Got flagged for visiting 3 months
 

I really need some help here, people. So I have an American girlfriend, both me and her flying back and forth to visit each other (I live in Greece, Europe). Now in October I went to visit her for 86 days so I got flagged and detained for approximately 45 minutes at MSP airport. Long story short, they questioned me, I told them I am a medical student in Greece and instead of studying here, I want to study where my girlfriend lives in order to spend some time together. I finally got let through after talking to a second officer and a few more questions. I then came back to Greece to take my exams and then my girlfriend visited me, so there was a good 3 months before I went back to MSP to visit her. Long story short again, I got detained again and this time they also went through my wallet, hand luggage and checked bag. The officer came back and said he appreciates that I am honest (he probably saw my books in the checked bag and saw I was telling the truth). I told him I am just following the law but if he thinks there's something I am doing wrong, he should tell me so I can fix it next time. He said that I am basically coming too often and that it seems like I am living in the US. This is not true. I am staying out of the US for at least the amount of time I was there. I usually stay between 1 and 2 months and the only time I went there for a long time was that one time I got flagged because I had a lot of time until my next exams. The officers at MSP in gerneral are nice besides their intimidating tone that I am guessing they have to have. He said he would suggest to get a B1/B2 visa instead of my ESTA, because next time I might not get admitted on the ESTA. I have now filed the application for a B1/B2 and I will have my interview at the US embassy here in Greece soon. My last visit was only for 7 weeks and I am planning on going back in November for 3 weeks only, because I will start my medical residency in Europe afterwards. It will have been about 5 months since I left at the end of May, so I am just hoping I will not get detained again, cause it is super annoying and I never did anything wrong. Do you guys think i am gonna be detained each and every time from now on just because I visited for 86 days once which was still within the 90-day max stay? I don't see what causes the problem really but I would really like to go through border protection like I used to in the past. You know.. Hello, I am here to visit my girlfriend, here's my fingerprint, here's my face for you to take a picture, have a nice rest of the day, goodbye sir!

Paragraphs please.

:confused:

Bring to your interview and carry with you when traveling the documentation that you are starting your residency in Greece and you will probably be ok. They want to make sure you are a visitor and not an immigrant. Evidence that you are starting residency in another country goes a long way to proving that.

Staying almost the 90 day maximum is a red flag that one is trying to use the visa waiver program to live in the United States which is not a proper or lawful use of the visa waiver program. The officers are trained to pull people aside who use almost the maximum, leave for a short time and then come back for another long visit to make sure they are not unlawfully using the visa waiver program. You shouldn't feel singled out for doing anything wrong; it sounds like you have done everything right (followed the rules by leaving on time; being honest when you came back; applying for a visa when advised).

Yes, you will probably be pulled aside ("detained") each time you travel here for a while due to your travel history and girlfriend here.

I agree in full with the above. The ability to present documentation of having an upcoming medical residency program in Europe will help, even in the event of having a visa.

I was thinking to just cut back on visiting for a while (it will have been 5 months since I left), following their suggestion of doing the B1/B2 and staying for 3 weeks only would be enough.

I want to do my residency in Germany, so I don't even know yet when it will start, because it can take a while until there is a free spot. Our plans are for us to move to Germany though, she will come live there with me, so there is no intention of illegally immigrating to the US. I don't understand why one would do that anyway. I am a law abiding European citizen and I was treated like a criminal because I stayed for almost 3 months once, when I have never done anything unlawful in my life. I mean, if I wanted to immigrate, I would do it the legal way and not base my immigration on lies.

The cbp officer made it sound like if I do the B1/B2 I will be ok, but I am still worried. I am even considering to just go through preclearance in Dublin next time, so that I am just being left alone when I arrive after so many hours of travelling.

Pre-clearance won't make any difference. The same standards are applied by CBP. But, if you are excluded, you are simply denied boarding. In a way, it is easier for CBP to do that. In addition, if you are detained at CBP at pre-clearance, you will likely miss your flight, whereas a couple of hours at MSP is annoying but can be built into your travel plans.

Rather than adjusting plans, why not see how things work with the new visa?

Applying for the B1/2 visa may have been a mistake as it it quite possible that it will be denied,(invalidating your ESTA). A large percentage of VWP eligible applicants are denied. You were given bad advice by CBP.

Well yeah, I guess I will just wait for my B1/B2 and see how it goes. At the time of the interview I can also ask what's going on exactly and if I need to follow certain steps. The fact that I will have followed what the CBP suggested in MSP and that I stayed out of the US for 5 months should hopefully be enough. Again, the officers were nice, they just questioned me a lot and suggested a visa instead of an esta. I just thought getting it over with in Dublin would be better so that I can enjoy my flight instead of worrying the whole time.

My ESTA is only valid until August. The CBP officer said I should do the B1/B2 and I also called the embassy and they said it's not a problem to have both the ESTA and the B1/B2 at the same time, so I am not worried about that. If anything, it shows I am following the law and turning in all the required paperwork.

CBP is paranoid about non-US, foreign medical graduates and their entering the U.S. and then attempting to change status once in the U.S. while seeking entry into the US healthcare industry. If you have too much stuff with you and official docs about your professional pursuits/certifications, all while having a potential American spouse in the horizon, they may make more of an issue of it than if you were without those. Until you can demonstrate ties to a non-US employer and have your own more permanent non-US domicile, you may be in a pickle of situation even with a visa, whether or not using CBP PreClearance. The only difference with the CBP PreClearance will be that you won't end up being locked up for hours or days at a CBP facility and then sent packing back to home on a long-haul flight out of there.

I was in a very similar situation when I was a student and visited my girlfriend (now my wife) twice a year for summer break and the break at the end of the winter semester.

I got lots of questions on how I was able to support myself and on the status of our relationship "When are you finally getting married.".

Luckily, although I stayed almost three months over the summers, I was never detained or sent to a secondary interrogation, maybe because all my visits aligned directly with the breaks and I always returned before the beginning of the new semester.

There is also a special process for clearing up obstacles that lead to secondary inspections. This might be an alternative to a visa: http://www.dhs.gov/dhs-trip

BTW, we now both live in Germany and getting the German residence permit for my wife was a breeze, took her maybe ten minutes to get her initial one.

Oh ok. I get it now. The thing is though, if you want to work legally in the US there is a way to do so following the law. I can't won't be able to work in the US as a doctor before passing the USMLE tests which would be another 2-3 years of studying. In 4 years I would be done with my residency in Germany or Greece so there's definitely no point in trying to lose so many years. I am native in Greek and German since I was born and raised in Germany, so there is no point at all for me to work in the US. Worst case I will just explain it to the CBP officer once I arrive. Again, it's not like they yelled at me or anything. They believed me. They asked all sorts of questions like if we are having plans on getting married. I just told them the truth, that we might consider it in the future, but for now I just wanna be done with univerity which is my first priority before we plan our future. They asked if I was planning to work in the US in the future and again, I just told the truth, that I want to do my residency in either Germany or Greece and that we are going to move there.

There really was no big problem at all and the secondary questioning never took longer than an hour, but it's still annoying after a 20 hour 3 segment flight from Greece or 13-15 hours when I fly in from Germany.

I guess I will just have to explain as well as possible the next time and hope they will understand. It still is a very unpleasant procedure though and I would prefer to unflag me somehow if possible, since I am not going to stay for a long time in the future and since I am probably not going to be visiting again for a while after November.

Thanks a lot, Alex! So that's to basically clear your name from being flagged, right? I am going to definitely submit that form once my B1/B2 visa is ready to make sure everything is ok before I leave. That link made my day lol.

DHS TRIP is basically useless for this kind of circumstance unless you've been misidentified or someone else has been misidentified as you.

Getting EU national residency status -- with some significant national-level exceptions -- is a breeze relative to getting US residency status, when it comes to standing "romantic" relationships.

The problem will be IF you are denied the visa (27%) Greek failure rate, you will have a hard time getting an ESTA as you will have to declare the refusal on your next ESTA application which will likely be denied.