Korean Job Discussion Forums

jonbowman88 · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Location: gwangju, s korea

I'm trying to get my wife a tourist visa to visit the US during summer vacation, we've been rejected like 3 times now cause we're married, they say we need an immigration visa, even though we don't want to immigrate. The visa waiver program doesn�t apply because my wife�s been previously rejected.

Has anyone else had this problem?

What should I do? Any input is appreciated.

crossmr · Joined: 22 Nov 2008 Location: Hwayangdong, Seoul

Does she have an electronic passport? Koreans with an electronic passport don't need a tourist visa anymore and can visit for 30 days.

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

We went through the worry of all of this when we married. She has had a tourist visa for like 8 years, and has been to the USA three times with me, and twice by herself. Still, I wonder what will happen when she goes to reapply after her 10 years is up?

Luckily, she's got some pretty convincing ties here with her job and all.

jonbowman88 · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Location: gwangju, s korea

Koreans that were rejected for a visa before the visa waiver program passed still need to apply and be accepted regardless of whether or not they have an electronic passport.

T-J · Joined: 10 Oct 2008 Location: Seoul EunpyungGu Yeonsinnae

I'm curios about this to. The visa waiver program as I understand it, isn't necessarily a guarantee for admission to the county. A person can still be denied entry without prior approval if there is cause.

The reason I'm concerned, and by the way I'm going to get my answer from the U.S. Embassy not from Dave's, but I thought I'd post for those that were in a similar situation, is that my wife had a green card and lived in the States for a number of years before we returned to Korea. My fear is that this is seen as an overstay risk and thus a reason to deny entry.

I have to go to the embassy next month to renew our son's passport and will get an answer to this question, as we are planning a vacation for this Christmas. If anything is learned, I'll pass it along here.

T-J · Joined: 10 Oct 2008 Location: Seoul EunpyungGu Yeonsinnae

Sorry, ignored the OP a little. A rental contract showing the key money that you have deposited should suffice to prove intent to return to Korea.

Remember the embassy isn't really working against you, they just have criteria that must be met. Ask them what they need and provide it.

Good luck!

ChinaBoy · Joined: 17 Feb 2007

I was wondering if the OP knows what a "questionnaire" is.

DaeSung · Joined: 05 Dec 2005 Location: ��

Not sure if this will apply to you but we had a similar experince the first time we went to get my wife a tourist visa.

We got married in the U.S. and came to Korea the following week. A year later we wanted to get the tourist visa and the embassy wanted us to file for a green card.

We told them that we were both playing on staying in Korea and working here for a while before we head back to the states. They didn't reject us for the visa, but they did make us bring some proof of our intention to stay in Korea. I got a copy of my contract from work and gave it to them, along with a copy of my wife�s contract for work (even though she is Korean). After giving them both work contracts and an interview they gave my wife a U.S. tourist visa that said "Husband works for MNC in Korea, plan on staying long term."

2.5 years later we went to apply for a green card and had no problems... (you know other than the normal crap related to applying for a green card).

I'd just ask them what type of documentation you need to show that you have intent to stay in Korea.

IamBabo · Joined: 16 Jun 2005

Well, when I went 2 years ago to get a B2 tourist visa for my wife. We gave them like 25 pages of documents to show our intent to stay in Korea. Bankbooks, housing contracts, work contracts, etc. You name it, we gave it to them. The guy was an A S S, and told me it wasn't enough, he went in back to "talk" to his supervisor, at least he said he did.

Anyway, he told me that we should be applying for the Immigrant Visa as well. He said I should have submitted my I-130 as soon as I got married. I told him we have no intention of going there permanently right now, but he didn't care. We still got approved, but it was only a one-year tourist visa, most get 5-10 years! I guess it looks like you're trying to cheat the system? That guy was a total tool that day, he has a job to do, I get it, but we had all the docs to prove our intentions, and we still got major attitude. And yes, I held my cool and wasn't in anyway rude to him..

I posted something in the Travel forum about getting her a visa this summer because I still haven't submitted the I-130 and was wondering if it would be OK because they are in the VWP now and she was approved in the past. Anybody have any advice about this? Thanks...

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

I can give you two good airport immigration stories about arriving in the USA with my wife.

The first time, we weren't married yet. We arrived in Minneapolis, and prior to walking off of the plane, I told her we shouldn't walk in together. She had a tourist visa from her job, but I was still worried because if they saw us together, they might give us some flack. When we got off of the plane, we walked up separately, but she was confused by the immigration lane signs and approached me to ask a question. Within seconds, an agent who looked like Paul Blart Mall Cop ran -- I mean RAN over to us and stuck his finger in our face. Instantly, he wanted to see our papers and was accusing us of planning to marry. She showed him her tourist visa and he went away.

The second time was our honeymoon to Hawaii. I was a little nervous, because despite her having the tourist visa, we'd just married. I knew it was a stretch, but in this day and age, I was a bit afraid they would already know we'd gotten hitched since we'd done our paperwork at the US Embassy. We went through our separate lines after getting off of the plane, and she was taking a long time. I got nervous, and went back to the exit area to see what I could see. Once again, I was stormed-on by an agent asking why I was waiting there. I told him, "I'm waiting for my wife." That was followed by several questions as to why she was my wife but going through the non-citizen line, etc... I just told them she had a tourist visa and had been to the USA many times before. They made me go wait downstairs. Five minutes later, she finally showed up. That was a sweaty five minutes.

jonbowman88 · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Location: gwangju, s korea

Yeah... Thanks for all the input. I've been to Seoul three times now for this. It really is ridiculous and expensive, last time they didn�t even want to see any documentation proving we planned to stay here in Korea. We were basically shouted out being told, "we don't care if you want to just visit for two weeks, you need an immigration visa� Thing is, to get an immigration visa, you need to prove you do in fact plan to immigrate. It makes my blood boil just talking about it.

And on top of that, if my wife gets a green card, she needs to start paying taxes to the US on foreign earned income.... I think so anyways, correct me if I'm wrong.