Integrity Legal - Law Firm in Bangkok | Bangkok Lawyer | Legal Services Thailand Back to
Integrity Legal

Legal Services & Resources 

Up to date legal information pertaining to Thai, American, & International Law.

Contact us: +66 2-266 3698

info@integrity-legal.com

ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawUS Immigration LawTravelling to the USA on a Tourist Visa While a CR-1 Visa Application Is Pending

Travelling to the USA on a Tourist Visa While a CR-1 Visa Application Is Pending

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests we are discussing US tourist visas and we are also discussing immigrant spouse visas in the form of the CR-1; that is the Conditional Residence spouse visa to the United States. It does confer a green card but as noted in prior videos, it is Conditional Residency so the green card is for a 2-year duration rather than a 10-year duration associated with the IR-1 Visa.

That being stated, what we are talking about here is, in certain circumstances you will see situations where a couple I should say, where the foreign spouse, in most cases in our practice the spouse is a Thai National, where he or she is seeking a CR-1 Visa. They have previously been issued a B-1 or a B-2 or often times more often times than not what is called a B-1/B-2 Tourist or Business traveler visa; basically colloquially referred to as a Tourist visa. So you have got this person who has gone ahead and filed for immigrant spousal visa benefits but they have got a perfectly valid tourist visa for the United States. Where does that leave them with respect to traveling into the United States sort of temporarily or at all while this CR-1 application is pending? Well it leaves them in quite a bind from the standpoint of intent. Basically what you have to get to the bottom of is whether or not the individual in question can be deemed to have immigrant intent at the time of entering the United States and this is a question that needs a lot of sussing out. The other thing is, as a result of that, the individual traveling into the United States on a tourist visa with a pending immigrant visa, could be found inadmissible to the United States as an intending immigrant without proper documentation

Again oftentimes the default position if you will, can be construed as, "not a good idea to use a tourist visa after an Immigrant Visa has been filed; after a petition has been filed." That being said, there are limited circumstances where it may be feasible, where you have got an individual who really does have true non-immigrant intent for that particular trip. Again it is going to be heavily circumstantially dependent and for that reason it is a very good idea to go ahead and seek the advice of a legal professional who deals with immigration matters in order to ascertain the exact nuance and the best method for using visas based on the given couple’s circumstances.

So the thing to take away from this video is, although it is probably not the best idea to utilize the tourist visa when going into the United States if an immigrant visa is already pending due to an intention issue, there may be a limited set of circumstances where it is okay; where there really is non-immigrant intent for that narrow situation.

But that being said, again this video should not be viewed broadly. It should be viewed simply as a superficial explanation about how these things operate and those watching this video are strongly recommended to contact a legal professional if circumstances similar to those in this video are present in that individual’s given case and go ahead and ascertain the best way to utilize all of their visa options in the given circumstances.