The MYTH that you can't visit US after sending forms to KCC

[SusieQQQ]

Hi all,

Long time browser on this forum but first post, mainly because there is so much misinformation about this topic in particular.

Now I know some people have a problem getting a visitor visa after expressing immigrant intent but to listen to people here you would think this always happens. It does not - as long as the consular officials do not think you would immigrate illegally.

My story: immigration petition from relative (F3) approved in 2008 (but notified in 2009). Selected for DV2013 and sent forms to KCC in June 2012. According to posters here I would have had no chance of visiting the US in this time. I have been 4 times while all this has been going on...
Once in 2009, on already-issued B1/B2 visa.
Twice in 2010. I needed a new visa and ticked box on question about immigrant petition, the CO asked me "do you want to emigrate to US" and I answered "yes but legally". I admit to being surprised when they issued me another 10-year B1/B2 visa (I expected a shorter one as happened to a friend who only got a year's visa).
Once in 2012, months after I had sent my forms to KCC.
No problem at all entering on each occasion.

Some context: I am a professional in an African country, a senior role with clear reasons to return home, so if you are the kind of person they are worried might slip into some usual "illegal immigrant" type role I can see they might refuse you. But it's not automatic refusal for non-immigrant visas. If you are someone who has a good job etc and would have no benefit from being illegally in the US it's different, they really do a case by case basis.

As I said I am posting this because I am tired of the scaremongering here.

(If anyone is interested, my dv interview is next month. AF52xxx.)

 

[raevsky]

It is not automatic, but just having a good job is not enough. It should be really a good job that you would be arfaid to loose, like a member of a parliament or so. Potentially, even a GC holder could get a non-immigrant visa, but those cases are really very special. A very small smount of people would be able to get a nonimmigrant visa after demonstrating an immigrant intent.

Also, submitting an application for an immigrant visa is a much stronger type of immigrant intent than being approved for an immigrant petition (someone does not need your permission to submit a petition for you, do not forget, but applying for an immigrant visa is truly your decision, yours and only yours)

 

[EYW979]

It is not automatic, but just having a good job is not enough. It should be really a good job that you would be arfaid to loose, like a member of a parliament or so. Potentially, even a GC holder could get a non-immigrant visa, but those cases are really very special. A very small smount of people would be able to get a nonimmigrant visa after demonstrating an immigrant intent.

Also, submitting an application for an immigrant visa is a much stronger type of immigrant intent than being approved for an immigrant petition (someone does not need your permission to submit a petition for you, do not forget, but applying for an immigrant visa is truly your decision, yours and only yours)

hey you did't undersatnd that this post her because you talking no sence stop giving false information

 

[aos13]

As I said I am posting this because I am tired of the scaremongering here.

As I wrote in many threads many times, everybody has to understand their own unique situation. So you were able to come on a tourist visa. Great. People who are here on F/J/H visas (or about to come here, or about to renew, or about to travel, etc.) have a little more than a short leisure trip to lose in case they get caught with one of these "technicalities". Your reassurance will not mean much to them at that point.

 

[SusieQQQ]

It is not automatic, but just having a good job is not enough. It should be really a good job that you would be arfaid to loose, like a member of a parliament or so. Potentially, even a GC holder could get a non-immigrant visa, but those cases are really very special. A very small smount of people would be able to get a nonimmigrant visa after demonstrating an immigrant intent.

Also, submitting an application for an immigrant visa is a much stronger type of immigrant intent than being approved for an immigrant petition (someone does not need your permission to submit a petition for you, do not forget, but applying for an immigrant visa is truly your decision, yours and only yours)

Rubbish about having to be " a member of parliament or so"!!! The amount of misinformation here is laughable.

And did you miss the part about the CO asking me if I had immigrant intent and I said yes?

As I wrote in many threads many times, everybody has to understand their own unique situation. So you were able to come on a tourist visa. Great. People who are here on F/J/H visas (or about to come here, or about to renew, or about to travel, etc.) have a little more than a short leisure trip to lose in case they get caught with one of these "technicalities". Your reassurance will not mean much to them at that point.

aos13, thank you for supporting my post. Exactly that, everyone has to understand their own situation, including the people on these boards who have been told they risk losing their tourist visas. Incidentally I just confirmed with a friend of mine, about one of your examples, and his H1B was issued after he had sent in his forms to KCC. In his case he was willing to lose out on the job opportunity to rather get a green card sooner, but in the event he didn't have to. And sorry if I misunderstand, but aren't all F visas immigrant intent anyway - aren't they all family-related green cards? So what is the problem?

 

[newacct]

All the confusion is about what immigrant intent means. Immigrant intent means intent to immigrate on that entry. If you say, Officer, my plan is to visit the U.S. on a tourist visa for a while, and then leave the U.S., and then the next day get an immigrant visa to the U.S., then you have no immigrant intent, because your planned immigration is not on this entry. What you do afterwards is irrelevant.

According to posters here I would have had no chance of visiting the US in this time.

I don't know what posters you are referring to and what they said. I don't think that anyone has said that if you are applying for an immigrant visa then you must have immigrant intent. As I explained above, even if you are applying for an immigrant visa you still don't necessarily have immigrant intent for that visit. However, the burden of proof in such a case is very high.

 

[aos13]

Incidentally I just confirmed with a friend of mine, about one of your examples, and his H1B was issued after he had sent in his forms to KCC. In his case he was willing to lose out on the job opportunity to rather get a green card sooner, but in the event he didn't have to. And sorry if I misunderstand, but aren't all F visas immigrant intent anyway - aren't they all family-related green cards? So what is the problem?

You don't seem to know what H1B or F visa is. H1B is dual intent, so there is no burden of proof of nonimmigrant intent. F is a student visa; if CO believes you are applying for it because you want to go to US and not come back, you'd be denied.

 

[slash_dot]

Hi all,

Long time browser on this forum but first post, mainly because there is so much misinformation about this topic in particular.

Now I know some people have a problem getting a visitor visa after expressing immigrant intent but to listen to people here you would think this always happens. It does not - as long as the consular officials do not think you would immigrate illegally.

My story: immigration petition from relative (F3) approved in 2008 (but notified in 2009). Selected for DV2013 and sent forms to KCC in June 2012. According to posters here I would have had no chance of visiting the US in this time. I have been 4 times while all this has been going on...
Once in 2009, on already-issued B1/B2 visa.
Twice in 2010. I needed a new visa and ticked box on question about immigrant petition, the CO asked me "do you want to emigrate to US" and I answered "yes but legally". I admit to being surprised when they issued me another 10-year B1/B2 visa (I expected a shorter one as happened to a friend who only got a year's visa).
Once in 2012, months after I had sent my forms to KCC.
No problem at all entering on each occasion.

Some context: I am a professional in an African country, a senior role with clear reasons to return home, so if you are the kind of person they are worried might slip into some usual "illegal immigrant" type role I can see they might refuse you. But it's not automatic refusal for non-immigrant visas. If you are someone who has a good job etc and would have no benefit from being illegally in the US it's different, they really do a case by case basis.

As I said I am posting this because I am tired of the scaremongering here.

(If anyone is interested, my dv interview is next month. AF52xxx.)

Not sure which posts you have read, but the main question I've seen is not whether an individual would be issued to non-immigrant visa after submitting their documents to the KCC for an immigrant visa, but whether or not they would be able to receive a non-immigrant visa after being denied / rejected at their respective embassy / consulate for the purposes of immigrating under the diversity visa lottery (or any other immigrant based visa, but this is the DV section of the forum).

That's the issue. And the general consensus is if a petitioner is denied because they are found inadmissible to the United States after petitioning to enter an immigrant, they face an extremely difficult process to be issued a non-immigrant visa, as the applicant has to prima-facie prove their intent not to immigrate.

 

[MaKiki]

Hi all,

Long time browser on this forum but first post, mainly because there is so much misinformation about this topic in particular.

Now I know some people have a problem getting a visitor visa after expressing immigrant intent but to listen to people here you would think this always happens. It does not - as long as the consular officials do not think you would immigrate illegally.

My story: immigration petition from relative (F3) approved in 2008 (but notified in 2009). Selected for DV2013 and sent forms to KCC in June 2012. According to posters here I would have had no chance of visiting the US in this time. I have been 4 times while all this has been going on...
Once in 2009, on already-issued B1/B2 visa.
Twice in 2010. I needed a new visa and ticked box on question about immigrant petition, the CO asked me "do you want to emigrate to US" and I answered "yes but legally". I admit to being surprised when they issued me another 10-year B1/B2 visa (I expected a shorter one as happened to a friend who only got a year's visa).
Once in 2012, months after I had sent my forms to KCC.
No problem at all entering on each occasion.

Some context: I am a professional in an African country, a senior role with clear reasons to return home, so if you are the kind of person they are worried might slip into some usual "illegal immigrant" type role I can see they might refuse you. But it's not automatic refusal for non-immigrant visas. If you are someone who has a good job etc and would have no benefit from being illegally in the US it's different, they really do a case by case basis.

As I said I am posting this because I am tired of the scaremongering here.

(If anyone is interested, my dv interview is next month. AF52xxx.)

Hey thank you for this post it will surely help a brother or sister who sees the glass being half full and not half empty. Unless one's intentions of travelling are not genuine you wont get that visa but if you are genuine and your travel is work related, genuine tourist etc you will get that visa. I wonder why i will want to apply for DV Lottery if my intentions are not to stay in the US permanently.

Why cant everyone read for themselves and check their reasons of travelling??? I real find people who try to twist something small to become big as troublesome. Thank you Use GOOGLE if you have doubts and find more and more of them

Thank you Sussie QQQ

 

[SusieQQQ]

You don't seem to know what H1B or F visa is. H1B is dual intent, so there is no burden of proof of nonimmigrant intent. F is a student visa; if CO believes you are applying for it because you want to go to US and not come back, you'd be denied.

Re F - honest mistake getting confused with F1-F4 being the family preference categories as per the visa bulletin.

If H visas are dual intent, why did you use them as an example of where people might have a problem? (And if H visas are not all dual intent, then you should have been more specific - this is part of what I meant about blanket statements).

Not sure which posts you have read, but the main question I've seen is not whether an individual would be issued to non-immigrant visa after submitting their documents to the KCC for an immigrant visa, but whether or not they would be able to receive a non-immigrant visa after being denied / rejected at their respective embassy / consulate for the purposes of immigrating under the diversity visa lottery (or any other immigrant based visa, but this is the DV section of the forum).

That's the issue. And the general consensus is if a petitioner is denied because they are found inadmissible to the United States after petitioning to enter an immigrant, they face an extremely difficult process to be issued a non-immigrant visa, as the applicant has to prima-facie prove their intent not to immigrate.

There are more than a few posts where people are told that sending documents to KCC could jeopardize a visa application they want to make - even before their interview, before any concerns about being defined arise. If I have some time later I'll browse and see if I can find some examples. The point about applying for a non-immigrant visa after being declined for a GC is of course perfectly valid.

 

[slash_dot]

There are more than a few posts where people are told that sending documents to KCC could jeopardize a visa application they want to make - even before their interview, before any concerns about being defined arise. If I have some time later I'll browse and see if I can find some examples. The point about applying for a non-immigrant visa after being declined for a GC is of course perfectly valid.

I agree. I think in theory submitting documents to the KCC has shown immigrant intent, but it is largely irrelevant as the petitioner is in the process of legally immigrating, and thus issuing a B1/2 with the proper circumspect to the whole context is valid. This all changes if petitioner is denied/rejected or is successful. If they are successful there is no further need for a non-immigrant visa. If they are unsuccessful, they need a to satisfy a much higher burden of proof to enter as a non-immigrant again.

Thus in theory submission changes intent, but for all practical purposes nothing changes until the immigrant petition has been decided on. I think that's a fair assumption to make.

 

[aos13]

If H visas are dual intent, why did you use them as an example of where people might have a problem? (And if H visas are not all dual intent, then you should have been more specific - this is part of what I meant about blanket statements).

Good catch But my statement is a larger blanket than you thought. What I said was "people with H/J/F have more to lose." It does not simply mean that H visas will be denied (and they won't. I do not think anybody ever said that, though you can find warnings about that in other sources). It means, people are in all kinds of situations such as H1b/J1 couples, or an H1B who can't decide to do AOS here or go back to do CP and risk losing the job, or an H1B who wants to transfer to F1 because losing job, or a J1 who has to get a waiver to do DV, or an F1 who goes for OPT, etc. So that's why a blanket statement of "be careful" is not as dangerous as saying "Oh I got a visa, so you'll be fine too."

There are more than a few posts where people are told that sending documents to KCC could jeopardize a visa application they want to make - even before their interview, before any concerns about being defined arise. If I have some time later I'll browse and see if I can find some examples. The point about applying for a non-immigrant visa after being declined for a GC is of course perfectly valid.

Not necessarily only after being declined, but during a pending GC process, too, there are things that can go wrong if care is not taken. A J1 cannot extend visa to stay in US, an F1 may incur difficulties in travel, or changing to OPT and applying for DV right away can lead to rejection of GC; their otherwise normal extensions/renewals/changes may lead to complications due to clash of maintaining non-immigrant status and immigrant intent. Since nobody has any guarantees, one has to tread carefully and plan around these possibilities.

 

[abbyrose]

i won the lottery but im abroad what next

Hi guys
i would appreciate it if you helped me i just found out that i was selected but i did it in ghana before traveling to the uk for my masters
first of all, what documents to i need to send to the kcc?
and is it possible to have the interview in the uk?
what are my chances since i have working experience of about a year?
and what is the deal with the case numbers mine just ends with four digits 83xx?
thanks i would appreciate any help since i just found out a day ago.
thanks