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Concepts

M

Merik

Registered Users (C)
Dear all,

Please help me correct my understanding of the following concepts (in regard to Diversity Visas):

1) After a successful DV interview, you will be issued a visa which is valid for six months. You have to go to USA within the period of validity of this visa to get your Green Card. This trip is called "activation trip"

2) After the activation trip, you are allowed to stay out of USA for less than six months, for example to collect your everything and move in to USA. When you finally manage to get into USA, you are no more allowed to leave the country, unless for short periods of time.

3) After a successful DV interview, during which you claimed that you are single, you are not allowed to marry anyone, until you get your green card.

4) After getting your green card, you can marry someone, and file a petition for her to get an immigrant visa. This process usually takes years.

5) After becoming your green card, there are ways to request/sponsor short-term visitor visas for your spouse.

Thanks in advance
 
5 is incorrect. Because after you file a immigrant visa petition for your spouse, that person is unable to enter the US under any non-immigrant visa. I am not sure about the visa waiver program. Maybe that is possible. That is of course true only if you are froma country that participates in the VWP.
 
darkhorse said:
...after you file a immigrant visa petition for your spouse, that person is unable to enter the US under any non-immigrant visa.
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I didn't know that. I haven't read that on state.gov documents either. That is very bad.

What if I file a imigrant visa petition for my spouse while they are in USA with a non-imigrant visa?
 
5 is incorrect. Because after you file a immigrant visa petition for your spouse, that person is unable to enter the US under any non-immigrant visa.
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Not true. But it is likely that they deny her a visa. It is not imossible, but she needs very strong binding ties

Join the military -- you and your spouse, both of you will become citizens in no-time.
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Not true!

What if I file a imigrant visa petition for my spouse while they are in USA with a non-imigrant visa?
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That does not change her situation. Once the non immigrant visa expires she must leace the country.

Why dont marry before the interview?
 
Tazmania said:
Why dont marry before the interview?
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Because we were under the impression that we are not allowed to marry if I've originally sent my forms declaring myself as single. Now that I have done my interview, and I'm waiting for FBI check results, is there a way to correct this?
 
Merik said:
1) After a successful DV interview, you will be issued a visa which is valid for six months. You have to go to USA within the period of validity of this visa to get your Green Card. This trip is called "activation trip"

2) After the activation trip, you are allowed to stay out of USA for less than six months, for example to collect your everything and move in to USA. When you finally manage to get into USA, you are no more allowed to leave the country, unless for short periods of time.
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This is wrong. After the interview, you will be issued a visa which is valid for six months. This is so that you can collect your stuff and move to the US. There is no such thing as an "activation trip".

After you get the GC, you are allowed to leave the US at any time. You can return using your GC provided you have not abandoned your residence in the US. Absences of over one year are presumed to be abandonment of residence.
 
TheRealCanadian said:
This is wrong...
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Thank you for the clarification. I had read the term "activation trip" in several places, and that was my impression. Thank you for correcting me.

I'm still eager to know if one can change status from single to married during the administrative process, before the visa is issued.
 
Well I did that.
Sent forms back last may as a single person, got married in November, got marriage cert, filled out pts 1 & 2 of DS230 for wife, emailed it and scan of marriage cert to KCC.
So she is now on my application. And will bring her photos along to interview and no need to change anything on my application - can be updated at interview.
Things to consider, make sure it's not just for the visa i.e. Evidence of history together. I have photos from seven years ago and mortgage stuff.
Also to get married there may be a waiting period - here you have to wait at least 3 months, may be something like that in your country and may be too late now before the interview.
Don't get wife to change her surname. Will take a long while to get her documents and records and passports etc and will need to have it match for the interview. Probably not enough time also.
Oh just checked you have already had the interview. Info may be help to others.
Shame, as it will now be very hard to get your wife over with you if you go to the states.
Heard usual is about 5 or 6 years apart with just holiday trips when you see each other - if you choose to go and stay in the states
Key thing is to be married before the interview.
 
From my understanding to call your initial trip the activation trip is not wrong. That is the trip that activates your green card. If you do not make the trip in the 6 month window period then no green card. Once you have your green card you can exit and enter the States at anytime but you should not be away for longer than six months. If you out of the States for more than six months then it will look as if you are abandoning your new place of residence. However you may request to be away for a longer period. You just have to inform the authorities so that you have no problems on your return. Now the issue about your wife is complex. If you have already had your interview then you have to look for another way of going about it. Get advise from a lawyer they normally do not charge for the initial stages but it will at least give you an idea of which course of action to take. Questions will be asked but bear in mind that if its for reall as in your love.... People do fall in love. There is no law that prohibits you from marrying even a day after arrival but it brings up many questions... If you know what I mean...
 
albanmus said:
If you know what I mean...
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I do.. and I think I may be able to prove that it wasn't a fraud marriage. Things like photos from past several years, photos from the engagement ceremony, etc.

So... everybody here believes that I had to do all this before the interview, right? But I haven't been issued a visa.. isn't there a way to add her to my case now? I can even afford a second interview.

And about lawyers.. there aren't any reliable immigration lawyers where I live. How can I find someone in US and call for preliminary questions?
 
Well did they tell you at the interview that you were accepted for the GC?
Did you get your passport back with the stamp?
If so, then you have the visa (not the physical eventual plastic one) but you have it and there is nothing that can be done for your wife i think.
If not, why was the visa turned down and what have you been asked to get?
Im sure a wife is not one of them and it most likely is too late to get her on the application as it should have all been sorted before the first interview.
 
Thanks for the link. The only difference between my case and theirs is that they had the visa, but I don't. I have to wait for my security clearnace results to come (usually in a couple of months), and then I have to come back to the embassy to collect my visa.

I don't have a stamp in my passport.
 
I would like to have an exact look at the "follow-to-join" rule. If it states that it only applied to people who are married "before getting the green card" or "before getting the diversity visa" then it may apply to us (since we can get married before I'm issued a visa).
 
I would call the die Embassy as soon as possible to start the process and ask them for the next steps.
 
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