Craney
01-17-2010, 06:45 PM
Hi all,
Just thought i'd let you know about our new year experience. We flew back to the UK on New Yrs Eve and were booked to come back on 5th Jan. 'We' is myself, my wife and kids aged 3 yrs 2 days and 4yrs. We did twilight check in on 4th and arrived at the gate in plenty of time. Just before boarding I was tannoyed, please come to the desk.
I went along, thinking maybe we'd had our seats changed or something. Instead I get to the desk and introduce myself. A small American man in a suit then asks to see my passport. I show him and he says, "Your visa has been revoked." Obviously i'm gobsmacked. I ask why and he says' "I don't know but you're not getting on this plane."
I then asked who he was and asked him politely not to be rude to me. He was obviously homeland security and told me he had no idea why my visa was revoked and I had to speak with the Embassy. I explained that I had to pick up my dog, I have 3 businesses, my wife has a job at OIA where she is still in training and would be fired if she didn't show up, meetings arranged etc. At this time I had 24 pence, no credit on my phone, no vehicle and nowhere to stay. I then called the wife and kids over and told them. My wife thought I was joking! Anyway, our problems were not his problem. My boy was crying saying "I just wanna go home." I cannot put into words how I felt at this moment.
Anyway, the Virgin staff were great. We were then escorted to baggage to pick up our case and left!
We then get back to the in laws in Norfolk. i call the Embassy on the 1.20 a minute line and cannot get to speak to anybody who deals with E-2 to tell us what we'd done wrong, as we genuinely had no idea. All we are given is an e-mail address. We e-mail outlining the circumstances of the events at the airport etc and again re-iterate that we did not know what we had done.
A day later we receive a one liner that basically says that our visa was revoked because we sold some of our business and that we were not allowed to go back to the US, even on visa waiver and that if we wanted to re-apply we could. Wow, we could see 4 months minimum back in blighty. So now we knew.
This is what we had done. We got 5 yr renewal in June 2009 and were praised highly by the officer as to how well our business had done in tough times. In Sept 2009 we sold some of our lawn accounts from one of our lawn businesses (we have 2). We did not sell the company name, telephone number, just accounts and equipment. As far as our interpretation of E-2 rules we had done nothing wrong.
A couple of e-mails later and we receive a longer e-mail, stating that we could have an expedited interview if we felt that we still meet the E-2 criteria, and would need to provide W 2's, 941's and P & L. This e-mail was nicer and very welcome.
We then spent the next 4 or 5 days getting the information sent over to us (thank god we had friends and family with a key to our house and many hours to spare) and preparing for the interview.
At this point i've had to hire another car, borrow money to live, spend money on hotels etc, not a cheap existence.
Anyway, we get to i/v and I was filled with doom and dread, even though our figures were good etc. We then get called to the desk and are met by an older Gentleman who is pleasant. He asks for our details and extra information and starts asking questions. He explains that he knew nothing about our case until he picked it up a few days earlier and that he would not have dealt with it the same way. He said that he'd have called us if there were any problems and said he wanted to rectify the problems. He was really nice and to be honest did everything but apologise.
It turns out that someone, we don't know who, at an Embassy (either Dublin or London) has seen the sale of accounts, as it went to a British couple who got E-2 visa off the sale of our accounts, and believed that we had sold half of our corporation. We obviously had not but this is why we'd been revoked.
Anyway, we get another 5 yr visa and very nearly an apology. I would say that the man we saw at the Embassy was very helpful, could see that a mistake had been made and tried to make the best of a bad situation. He told us that what we had done was perfectly legitimate and made sense to him, we could buy and sell any of our accounts, businesses etc but to make sure that at time of renewal we met criteria for E-2. This was what we had believed all along.
We also had to pay all Embassy and visa fees, $131 x 4 and $105 x 4.
After all this we get our passports sent to us and paid extra for same day delivery.
We flew back on Thursday and yes, you guessed it, we got secondary questioning at Orlando immigration.
Fortunately, my wifes work were very patient and she has kept her job for now, god knows what happens with her EAD when the visa was revoked. Also, the weather was really bad here so the lawn businesses were easier to handle than usual. My soccer academy was unaffected as my assistant coach is great.
That's our story. Even when you do things right on this visa, mistakes can happen and you don't realise how brittle the visa is and how close we all are to having our whole lives wiped away with the tap of some computer keys.
I estimate this experience and this mistake to have cost us nearly $4000. I will keep on taking the pills!!
Just thought i'd let you know about our new year experience. We flew back to the UK on New Yrs Eve and were booked to come back on 5th Jan. 'We' is myself, my wife and kids aged 3 yrs 2 days and 4yrs. We did twilight check in on 4th and arrived at the gate in plenty of time. Just before boarding I was tannoyed, please come to the desk.
I went along, thinking maybe we'd had our seats changed or something. Instead I get to the desk and introduce myself. A small American man in a suit then asks to see my passport. I show him and he says, "Your visa has been revoked." Obviously i'm gobsmacked. I ask why and he says' "I don't know but you're not getting on this plane."
I then asked who he was and asked him politely not to be rude to me. He was obviously homeland security and told me he had no idea why my visa was revoked and I had to speak with the Embassy. I explained that I had to pick up my dog, I have 3 businesses, my wife has a job at OIA where she is still in training and would be fired if she didn't show up, meetings arranged etc. At this time I had 24 pence, no credit on my phone, no vehicle and nowhere to stay. I then called the wife and kids over and told them. My wife thought I was joking! Anyway, our problems were not his problem. My boy was crying saying "I just wanna go home." I cannot put into words how I felt at this moment.
Anyway, the Virgin staff were great. We were then escorted to baggage to pick up our case and left!
We then get back to the in laws in Norfolk. i call the Embassy on the 1.20 a minute line and cannot get to speak to anybody who deals with E-2 to tell us what we'd done wrong, as we genuinely had no idea. All we are given is an e-mail address. We e-mail outlining the circumstances of the events at the airport etc and again re-iterate that we did not know what we had done.
A day later we receive a one liner that basically says that our visa was revoked because we sold some of our business and that we were not allowed to go back to the US, even on visa waiver and that if we wanted to re-apply we could. Wow, we could see 4 months minimum back in blighty. So now we knew.
This is what we had done. We got 5 yr renewal in June 2009 and were praised highly by the officer as to how well our business had done in tough times. In Sept 2009 we sold some of our lawn accounts from one of our lawn businesses (we have 2). We did not sell the company name, telephone number, just accounts and equipment. As far as our interpretation of E-2 rules we had done nothing wrong.
A couple of e-mails later and we receive a longer e-mail, stating that we could have an expedited interview if we felt that we still meet the E-2 criteria, and would need to provide W 2's, 941's and P & L. This e-mail was nicer and very welcome.
We then spent the next 4 or 5 days getting the information sent over to us (thank god we had friends and family with a key to our house and many hours to spare) and preparing for the interview.
At this point i've had to hire another car, borrow money to live, spend money on hotels etc, not a cheap existence.
Anyway, we get to i/v and I was filled with doom and dread, even though our figures were good etc. We then get called to the desk and are met by an older Gentleman who is pleasant. He asks for our details and extra information and starts asking questions. He explains that he knew nothing about our case until he picked it up a few days earlier and that he would not have dealt with it the same way. He said that he'd have called us if there were any problems and said he wanted to rectify the problems. He was really nice and to be honest did everything but apologise.
It turns out that someone, we don't know who, at an Embassy (either Dublin or London) has seen the sale of accounts, as it went to a British couple who got E-2 visa off the sale of our accounts, and believed that we had sold half of our corporation. We obviously had not but this is why we'd been revoked.
Anyway, we get another 5 yr visa and very nearly an apology. I would say that the man we saw at the Embassy was very helpful, could see that a mistake had been made and tried to make the best of a bad situation. He told us that what we had done was perfectly legitimate and made sense to him, we could buy and sell any of our accounts, businesses etc but to make sure that at time of renewal we met criteria for E-2. This was what we had believed all along.
We also had to pay all Embassy and visa fees, $131 x 4 and $105 x 4.
After all this we get our passports sent to us and paid extra for same day delivery.
We flew back on Thursday and yes, you guessed it, we got secondary questioning at Orlando immigration.
Fortunately, my wifes work were very patient and she has kept her job for now, god knows what happens with her EAD when the visa was revoked. Also, the weather was really bad here so the lawn businesses were easier to handle than usual. My soccer academy was unaffected as my assistant coach is great.
That's our story. Even when you do things right on this visa, mistakes can happen and you don't realise how brittle the visa is and how close we all are to having our whole lives wiped away with the tap of some computer keys.
I estimate this experience and this mistake to have cost us nearly $4000. I will keep on taking the pills!!