Can one apply for two visas to the U.S. at the same time?

Question

My spouse wants to apply for a B-1/2 tourist visa to the U.S. from the embassy in Seoul. She's a PRC national who's also just applied for an IV (immigrant visa) in Seoul, also to the U.S. Can she do both at the same time? Note: she would be visiting the U.S. several months before she expects to immigrate.

Answer 1

Well, she can certainly apply as noted. it will be up to the interviewing officer to determine if she's qualified for the B1/B2 visa. However, it will also be up to CBP at the airport to decide whether to admit her or not as well. If the immigration service believes she is using the tourist visa to immigrate, they won't let her in. Did you file the IV in Seoul? Normally, it doesn't take that long to process a petition directly at an embassy. Did they give you any idea how long this will take?

Answer 2

An alien can apply for a visitors visa while his immigrant visa is pending. However, the scenario you describe smacks of an attempt to mislead the visa office in Seoul. Question 36 on a U.S. visa application asks if anyone has ever filed an immigrant visa petition on your behalf.

If the applicant for a visitors visa answers question 36 "yes," then the question in the visa officer's mind is going to be, "Why does this guy need a visitors visa if he's planning to immigrate? Is he just trying to speed up his arrival date in the U.S.?"

Ordinarily, an alien does not wait in the U.S. as a "visitor" until the immigrant visa is ready outside the U.S. A visitor is supposed to have a foreign residence abroad to which he intends to return, and a person with an immigrant visa pending will not look like someone who plans to come back to the foreign country.

Answer 3

Yes.  There should be no problem.  If she's qualified for the tourist visa she'll get it without regard to any pending immigrant visa application.

Answer 4

It all depends.  In that many foreign nationals have used a non-immigrant visa as a way to by-pass an inconvenient wait for the processing of an immigrant visa, it is possible that the non-immigrant visa would be denied.  It will depend on the totality of the circumstances.

Answer 5

Yes. Yak is right.  In applying for an immigrant visa (one presumes through a US Citizen spouse), she has demonstrated an intent to live in the USA. If she has her own ties to another country, she'll also be eligible for a tourist visa. One does not exclude the other. It all depends on the ties to another country that she can demonstrate. Inadequate ties to the PRC or Korea won't get her a tourist visa, even though she'll probably get an immigrant visa.  

Suggestion- don't use the tourist visa as a way to expedite her immigration.