r/AskUSImmigrationPros

I’m not sure what subreddit to post this in but here’s a brief description of my situation.

I’m 20, I’m Canadian, and I have a boyfriend in the United States. Visiting him once a month is super costly. I’m looking to study in his state, do my best in school and earn a degree for a NAFTA profession. This way, I can have a chance at living my life closer to him. I will study exclusively online for my first year. The process has begun and I am now registering for classes.

The problem is:
They have my reason for visiting the US on file. If I try to get a student visa, I think I may get denied out of suspicion that I intend to stay in the U.S illegally to be with him. Should I get an immigration lawyer? I fully intend to take a legal pathway to immigration, even though it will be a long journey.

I’m seeing him again in three weeks. I plan to stay for a month this time. Is this a bad idea? Should I make my trip shorter? I don’t want to financially commit to a degree that won’t work out due to border scrutiny. Looking for advice from people who have experience with US border agents.

My I-130 is currently in process through consular processing, and I’m thinking about visiting my wife in the U.S. However, I’m not sure whether I can get a tourist visa while I have an active immigration case and, therefore, an apparent immigrant intent.
I’d like to hear from anyone who has been in a similar situation and was actually able to get a tourist visa while their I-130 was pending. Has anyone here successfully done this?

I have an upcoming international flight because I need to visit my family due to an emergency. I previously had more than one year of lawful presence in the U.S., and I have already traveled internationally twice and returned without any issues.
However, with the recent updates, I’m a little worried about traveling again. My main concern is whether I will be allowed to re-enter the United States when I return.
If traveling could create an issue with a bar or another immigration matter that I would need to deal with afterward, I can handle that. Right now, I urgently need to travel overseas to see my family.
Based on my situation, is it safe for me to leave the U.S. and expect to be allowed back in?

Hello, I’m 28, originally from Honduras. I came to the US in 2007 & had an order of Deportation/Removal in 2008. In 2014 I was approved for DACA & have been renewing it since.

I am getting married in October to a US Citizen. I will be starting my application process. With the changing laws about advance parole no longer being a way to adjust your status I’ve thought of what my plan B is. I think I’ve come up with something but I wanted to reach out here to see if anyone could share any knowledge.

What I’m thinking is to get married in the US. Apply for a Mexican Temporary Residency at a US consulate location. When my Mexican residency is approved, I’ll temporarily move to Mexico, and apply for my US residency living outside of the US.

My thought is that by leaving the US & applying from outside, I would eliminate the hurdle of dealing with the order of removal & that it would speed up my process to get my residency.

I don’t know if this would make a difference at all really. So I’m open to wisdom and knowledge from others.

Side note: We chose Mexico because we have future plans in Mexico and plan to live back and forth & think this would be a great way to start that.

Thank you in advance!!

I am a Croatian citizen and would be travelling to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program (ESTA).
I have been offered work as an independent contractor for a company based outside the United States. My role would be to accompany dogs from Europe to their new owners in the United States. The dogs would have all required U.S. import, customs and veterinary documentation, including formal entry documentation prepared by a U.S. customs broker.
I would be paid by the non-U.S. company in euros for the transportation service. I would stay in the United States for approximately four nights and then return to Serbia. I would not be employed by or paid by a U.S. company.
The company has informed me that other independent contractors have performed the same type of transportation using ESTA.
Could you please clarify whether this specific activity is permissible under the Visa Waiver Program/ESTA, or whether I would require a different visa classification?
Thank you for your assistance.

Landed in Chicago yesterday with my family to visit my granddaughter before heading to LA for my fully-funded PhD at UCLA (program starts in Sept). I already have a valid F-1 visa since May. Border patrol pulled me aside, held me for 3 hours, barely explained anything, and finally told me I couldn’t enter before Aug 22 because that’s the “earliest admission date” on my I-20 - even though my visa’s been valid for months.

I was only let in because I also have a valid 10-year tourist visa (I’m from Georgia), so right now I’m technically registered here as a tourist, not a student.

Now they’re saying to be “properly registered” I need to fly out of the country (not Canada/Mexico) at some point after the 22nd and re-enter on the same visa I already have?? That makes zero sense to me and I can’t really afford a random international trip right now just for paperwork.

Has anyone dealt with this? Is this actually required or is there another way around it? Genuinely stressed and don’t know what to do at this point 😞

I am from the 75 banned countries and some lawyers adviced me to do consular processing, few others to try an AOS. I wanna read you guys, does anybody ca share any experience like this?

Hello everybody,
I have an annotation on my visa for Washington, DC, but I don't have the opportunity to do an observership there since it's a 2-month rotation and they are giving a generic letter at the end.
My total length of stay is 2 months in Ds-160 and I have granted a 6mo stay according to I-94.
So, I am not sure if I should skip that rotation.
If I do it, I might just get a generic letter despite all the hard work and time I put in.
So, what should I do?
I am already in the U.S., and when I went to immigration, they didn't ask me anything; they just let me go.
They didn't check my other observership letters or my return flight either.
So, I'm a bit confused about how to handle this situation right now.
It is single entry.

I was able to get an Emergency Advance Parole appointment, but unfortunately the appointment date is after the date I need to travel. A Tier 2 USCIS officer told me there are no earlier appointments available at my local field office, and I’m unable to schedule an appointment at another field office.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? Is there any way to request an earlier Emergency AP appointment, ask USCIS to consider another field office, or otherwise escalate the request? Any walk-ins to local field office for an emergency AP appointment.Any advice or experiences with USCIS in this situation would be greatly appreciated.

My H-1B is valid until Sept 30, 2026, and my extension is already filed (regular processing). I also have an approved I-140.
I’m planning domestic travel Sep 1st–Sep 5th. With the recent reports of increased ICE enforcement at airports, has anyone on H-1B traveled domestically recently? Any issues or precautions I should be aware of?

I'm hoping to hear from lawful permanent residents (green card holders) who have recently flown on a domestic flight departing from Reagan National Airport (DCA).

Due to my circumstances, DCA is really my only practical airport option, so I'm especially interested in hearing about experiences there rather than at other airports.

With the recent reports of increased immigration enforcement at some U.S. airports, my spouse and I are trying to make an informed decision based on firsthand experiences rather than speculation. I am a lawful permanent resident with a conditional green card that has been granted extended validity. Thank you in advance for your help.

I’m hoping someone familiar with U.S. citizenship through a parent / passport applications for people born abroad can point me in the right direction.
I was born in Mexico in 1958. My mother was a Mexican citizen and my father was a U.S. citizen born in Kentucky in 1901. My parents were never married, but my father is listed on my Mexican birth certificate.
When I was young, my original Mexican birth certificate was stamped at the border stating that I was a U.S. citizen through my American father. This was the document I used throughout my life. My father never filed for a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA).
Unfortunately, I recently lost that original Mexican birth certificate. I ordered a new certified copy from Mexico, but of course the replacement does not have the old U.S. border/citizenship stamp on it.
Both of my parents have passed away, so I cannot get statements from either of them.
I am now trying to establish/document my citizenship and apply for my first U.S. passport.
I have:
• My new certified Mexican birth certificate showing my father
• My U.S. Social Security card
• Extensive U.S. Census records showing my father living in the United States throughout his life
• My father’s U.S. military draft registration records
• Records showing that he was born and lived in Kentucky/California and was in the United States for decades before my birth
The difficult part is that I have not been able to locate a traditional birth certificate for my father. He was born in Kentucky in 1901, when birth registration was not as consistent as it is today.
Has anyone dealt with a similar case where the U.S.-citizen parent was born in the early 1900s and no birth certificate could be located?
What other records should I gather to prove my father’s U.S. citizenship, his physical presence in the United States before my birth, and my relationship to him?
Would census records, military/draft records or a Kentucky “no birth record found” letter be useful?
Also, because my parents were never married and I was born in 1958, are there additional documents I would need concerning paternity or legitimation?
Any advice from someone who has gone through an older citizenship-by-descent/passport case like this would be greatly appreciated.

Today, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decided that traveling on advanced parole after being unlawfully present in the U.S. for a year or more triggers the 10-year ban. The BIA embraced the plain English definition of “departure,” which means going away.

You may read Matter of Delcarmen-Lara, 29&NDec.830 (2026), at this link:

https://www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1457741/dl?inline

Hi. Please be kind.

Any Iranian born Canadian citizens have recently crossed the border to US to at the Ottawa airport ? If so how was your experience? (Asking for my cousin who has to go to US for an academic reason. He has no military Experience)

Hi, everyone.

My girlfriend is a Portuguese-Venezuelan dual citizen and we both live in Venezuela. She was supposed to travel to the US this Thursday for two weeks for tourism, but turns out that, as she received her update on her ESTA renewal, she saw that now she is not authorized to enter the country.

It is also not her first time going to the US (she has been there at the very least two separate times that I know of, never overstaying).

I saw some posts from last year on this sub about this happening to Portuguese-Indian citizens, and I assume this is similar due to her being Venezuelan as well.

Is there anything to be done? I'm sure the answer is likely no, but she has spent a lot of money on this trip, she was really excited and really stressed so obviously this is hitting like a ton of bricks. Just trying to find out if there is any way it can be helped.

Thank you!

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for some brutal honesty, hope, or creative advice from anyone who has successfully closed the gap between Canada and the US under complicated circumstances.
My boyfriend (M-28) lives in Utah and I (F-31) live in British Columbia. We are a 15-hour drive apart. We’ve been together for 7 months, and we are completely ready to move in together. But looking at the logistics, it feels impossible and frustrating.
Here is our current situation:
Me (BC): I don’t have my passport yet (working on it). I am a full-time student, so I cannot leave Canada right now. I also have 4 children and 3 pets, which makes uprooting my life to the US difficult even after I finish school.
Him (Utah): He works a full-time schedule of one week on, one week off. He makes great money there, but he also has heavy American student loans he needs to pay off first.

Our Roadblocks:

The Marriage Route: If we do spousal sponsorship for him to come to Canada, he is terrified of losing his ability to work and refuses to make me legally obligated to pay his way. For him to feel comfortable going this route he wants to pay his debt off first and save a significant amount of money so that I’m never put behind.

The Work Visa Route: He is totally willing to get a Canadian work visa, but every job opening he looks at in Canada pays a fraction of what he makes in the US.

We’ve discussed him moving closer to the border (Spokane area) so that atleast we cut down travel costs and time spent traveling but this only feels like a bandaid to the actual issue of being apart.
We feel completely stuck. He has a great work schedule for visiting (week on/off), but we only see eachother once every month or two.. and the border, the distance, and the financial/family realities are weighing heavily on us.

Has anyone bridged the gap from America to Canada under similar constraints? How did you handle the massive pay cut/currency difference while dealing with US debt? Is there a legal way for him to keep his US job while living in Canada, or did someone have to bite the bullet and wait years?
Any advice or success stories would mean the world right now. Thank you.

I’m an american citizen, having lived in the states for most of my life. I live abroad and am getting married to a Palestinian citizen holding a Palestinian Authority passport.

I understand that the Trump Administration has done full suspension on visas for Palestinian citizens. Is there any exemption for spouses of American citizens?

Not looking for a residency visa, just a visit/tourist visa would suffice for now