Does old visitor visa gets cancelled on Green Card Interview date outside US

[cpDelhi]

Does anybody know if the US Visitor visa on the Indian passport gets canceled on the day of the interview?

If the Visitor visa is not canceled, can the individual enter US on visitor visa even though s/he has the Green card approval through US embassy? (I know there is no reason to enter US on Visitor visa when somebody has a Green card, but this is a peculiar situation.)

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jackolantern]

As far as I know, they don't usually don't cancel other visas until the individual enters the US with the immigrant visa.

So theoretically, after being approved for the immigrant visa, the individual could change their mind and decide not to immigrate, then travel to the US and present the tourist visa (or another nonimmigrant visa) and request to be admitted as a nonimmigrant.

At that point, it comes down to the individual's circumstances and the officer's discretion whether to admit the person as a nonimmigrant -- they may need to present evidence to convince the officer that they really don't want to immigrate (unless it's a dual-intent visa, like H1B or L1).

 

[cpDelhi]

I know my H1B visa was canceled before the start of the interview. Since the case I'm talking about is immigration through family, I wanted to make sure that his 10 years Visitor visa is still valid even after the individual is approved on Green card.

 

[Jackolantern]

I know my H1B visa was canceled before the start of the interview.

Do you mean expired? Or actually canceled before the interview? Did you get your GC via a consular processing?

Since the case I'm talking about is immigration through family, I wanted to make sure that his 10 years Visitor visa is still valid even after the individual is approved on Green card.

If they don't stamp it canceled at the interview, it might still be active as long as they don't enter the US with an immigrant visa. But even if the tourist visa remains active, whether the individual can actually enter the US with it is another question. They might have to explain what happened to make them decide not to immigrate, before the officer will agree to admit them as a nonimmigrant.

 

[cpDelhi]

My H1B was not expired and I got my green card via Consular processing.

I was under impression that any US visa gets canceled before the Green card interview. I will have to get some qualified person to closely check their passports to make sure that their visitor visa is not canceled.

 

[Triple Citizen]

Theoretically, yes. However the officer at the POE may not grant entry as a visitor. It all depends on the POE officer

If the Visitor visa is not canceled, can the individual enter US on visitor visa even though s/he has the Green card approval through US embassy?

 

[BigJoe5]

Does anybody know if the US Visitor visa on the Indian passport gets canceled on the day of the interview?

If the Visitor visa is not canceled, can the individual enter US on visitor visa even though s/he has the Green card approval through US embassy? (I know there is no reason to enter US on Visitor visa when somebody has a Green card, but this is a peculiar situation.)

Thanks in advance.

IF someone is granted Immigrant status, the B visa is suppossed to be cancelled so that someone else cannot use it fraudulently. Even if not stamped as such it is voided and a cross check at the POE will reveal the actual status.

 

[Jackolantern]

IF someone is granted Immigrant status, the B visa is suppossed to be cancelled so that someone else cannot use it fraudulently. Even if not stamped as such it is voided and a cross check at the POE will reveal the actual status.

The trick here is that they aren't granted immigrant status when the immigrant visa is approved. At that point, they're only granted the right to enter the US and obtain immigrant status. So they could decide that they don't want to enter as an immigrant, and attempt to use the nonimmigrant visa instead.

While they're outside the US without having used the immigrant visa, someone else using the tourist visa isn't an issue (at least no more of an issue than somebody having multiple visas like H1B and B1/B2 at the same time, which is a legitimate and nontheoretical scenario). Because at that point, they haven't been issued a green card, so it's not as if they could be using the green card while somebody else is using the old tourist visa. And normally both the immigrant visa and tourist visa would be in the same passport.