Another USA visa denial question!

[honeymooner]

Hello all,

My first post here on the aus frequent flyer forum so forgive me if i am posting in the wrong section!

So, I am currently planning my honeymoon for next may. We decided we would love to go to the usa and do vegas, l.a and hawaii. I did me research and was ready to boo when the travel agent mentioned etsa. I went home and completed mine and my partners. My partner has a criminal conviction involving moral turpitude so he was not able to take advantage of the visa waiver program. He was convicted in 2004 for theft of a motor vehicle. He was 17 at the time of offence but was charged as an adult : ( He is now 26 (will be 27 when we hope to go.)

Soooo, he did all of the paper work and went to his interview with the us consulate in Melbourne, were he was told that they could not issue him a visa and he received a notice of inelegibiliy for a visa but was recommended for this to be waived. They took his passport and sent it off to Washington. They told my fiance that he would get his passport sent back to him the outcome in aprox 4 weeks time with the outcome.

It has been 3 weeks today and i am anxiously awaiting the result.

My question is, has anyone been through this? I would love to hear your outcomes... the good and bad! What do you think my chances are of taking my dream honeymoon WITH my husband!!!

thanks

 

[Blackadder]

The recommendation for it to be waived would be a positive IMHO, I would be very surprised if hewas denied a Visa.

 

[Alanslegal]

Welcome to AFF honeymooner and congratulations on the big achievement!

As Blackadder said, I think the Visa will be granted but if there's an unlucky outcome, don't panic as there are still sooooo many places in the world you can still go to. Think of a honeymoon in Europe ..... starting with a gondala ride in Venice, kissing under the Eiffel Tower in Paris and those gorgeous sunsets off Santorini.

 

[ermen]

Welcome to AFF honeymooner and congratulations on the big achievement!

As Blackadder said, I think the Visa will be granted but if there's an unlucky outcome, don't panic as there are still sooooo many places in the world you can still go to. Think of a honeymoon in Europe ..... starting with a gondala ride in Venice, kissing under the Eiffel Tower in Paris and those gorgeous sunsets off Santorini.

I myself just cameback from such a trip - prefer Europe to US. Inmy view I find that the US Customs service to be extremely rude and arrogant and will not consider it a loss if I cant get to the US. Hope all works out though - seems u have a good chance

 

[honeymooner]

Thankyou all for your encouragement! I hope you are right! It will be their loss if he gets knocked back! He is a good person with a good job, he has 2 beautiful children and is a family man! If they are going to judge him for something he did as a child without knowing the full story and background then they miss out on us coming to spend our money in their country!

Backup plan at the moment is maybe south Africa and Zimbabwe. I haven't even looked into Europe so i guess that's a possibility too if his application is denied!

Would still love to hear the good and bad stories from people who have actually been through this situation!

 

[an*g-bne]

I'm told (and on very good authority - by someone who works in the visa granting department, though not in Australia) that if the facts presented by the OP are indeed correct, that whilst it is true that the OP's partner is not eligible for the visa waiver, the visa should actually have been granted after the interview and the notice of inadmissibility should not have been issued.

I was referred to the Immigration and Nationality Act, specifically section 212(a)(2)(A)(ii), which says that if the applicant was under 18 at the time of the offence (17, according to the OP), the applicant has only ONE conviction for moral turpitude (we assume so, as the OP didn't say otherwise), and it occurred, and the applicant released from prison, at least 5 years ago (OP says it was in 2004, so unless there was a jail term of more than 2 years), then the applicant is indeed eligible for a visa to be granted by the interviewing officer.

(2) Criminal and related grounds.-


(A) Conviction of certain crimes.-


(i) In general.-Except as provided in clause (ii), any alien convicted of, or who admits having committed, or who admits committing acts which constitute the essential elements of-


(I) a crime involving moral turpitude (other than a purely political offense) or an attempt or conspiracy to commit such a crime, or


(II) a violation of (or a conspiracy or attempt to violate) any law or regulation of a State, the United States, or a foreign country relating to a controlled substance (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802)), is inadmissible.


(ii) Exception.-Clause (i)(I) shall not apply to an alien who committed only one crime if-

(I) the crime was committed when the alien was under 18 years of age, and the crime was committed (and the alien released from any confinement to a prison or correctional institution imposed for the crime) more than 5 years before the date of application for a visa or other documentation and the date of application for admission to the United States, or


(II) the maximum penalty possible for the crime of which the alien was convicted (or which the alien admits having committed or of which the acts that the alien admits having committed constituted the essential elements) did not exceed imprisonment for one year and, if the alien was convicted of such crime, the alien was not sentenced to a term of imprisonment in excess of 6 months (regardless of the extent to which the sentence was ultimately executed).
​

The problem, of course, is that the passport has gone off for a waiver application, and so, the OP's partner can't reapply for a visa, or apply to have the previous ruling overturned. The bigger problem is that I'm told that 4 weeks is remarkably optimistic, although it is possible that applications from Australia are handled quicker than those from some other countries (where my contact works, they usually quote 4 to 6 months).

So, the good news: you'd expect the waiver to be granted, since technically it wasn't even necessary in the first place. The bad - it could take a lot longer than 4 weeks, hopefully not though.

 

[honeymooner]

Thanks for your valuable reply. Unfortunetly although my fiance was 17 at time of offence, he was actually charged as an adult and the charge was dated as of when he was 18. The actual offence was committed months before when he was 17 but recorded at 18 : (

We will wait and see what happens. I will be sure to update here with the outcome!

 

[UP4014]

I myself just cameback from such a trip - prefer Europe to US. Inmy view I find that the US Customs service to be extremely rude and arrogant and will not consider it a loss if I cant get to the US. Hope all works out though - seems u have a good chance

Interesting, I'd have never thought of not going to a country because of the first hour of a 4 week holiday. The US us a great place for a honeymoon. (like many other places of course)

Matt
PS, never had any problem with US Customs staff being rude, I wasn't rude to them either of course.

 

[Deleted member]

Thankyou all for your encouragement! I hope you are right! It will be their loss if he gets knocked back! He is a good person with a good job, he has 2 beautiful children and is a family man! If they are going to judge him for something he did as a child without knowing the full story and background then they miss out on us coming to spend our money in their country!

Backup plan at the moment is maybe south Africa and Zimbabwe. I haven't even looked into Europe so i guess that's a possibility too if his application is denied!

Would still love to hear the good and bad stories from people who have actually been through this situation!

If you can't do the time, don't do the crime, harsh I know. But 17 is hardly too young to know the difference between right and wrong. I have a 5 year old grandson and he is already getting it .
having said all that , it's not like he is a career criminal. Kate wins let got done for shoplifting. But seems to do ok working in the US ( or does she have a us passport?)

 

[cove]

Our staff member was granted a Visa while I was travelling. His passport was returned by mail and although there was no letter he has a Visa stamp in it.....it took about 16 weeks to get to YES.

 

[Deleted member]

On the whole US visa thing. I have a ( US ) visa on an old passport which is open ended. I.e. no expiry date. If I travel with my new and old passport does the visa stand even though the passport has expired?

 

[Mal]

On the whole US visa thing. I have a ( US ) visa on an old passport which is open ended. I.e. no expiry date. If I travel with my new and old passport does the visa stand even though the passport has expired?

They cancelled most undated visas when they inplemented stricter controls many years ago. I cant give direct advice but suggest you confirm the validity of it.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using AustFreqFly

 

[UP4014]

On the whole US visa thing. I have a ( US ) visa on an old passport which is open ended. I.e. no expiry date. If I travel with my new and old passport does the visa stand even though the passport has expired?

I think Mal is right, you visa is a dead duck I'm afraid.

 

[Deleted member]

Oh well, que sera

 

[drmikki]

GPH, maybe best to check that - when I went to the US with a colleague he had the same situation (pretty sure it was an open-ended US visa; otherwise 10yrs) and he carried both new and old passports and got in fine. I was a bit worried travelling with him - slightly shifty looking nervous Muslim guy with two Indian passports stapled together? He got in and out fine, with no special treatment by US Customs...

 

[Deleted member]

Mine are NZ passports. Interesting point though +1 has an Aussie passport and was only oven. 5 year validity. I thought that is was he kiwis that bugged up ANZUS. Yet open ended visas....