Hi, Hope all is great with you. Many thanks ahead of time for your help here.
Short story
Girlfriend had a visitor visa... came to America, got it cancelled... went home and we got her a K1 visa. K1 is on another passport.... she still has both, one with a cancelled visa, the other with the K1 and also a regular vistor visa (I believe). She never came over to get married, but now we are trying to see if we were wrong and should have went through with it. K1 has expired... how best to get her in the country now please for a holiday?
Cheers much.
This sounds a bit complicated.
Why come over on a K1 if you didn't get married? I'd think this might ring bells with the Immigration officials in the future. How long did she stay? Three months?
Also, why does she have two passports? That's a bit unusual too unless someone is dual nationality.
If she's just coming over for a holiday and hasn't broken any immigration laws up until now, can't she just use visa waiver like anyone else travelling from UK, with a pre-October 2004 passport?
Hi, Thanks for your response... I appreciate you. Just to add further info... she never actually came over on the K1. We called it off the day before she was due to arrive...
Why was her visitor visa cancelled? That may prevent use of the visa waiver scheme.
If she does come over on the visa waiver, though, she should bring plenty of proof of intent to return, I think.
Hi, Thanks for your help thus far.
The initial B-2 was cancelled because they did not think she would be returning home. We overcame that and they put a new B2 in her passport which is valid until Nov, 08. So now she has one passport with a K visa (expired)... and one passport with a cancelled B2 and a valid B2. As far as I know, both passports are good to go... how do you think we can check what to do before having her fly over here?
Again, many, many thanks for your help.
Very much appreciated.
What nationalities are the passports?
Still don't understand why she didn't just use Visa Waiver from the start. I know that you only get three months, as opposed to six but if she still has social, economic and family ties in UK then that's probably the limit anyway.
Anyway, if you can explain the two passports thing, that would probably help. I would think the cancelled K1 visa would be a complication if spotted by an official and IIRC, they do thumb through the pages quickly to see where you've been before. She may also be in 'the system' as a previous visa applicant and the cancellation may show up too. I sneeked a peek once at the screen when they swipe your passport or green card and it seems to contain a lot of data and notes.
This time, she should also bring over something like a copy of her mortgage if she has one or rental agreement, pay slips, letter from employer etc. and obviously a return ticket with date of departure, that proves she is actually going to return.
That said, I once flew back in with an expired green card and a covering extension letter from the (former) INS and was immediately detained - apparently their agents don't even recognise their own documentation sometimes. roll
are you American or British?
Hi, Thanks again.
I am American and girlfriend is British. Also, the original B2 visa is in her old passport, but they said the visa is still valid and for her to bring both passports, even though the old one has expired... it has the valid visa. This is nuts... any help greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Ah, right, so she only has one valid passport, it's just that the expired one contains a valid visa. Now I get it. That's not uncommon, and yes, you just carry both.
So the K visa was obtained after the B visa. The B visa is still in date, but you just need to find out if getting the K visa will have invalidated the B visa?
I still wonder if she could use the visa waiver, but this would be the clause to worry me:
They have complied with the conditions of previous admissions under the Visa Waiver Program, and have not been found ineligible for a U.S. visa; and
from
here
It doesn't seem that she has been found ineligable from your description. Does not using a K visa count as not complying with the conditions? Entering then not getting married would, but just not using it?
I am no expert, though.
here are the details of the K1 visa conditions:
http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/...15.html#9d
only you know why she didn't use the VWP in the first place, though, so whatever that reason was may still prevent her from using it here.
...........
and I didn't find the answer to the question of whether the issuing of the K visa cancelled the previous B visa. Sorry I'm not really much use. But if somebody else knows the answer to this question.....
Couldn't she just call and find out if her B visa is still valid?