Having denied tourist visa after aproved I94 estension

[marroland]

Hi,

I have to ask questions about my experiece because no one in my country can answer it. This is the deal:

I study university in the US, and i lived there for 3 years with a student visa (very legal), besides having all my life a tourist visa without any problem. I use to travel to the US at least once in a year, because i am from Venezuela and FL is like a vacation center for us. I have never broken any laws in the US, i even have never worked illegaly there.

The last tourist visa i had, was an Indefinite tourist visa, but after the US passed the law, it was converted to a 10 years visa. The last time i used it, i entered the US with it and it was going to be expired in the next 2 weeks, but i was planning to stay longer than that, at least 2 moths. Finnally i stayed for 6 months, i aske for an extension of my I94, and it was granted; however, i decided to leave the US after 2 more moths, so i did stay legally for 8 moths.

Now i am almost 40, single, no kids; all of my friends who where in the same situation had denied the chance of having a tourist visa at the time i was in the US, so i thought that it would happened to me the same way, because i was single.

After i came back to my country, i went to the Embassy to try to get another tourist visa and it was denied on the count that i was single and i couldn´t prove that i wasn´t thinking in staying illegaly in the US. As a mather of fact, during those 8 moths, i didn´t even worked illegaly there...i have lived there, i know the law and i know the culture, and in my case, the violation of any legal status in the US is impossible!.

Sooo, i haven´t tryed to get a tourist visa again (fearing on regection again) because my status of single woman and because i don´t know if the issue of asking for an extension of my I94 was really the case of denying my tourist visa. The immigration oficer was clear to me, that she wasn´t denying it because of the I94, but because i had just a few month in my new job (which was true, i had about 3 months).

Is it possible that i had to go over the same situation again if i go back to get my tourist visa just because i had an I94 once???.

Remmember that i am not planning to stay illegaly in the US under any circunstance (i have other options if i have to leave my country) but i like to travel freely in the US because of many other things.

So, should i forget on traveling to the US while i am single, the rest of my life?

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[Theone]

It is up to you to show non immigarnt intent.

You are from a country where it is very difficult to get a B2 from in the first place, so you need a strong case.

You have not mentioned much that demonstrates your ties and need to return to your home country, that you applied for an extension, even a succesful one, suggests those ties are not very strong.

I have no idea how you prove that you did not break the terms of your visa, but a suspicion would be enough to deny a new B.

 

[marroland]

Thank you Theone, ...i do have strong ties in my country and i guess i should show them, i know that "being single" was not the case, it was that i needed to show them that i wasn´t thinking in staying there.

I actually did not show ties when i asked for a tourist visa the last time...so you are right!! i forgot that little detail.

In fact, when i asked for an extension, i had my job back home waiting for me and i was enrolled in the university also doing an MBA in Caracas; i show Immiration that information and maybe that is why i got granted the extension...the problem was that having the presidencial coup, everything stopped by that time and i decided to stay a little longer while things got back to normal.

Anyway, thanks for the idea, i will take all material to show my ties in my country!.