to apply for a visa again or not?

K

Kathrin

Registered Users (C)
I have been visiting the US many times, for years now... for a while I was a student, but then after I just kept going back to visit. (I had problems at immigration twice, with that I mean they took me back to secondary inspection, because of my frequent entries).

My tourist visa expired last summer. On my last trip to the U.S., I used the visa waiver program. I stayed for 3 months from December to February.

(While I am in the U.S. - in San Francisco - I do things like write poetry, help homeless people, visit and hang out with my friends some of whom are disabled and care a lot about me.)

My question now.
I have been wondering whether I should apply for a visa again for my next trip, so I can stay longer than 90 days.
My fear is that if they deny me a visa (saying I am possibly an intending immigrant), I will not be able to go back to San Francisco at all. I read somewhere that you are not eligible for the visa waiver program if you have ever been refused a visa. Somebody else told me that wasn't true, so I am very confused! Does anybody here know what the correct rules are?
If that is the case, I am not sure if I want to risk applying for a visa!

Also, if I do use the visa waiver program again, I ahve another question. There is the question on the immigration form about any physical or mental disorders. Do they mean ANYTHING? I filled in the German form last time which phrased it a bit differently and I could say no, but still I felt very bad for a while, because, ha ha you may have guessed I suffer some from scrupulosity and have been on Prozac for OCD. Do I need to declare that? Does that make me ineligible for the visa waiver program??

Thanks for any help.
I only want to go back to San Francisco, a place I have grown very fond of over the last, well almost 15 years, and be with my friends and write my poetry and help people I see who are suffering. People say they miss me again already. It has been stressful lately because I was afraid of being stopped again every time.:( I just want to do good things over there!:)

Kathrin
 
How much time, say in the last 3 or 5 years, have you spent in the US?

Kathrin said:
I have been visiting the US many times, for years now... for a while I was a student, but then after I just kept going back to visit. (I had problems at immigration twice, with that I mean they took me back to secondary inspection, because of my frequent entries).
Click to expand...

Do you get paid for any of this?

Kathrin said:
While I am in the U.S. - in San Francisco - I do things like write poetry, help homeless people, visit and hang out with my friends some of whom are disabled and care a lot about me.
Click to expand...

This is true.

Kathrin said:
I read somewhere that you are not eligible for the visa waiver program if you have ever been refused a visa.
Click to expand...

That does not need to be mentioned.

Kathrin said:
you may have guessed I suffer some from scrupulosity and have been on Prozac for OCD.
Click to expand...

You need to find a way to get an immigrant visa since it seems your eventual goal is to live permanently in San Francisco.

Kathrin said:
Thanks for any help.
I only want to go back to San Francisco, a place I have grown very fond of over the last, well almost 15 years, and be with my friends and write my poetry and help people I see who are suffering. People say they miss me again already. It has been stressful lately because I was afraid of being stopped again every time.:( I just want to do good things over there!:)
Click to expand...
 
visa refusal does not disqualify VWP, but when you fill out I94W upon entry, you'll be asked about past visa refusal. No idea what consequence will be. Prolly depending on the reason of refusal. If it was refused due to immigration intent or unusually frequent visits, it may not work positive to VWP, but still depends on the officer, I guess.

Question F on back.
http://www.immihelp.com/visas/i-94w.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thank you so much for replying!

Triple Citizen said:
How much time, say in the last 3 or 5 years, have you spent in the US?
Click to expand...

Hmmm... well I almost always (except I think for the two times when they qquestioned me at secondary) spent more time back in Switzerland than in the U.S. The last two years even a LOT more time (for example last year I was in Switzerland from around the end of March until November 30th when I flew back for 3 months on the WVP:

Triple Citizen said:
Do you get paid for any of this?
Click to expand...

No.
I make a point of it.
I want to do things the legal way.

One of my very good friends who is a Vietnam vet and gets his pensions now has sometimes given me a few dollars here and there just as friendship gifts, especially at Christmas etc, and he usually has a little something for me when I visit, like a muffin or a couple of apples. I do not think that counts as payment!

Triple Citizen said:
You need to find a way to get an immigrant visa since it seems your eventual goal is to live permanently in San Francisco.
Click to expand...


I want to win the green card lottery!!:):):)

Kathrin
 
GotPR? said:
visa refusal does not disqualify VWP, but when you fill out I94W upon entry, you'll be asked about past visa refusal. No idea what consequence will be. Prolly depending on the reason of refusal. If it was refused due to immigration intent or unusually frequent visits, it may not work positive to VWP, but still depends on the officer, I guess.

Question F on back.
http://www.immihelp.com/visas/i-94w.html
Click to expand...

Thank you for that info!

I guess that's the same for mild physical or psychological disorders? Since that is a question too.
Any idea if ANYTHING has to be mentioned there? I mean, who DOESN'T have SOME kind of health problem???
 
Yep. Pretty much. Except that I had a visa until last summer, so sometimes I would spend 4 months. Couldn't afford more than that.
AND I live on very little. That's like part of the adventure though. One time (after an unexpected expense) I had 5 dollars a WEEK left to live on, after rent and bus pass. I wrote a little book about that.

Right now I have a bit more money because of an inheritance. Yep, from the US too. A sweet old man I used to visit made me part of his trust fund. Really touching. So I ahve enough money for my next trip already... and right now I wouldn't have a problem proving I have enough to support myself (whereas at other times the question might have come: "How can you live on that???")
;)

(p.s. And yes some people might think I am crazy for doing this.)
 
Kathrin,
Please don't take this the wrong way and you don't have to answer my questions if you do not want to. I assume you are a Swiss citizen? What you have described as your life in the US is just a notch or two above that what is called bumming it out. Don't take it the wrong way and I really do not mean any offence, but if you are Swiss, you are from a country that enjoys one of the best standards of life in the world. Why are you putting yourself through all this?

Again, I apologise if this sounds curt and again, you really do not have to answer me if you do not feel like it.
 
:eek:
I will try...

See, it's not only that I love it in San Francisco. It is also that during my first few stays there I have seen how many homeless people there are. I ahve started talking to those people. making friends with them. Have found kindness and sharing... and a desire to help people in exactly that place where I like it so much.

I also like living a life of simplicity. I like to "travel light", so to say. I have the Christian values of sharing... of not being amterialistic... they mean a lot to me.

There is more. My friends there now. They know me the way I am, some of them have very little themselves, and we connect on a very spiritual level.

And my poetry. Maybe the whole "starving artist" image too?

There may be more. That's just what came to my mind right now. Plus that I have been doing it for... well, the first time I was over there was in 95! I feel a connection to that place.


Last year I almost got a work permit. Well, maybe not almost, but I was close. A homeless outreach center, located in a church, where I have often volunteered, wanted to offer me a real paying job, and we were going to go through all the paperwork. Unfortunately it was all so complicated that finally they had to hire somebody else... even though the director really wanted me, she knows me very well, and I know the homeless people in that area very well.


By the way - and now I am sorry, maybe I shouldn't write so much about myself here, this is not a blog;)... I do love my family in Switzerland. We get along very very well, I am evry close with my parents in particular. Sometimes they do wonder why I do this too. And it is hard to explain.


Kathrin
 
he wants to apply for a visa to canada he left a wife and a unborn child they want to renunite with his wife again
 
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