Married to USC, but ..

[SmilerJeff]

Hi folks, heres my story.

I went to KY from England in June 2006 on a waiver visa, my girlfriend of 3 years and i got married July 29th 2006. We put in an application for me to stay but i had to return to England 17 months later, on a family emergency.

After some research, my wife and i decided i could'nt return to USA on 90 day visa again, so in March, i applied for a B-2 visa but got turned down on grounds "I believe you intend to stay in the USA" .. (B-2 allows application to change status)

So my wife had to apply to get me back into the USA and we're still waiting since March. The application went to Texas initially but they returned all paperwork and requested we return it all to the Chicago office. Chicago recieved our application on June 2nd.

We have still to recieve a " Reciept number".

My questions are:

1: Can I legally return on a visitor visa after being back in England almost 1 year ?

2: If i can, will we have to re-apply or continue with current application ?

3: How long does it take to get the "Reciept number ?

4: After getting the "Reciept number", how long til the next step and what is the next step ?

Thanks in advance for any and all responses, this is driving my wife and i nuts, we have'nt seen each other for 51 weeks now

Jeff

 

[nscagony]

You should have consulted with an attorney before leaving the US. You overstayed your visitor visa by a year and are thus ineligible to enter the US for 10 years. This goes for both, immigrant (GC) or non-immigrant visas (B1 or similar). Sorry to be bearer of bad news here. Your wife can move to England with your. After 10 years you can apply for a family-based GC for you.

 

[Jackolantern]

I went to KY from England in June 2006 on a waiver visa, my girlfriend of 3 years and i got married July 29th 2006. We put in an application for me to stay but i had to return to England 17 months later, on a family emergency.

When you had "put in an application", does that mean you filed the I-485? If yes, the time spent since filing the I-485 would not count against you for the 3 year/10 year bans ... except that you have another problem because you got married and attempted to immigrate so soon after entering the US, that you could get in trouble for misrepresentation at the port of entry.

 

[Jackolantern]

You should have consulted with an attorney before leaving the US.

The consultation should have happened before entering the US. Getting married is something that can greatly mess up your immigration plans in certain scenarios. If you want to immigrate and get married, one should understand the applicable rules before proceeding with either. Doing them in the wrong order or wrong place can make the difference between immigrating successfully or being banned from the US for a long time.

 

[SmilerJeff]

Grateful for replies so far, but they tell me what i "should" have done !

Can anyone advise on what can be done to speed the current application ?

6 or 8 months now with no word from either texas or chicago office.

how long can we expect to wait for the reciept number ?

when i entered USA in June 2006, i had no idea we were going to get married. Going by replies so far, how does this affect my wifes current application ?

Jeff

 

[Jackolantern]

when i entered USA in June 2006, i had no idea we were going to get married.

With only a month or so between entering the US and getting married, I don't think any immigration officers will believe you.

Going by replies so far, how does this affect my wifes current application ?

You have difficult problems to overcome with no simple answer. You need to seek an immigration attorney.