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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Posts
    9

    Default Getting a Tourist Visa for a Fiancée, with No Current Plan to Immigrate

    Hello. I am a resident of Ohio, but I am currently on a 2 year assignment in Tanzania, Africa. I am a plant manager for a power plant here in Dar Es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania.

    I arrived in December, and met a woman. We dated every day until March, then I asked her to marry me. She said yes, and she moved in with me at my apartment. We've been living together ever since. We are not yet married.

    I am on xpatriot status- that is, I am a US citizen, but on an extended stay visa in Tanzania. I will be here until July, 2009. I get to go home two times a year, once in June, and once in December. Because we are not yet married, we applied for a visitor's visa to the US for my fiance'. It was denied!

    She is poor, she works for $65 per month, and has no assets other than her cloths and a dvd player. She has almost nothing in her bank account. Her father died when she was very young, but she still has her mother and two brothers here in Tanzania. The immigration people said that she could not establish adequate ties to Tanzania to ensure that she would return. I went in there and raised holy hell with them. Clearly they are discriminating against poor people, and I am paying for the trip myself. They would not accept my letter to them telling them exactly what was going on. They told her that they didn't even belive I existed. After I went in and raised hell, they now know I exist, but they said that even so, her application will likely still be denied if she appies again.

    So, what the heck should I do? I was planning to marry her when I got home in June, but maybe I should do it now in Tanzania. The embassy fool said that I need to apply for a fiance visa, but that visa is only good for 90 days, and I only go home to the US every 6 months! You have to apply for the fiance visa in the US, so if I go home in June, she can't come in December because her 90 days will be up.

    Please, someone give me some advise. I desparatly want her to come with me so that she can meet my family. Ever since those bastards flew those planes into our buildings, this process apparenlty is ridiculously terrible. My friends tell me not to even bother and break up with her. I love her with all my heart- and doing that is not an option. Please help. Thank you.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: Frustrated With Local Immigration

    If she is not eligible for a fiancée visa, and you can't practically utilize a fiancée visa, then the most obvious alternative would be to consider marrying and ultimately applying for a spouse visa.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Posts
    9

    Default Re: Frustrated With Local Immigration

    My boss suggested I do what is posted here:

    http://www.bridgewest.com/visaservic...p/citizenship/

    I will be here for 2 years, and he was in exactly the same shoes as I am in several years ago. He married his wife, and 8 months later she was a US citizen. It sounds like that would be my best avenue.

    What's funny, I have to go down to the US Embassy and talk to the same guy who denied my fiance's visa to get an affidavit saying that I am not married! This should be good.

    Please respond with any comments or any more suggestions. I appreciate it.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Posts
    9

    Default Re: Frustrated With Local Immigration

    Ok, I think I have it solved. For those who might be in my situation some time, I'll tell you what I did.

    My problem as stated above is that I am staying here on a permanent job for two years, and I get to go home twice a year for 2 weeks. I want to take my fiance with me, but they turned down her travel visa.

    First, it helps a ton if you can go down to the embassy personally and talk to them face to face. Without doing that, I doubt that I would have solved the problem.

    I went there today armed with the USIS instructions for a K-3 Spouse visa, and a Fiance visa. I also went in with the local regulations for marriage. I sat down with the very guy who denied my fiance's travel visa and asked him to explain the different visas to me. After 10 minutes of explaining the fiance visa and the K-3 spouse visa, I then asked, "Ok, I think the K-3 is the way to go, and I am prepared to marry her a little earlier than we planned, but won't the State Department give me trouble when I apply for another K-3 in 6 months?"

    He looked at me for a second, "Well the K-3 is meant to for a permanent immigration for a spouse." I said, "Well, I'm living here in Tanzania for 2 years first, and I want my wife to be able to come home with me on vaction." He replied, "Well then she needs a tourist visa".

    "No kidding. You denied it yesterday, so that's not an option."

    He blinked. Gotcha, you little twerp. "Ok, yeah, you're right. She needs a tourist visa. Go set up another appointment and bring her back. As long as she can verbally establish a tie to you (me), we'll grant the visa."

    Heh heh.

    The moral of the story- don't give up and go talk to the guy face to face. Come with a plan where you can trap him in his own BS. It worked for me.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Posts
    9

    Default Re: Frustrated With Local Immigration

    Well, here's a follow up.

    We went to the Embassy today for her new Visa interview. They asked four questions:

    1. Why are you going to the US?
    2. Do you plan to return?
    3. When are you getting married?
    4. Do you plan to immigrate to the US after you are married?

    Answers:
    1. To visit my fiance's parents and family.
    2. Yes, my fiance is stationed here in Tanzania for 2 years.
    3. September
    4. Yes, after we apply for and recieve a marriage Visa in 2009.

    Bada bing, bada boom, she got her visa. Of course the guy I talked to last week was asking the questions, and he could see me in the waiting room. She was thrilled, and so was I.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Posts
    1

    Default Re: Frustrated With Local Immigration

    cool, good job, I am a US citizen who married my wife when her visa was about to expire here in the US back in 1980... things were a bit easier then, we both went to the local immigration office and waded through the forms to change her status. She eventually became a citizen and everything was fine for a while. Now one of my relatives has married an illegal immigrant and we discovered things have changed. Even though he is a US citizen, if they file to change her status, she will have to exit the country anywhere from 3 months to a year before being allowed back in legally. They are both in love and are not willing to go that route, so she remains illegal. She works but can not pay taxes as she does not have a social security card. Her past employers have taken advantage of her status and have underpayed her along with not paying anything for social security, insurance, etc., etc.,
    Hopefully the immigration bill reform will solve this problem. I wonder how many others are sitting quietly in the same boat.

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