than two weeks at a time so with luck she'll get through ok.

As you say though, it makes sense to prepare for the worst

crg

It's good to be prepared, but considering she hasn't taken frequent long trips to the US in the past, it is highly unlikely that her entry will be anything other than routine.