My visa was cancelled. Will it affect my filing?
Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,
I TRAVELLED to the United States three times on my B1/B2 visa. I spent three months twice and four months once. When I took my two daughters to get their visa, the embassy cancelled mine. I am now engaged to be married early next year. My fiancé is an American citizen; he was born there.
Will the fact that my visa was cancelled be an issue when he starts doing the filing for me to move to America and live with him? He is going to start right after our wedding. He also travels here twice a year and we have been together over two years.
– TC
Dear TC,
When a visitor travels to the United States on a B1/B2 visa, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) usually stamps an exit date of six months from the date of entry. This does not mean that visitors are to remain in the United States for six months. This time period is given as convenience to the traveller in the event their stay of a couple weeks has to be extended and there would not be enough time.
Unfortunately, many persons see this six-month authorised period of stay as an invitation to remain in the United States for several months if they do not stay beyond the exit date. When a person remains in the United States for months on end, CBP presumes that they were working without authorisation to maintain themselves. This is not to say that there are persons who do come to America and stay for months on end without an issue – they are usually persons of significant wealth, who may even have property in America, and there is no question that they were not working.
Persons like yourself who remain in America for several months risk your visa and your ability to travel. The CBP can cancel visas and deny entry at any port, of persons who have a history of staying long periods in the US. Visa renewals can also be denied, or in a case such as yours when you take younger children to apply for their non-immigrant visas. This would also inhibit your ability to receive another non-immigrant visa.
However, if you are the beneficiary of an immigrant visa, e.g., your US citizen husband filing a petition for you to migrate, the cancellation of a visa could be an issue and will depend on the section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that you were found to have violated. Do not let this stop you from proceeding with your marriage and your husband filing for you. Consult with an immigration attorney and proceed with caution.
Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington, Esq, is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises immigration law in the United States; and family, criminal and international law in Florida. She is a diversity and inclusion consultant, mediator, and former special magistrate and hearing officer in Broward County, Florida. info@walkerhuntington.com