Quote of the day/week/however long


"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."
~William James

Thursday, February 12, 2015

It's Not Illegal to do Something That's Not Illegal

 How may times has this horror been visited upon sweet, hard-working, unsuspecting line officers?

OMG! A woman! Had a baby! In America! On a B1/B2 visa!

And out come the pitchforks and torches.


While babies can sometimes  be conceived by accident (although not nearly as often as the young might try to convince adults that it's true), they are never born by accident. And those that are born in the US, accidentally or not, acquire citizenship via jus soli.

So what, oh what, is a consular officer to do when faced with a  well-established, pregnant woman who is applying for a B1/B2 visa and dares to tell the truth: she intends to have her baby in the US? A baby that will automatically acquire US citizenship at birth?

Barring any other disqualification, the officer issues the visa.



Does Madam hear the sound of heads exploding all over the world? She is sorry for that, but not as much as those exploders might wish. And now let's make it even worse.

A well-established person applies for a B1/B2 visa in order to travel to the US, marry That Certain US Citizen Someone, and bring him or her home here to Wherever, Planet Earth.

Barring any other disqualification, the officer issues the visa.

Several members of a well-established family apply for B1/B2 visas in order to attend the wedding of a younger family member who traveled to the US on a B1/B2 visa, met That Certain US Citizen Someone, is now getting married, and has no intention of returning home to Wherever.

Barring any other disqualification, the officer issues the visas.

A person applies for a B1/B2 visa in order to travel to the US for a job interview. He/she plans, if hired, to return home to Wherever and wait for the approved petition but that's okay because s/he'll need to tie up a lot of loose ends here anyway.

Barring any other disqualification, the officer issues the visa.



Madam has seen, again and again and again, perfectly qualified applicants refused under exactly these circumstances. However, mes enfants, conoffs do not/not - and have no grounds to - refuse visas...

due to the production of a new US citizen, and thus the possibility of possible future immigration 21 years from now or maybe much later or not at all;

due to suspicion that the applicant might perhaps some day change his/her mind, maybe, maybe not;

for revenge on a family because one member supposedly 'tricked' a conoff into issuing a visa and will now (legally) marry and (legally) adjust status, even though Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Uncle Jamil show no sign of intending to do more than dress well, kiss the bride, eat some cake, and come home;

for someone who fully intends, if hired in the US, to apply for and work under the correct visa category.

There should not be any questions.*

*Footnote, to fend off spurious complaining:
"214(b) Every alien... shall be presumed to be an immigrant until he establishes to the satisfaction of the consular officer, at the time of application for a visa...  that he is entitled to a nonimmigrant status."

1 comment:

dvejr said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you. You might have added the previous overstay. Remember our NIV colleagues in Kimchistan who righteously proclaimed: "But she ABUSED her last visa!"?