My Divorce From Argentina

[Ceviche]

My poor wife felt humiliated. She cried off and on for days after, and until the last couple of weeks had refused to even try again.

El Queso, her agony is understandable. But, please explain to her, I know many people from 3rd world countries face this all the time from various embassies worldwide especially USA, Canada, UK and Schengen embassies!

The trick is to be very patient, calm, have paper work in order and apply again (after the officially required period) with all paper work. In 3rd world countries, their are lines of people standing all night in front of the embassy ( USA, Schengen, UK etc). So many of the embassy officials are used to treating people from poor countries with disdain! As if everyone trying to go for tourism is a potential immigrant! In many ways their belief is not unfounded. I have personally spent lot of time in NY ( and Argentina) in recent years and regularly used to keep housekeepers in NY when I was there. Most of my housekeepers in NY inevitably turned out to be people who had illegally immigrated! eg Had a Indonesian woman who came on a 3months tourist visa, 10 years ago and never went back. Had a Ukranian woman who came on a student visa and married a American to get a green card. Had a Moroccon woman who came on a 3 months tourist visa many years ago and never went back. etc etc

Of course, your wife's case is different. But US embassy would inevitably assume that she has married you to ultimately immigrate to USA ( and then get divorced). So henceforth, their attitude. I know, its NOT true in your case but US embassy officials have seen 100,000's of cases similar to your case where it does hold true!

Just a few years ago, a friend of mine a Canadian citizen married a woman from a poor country in Asia in a " arranged marriage" via their parents. The girl flew in with him to Canada ( via spouse visa or whatever visa, I am not sure). She lived with him for 1 month or so. And then she went to Canadian police and told her " the man beats me every night!" ( this was NOT true but he could never prove it). To cut long story short - She got divorced from him, court entitled her to a hefty alimony, gave her his house! And you know what she told the guy, why she did all this?! She told him " I married you because this was exactly what my perfectly planned aim was!"

The guy is shattered! Lost all faith in women all over the world! Lives like a recluse!

El Queso, dont get me wrong. Your case is NOT like this. But US embassy/ or all first world country embassies hear stories like these all the time and hence their negative approach.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

The officials at the embassy have the discretion as to whether or not to give a visa. My wife told me the official with whom she sat down was very sympathetic, but said she had to ask her supervisor. My wife watched her talk to the supervisor, show the documents we had, and without even reviewing the documents or saying a word to the official conducting the interview, simply shook her head "no" and dismissed the interviewing official.

My poor wife felt humiliated. She cried off and on for days after, and until the last couple of weeks had refused to even try again.

Exactly. My Brazilian wife WAS able to visit the US with me multiple times on a tourist visa before we were married. She had been living in Argentina for 11 years, was the manager of a retail store, and had 2 kids here. Immigration approved her visa because she had serious reason to not stay in the US as an illegal. Once we were married, we applied for a spouse visa. She WAS NOT allowed to visit the US UNTIL that visa was approved. That took 14 months and during that time I was working in the US and she was in Argentina.

For US Immigration, there is a PRESUMPTION that anyone coming to the US will attempt to stay illegally. You need to provide sufficient evidence to overcome that presumption.

Good luck!

 

[Panini]

Exactly. My Brazilian wife WAS able to visit the US with me multiple times on a tourist visa before we were married.

Once we were married, we applied for a spouse visa. She WAS NOT allowed to visit the US UNTIL that visa was approved. That took 14 months and during that time I was working in the US and she was in Argentina.

Wow I'm suprised by that seeing as she had former visas/stamps. For EU countries (I know it's different....) if you'd have been granted a number of Schengen visas before and have stayed within the limits of the visa type usually the 3/4th can be a 1 year multy-entry visit because you've proved you're not a risk of staying. At least that's how I believe it works.

 

[Ceviche]

Wow I'm surprised

Unfortunately, once a person of a poor country marries a person of a rich country, its believed, it is being done only and only to seek immigration! All the good work done so far by the person of the poor country is immediately forgotten. Even if the person of the poor country is financially rich himself/ herself married to a poor person of the rich country, the embassy all the more, believes the marriage is for immigration reason!

 

[ElQueso]

Wow I'm suprised by that seeing as she had former visas/stamps. For EU countries (I know it's different....) if you'd have been granted a number of Schengen visas before and have stayed within the limits of the visa type usually the 3/4th can be a 1 year multy-entry visit because you've proved you're not a risk of staying. At least that's how I believe it works.

US Immigration law (or at least official, published policy if not an actual law) says that once you have applied for the spouse or fiancee visa and are waiting to be approved you cannot enter the US on any previous tourist visas. It's specific to the process. They don't want you coming in anyway thinking no problem with the visa and then getting rejected but staying because you're already there.

I understand the problems based on getting a visa for a foreigner, it's the policy and/or law that drives me crazy. I even understand the concept behind it, and I'm not saying it's completely invalid, but it gets to start feeling like "Zero Tolerance" policy which I have other reasons to despise (I've written previously about a problem, for example, my oldest son had with Zero Tolerance in school some years ago and it's only getting worse).

 

[DontMindMe]

He literally told me that she was considered a high-risk person because she immigrated to Argentina from a poor country. There was not much more information related to his comment about that.

He also said that marriage does mean anything. Everyone applying for a visa must stand on his or her own, marriage is, if anything, a detriment to a tourist visa, going back to the first comment.

In addition, he wrote that a person needs to prove roots in the country in which they are resident. Usually this means a job, paying taxes, a bank account, owning a car, owning property, a large family, etc. They want to know that the person will return to their country of origin within the parameters of the visa.

My Colombian boyfriend (with Argentine DNI) was quaking in his boots when he applied for the U.S. tourist visa. Young, old, rich, poor, they're are always treated like drug mules no matter which country they're trying to go to. Hell, even I got thrown in a room to wait for a full body scan leaving Colombia because I was a young woman traveling alone with a ton of stamps showing years of travel between Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, and I told security I had been traveling around with my boyfriend. (That was the wrong thing to say, even if it was the truth). It's just the way it is. Sad but true. He had been in Argentina working legally for three years when he applied for the tourist visa, with the same job he'd come to Argentina for. He had all the bank statements and everything, and got the visa, because he was able to prove that he'd go back. His Colombian friends who had visited the U.S. before advised him to not even mention who he was visiting or why, lest they think he was trying to stay in the country. I think he told them he wanted to visit NASA or something.

I am sad to say that I'm not in the least bit surprised that your wife was not granted a tourist visa. I am a little surprised that you thought she'd get it, actually. Because no, marriage does not make a difference. She had nothing to show that she was tied to living in Argentina. If anything, the fact that you were supporting her and paying rent and her sister's tuition might have just made her look like an opportunist. And earlier you said that she did everything 100% legal to immigrate to and have a life in Argentina. Well, if she was working en negro, that's not entirely true. Because now, unfortunately, she doesn't have the years of work records to prove her case. Her only roots in Argentina are financed by you, her American husband. I don't think it matters whether you plan to stay in Argentina or not, since they have told you that the two of you being married makes no difference in her application. I wonder if showing your financial status did more harm than good, I guess is my point. As unfair and unkind as it may be, the two of you are going to get a lot of skepticism thrown at you from the officials due to the fact that she's young, poor and a Paraguayan immigrant, and you're older, considerably wealthier and American. If you were a government official who'd seen it all, what would you think? It does not look good on paper, and that's all they care about. They think she's gonna drop you like a hot potato as soon as she lands, to put it bluntly. It would not be the first time in the history of U.S. immigration, that's for sure. I do not say this to be unkind; I say it to stress that you should not view your marriage as an asset to her case here. They seem to have made that pretty clear.

I sincerely hope that you are able to resolve things somehow, so that she can travel to the U.S. and meet your family. Get going with her monotributista stuff, stat. Good luck!

 

[majortungsten]

In the last month I have seen SIX of my friends either leave or make plans to leave Argentina.
I am from the UK. And I will be leaving Argentina in 15 weeks.
I will not be coming back.
It seems as though we are like rats, leaving a sinking ship. And partly, this is true. Things are about to get bad here. And we want to leave before it gets worse.
After talking to them, the common themes seem to be the constant rise in prices, the difficulty of getting anything, the difficulty of getting anything done, the complete lack of respect for people - even your so called friends.
I have been here for fifteen months. I have seen with my own eyes how nothing is improving. Things are getting worse. The infrastructure is crumbling.

I cannot say I will be sad to see the back of Argentina. But I am sad for the Argentines that I leave behind. Because they do not have a choice. They have to stay here and compete with a corrupt, lying, cheating government which does not care about the people. They have to compete with strikes, train derailments, rising crime levels, rising inflation.

Cordobese, I understand why you are leaving. I cannot wait to finish my sentence and leave here.

And Argentina: for the sake of your wonderful, beautiful, inconsiderate people.... take some responsibility for yourself, stop pointing a bony, botoxed finger at the rest of the world and help yourself.

 

[allcraz]

[quote name='Don'tMindMe']

I am sad to say that I'm not in the least bit surprised that your wife was not granted a tourist visa. I am a little surprised that you thought she'd get it, actually. Because no, marriage does not make a difference. She had nothing to show that she was tied to living in Argentina. If anything, the fact that you were supporting her and paying rent and her sister's tuition might have just made her look like an opportunist. And earlier you said that she did everything 100% legal to immigrate to and have a life in Argentina. Well, if she was working en negro, that's not entirely true. Because now, unfortunately, she doesn't have the years of work records to prove her case. Her only roots in Argentina are financed by you, her American husband. I don't think it matters whether you plan to stay in Argentina or not, since they have told you that the two of you being married makes no difference in her application. I wonder if showing your financial status did more harm than good, I guess is my point. As unfair and unkind as it may be, the two of you are going to get a lot of skepticism thrown at you from the officials due to the fact that she's young, poor and a Paraguayan immigrant, and you're older, considerably wealthier and American. If you were a government official who'd seen it all, what would you think? It does not look good on paper, and that's all they care about. They think she's gonna drop you like a hot potato as soon as she lands, to put it bluntly. It would not be the first time in the history of U.S. immigration, that's for sure. I do not say this to be unkind; I say it to stress that you should not view your marriage as an asset to her case here. They seem to have made that pretty clear.

I sincerely hope that you are able to resolve things somehow, so that she can travel to the U.S. and meet your family. Get going with her monotributista stuff, stat. Good luck![/QUOTE]

I think you're right on the money. Marriage doesn't mean anything with tourist visas and can work against you, as said here. Marriage would come into the picture only if she were to apply for residency - that only being the case if you two were to make the decision to move to the States. I have heard of 2 people in the last 5 years who were rejected visas: a roommate from Ecuador who had a job in the States with Princess cruises and all the documentation about his new job but was denied and a young Argentine student who wanted to go for vacation. Both were in their early 20s. I know a lot of people who choose the "less is more" route when it comes to talking at the interview. They have all the paperwork, but they don't go into a long drawn-out speech as to why they want to go to the States (often brought on by nervousness). Just answered the questions asked. I know it must have been very upsetting, and I'm sure I would have also gone to great lengths if my husband had been in the same situation. Let us know how it goes the next time around...

 

[earlyretirement]

I think you're right on the money. Marriage doesn't mean anything with tourist visas and can work against you, as said here. Marriage would come into the picture only if she were to apply for residency - that only being the case if you two were to make the decision to move to the States. I have heard of 2 people in the last 5 years who were rejected visas: a roommate from Ecuador who had a job in the States with Princess cruises and all the documentation about his new job but was denied and a young Argentine student who wanted to go for vacation. Both were in their early 20s. I know a lot of people who choose the "less is more" route when it comes to talking at the interview. They have all the paperwork, but they don't go into a long drawn-out speech as to why they want to go to the States (often brought on by nervousness). Just answered the questions asked. I know it must have been very upsetting, and I'm sure I would have also gone to great lengths if my husband had been in the same situation. Let us know how it goes the next time around...

Yeah, but how many people do you have that are US citizens that have been married 5 YEARS and still had their spouse rejected for a tourist visa??? I one only one know. ElQueso.

I agree with recently married people maybe having a problem but never heard of someone married so long being rejected for a tourist visa. Heck, I've met even just engaged people getting a tourist visa for their significant other even with one case where the guy had no assets and was working mostly in black.

 

[Ceviche]

Yeah, but how many people do you have that are US citizens that have been married 5 YEARS and still had their spouse rejected for a tourist visa??? I one only one know. ElQueso.

I agree with recently married people maybe having a problem but never heard of someone married so long being rejected for a tourist visa. Heck, I've met even just engaged people getting a tourist visa for their significant other even with one case where the guy had no assets and was working mostly in black.

@ Early Retirement,

I agree with 99% of your comments on this forum. I find us quiet in sync with our views. But pardon me, I beg to disagree here with this view point.

People from 3rd world countries face lot of backlash at embassies for visas irrespective of their financial status, marital status ( to a first world country person) etc. I have spent lot of time living in third world countries in Asia, Africa and South AMerica....and more often than not the visa application is rejected. Only lucky few get visas. Its almost like a lottery.