Kim Kardashian's Aussie Trips Highlight Visa Fraud Problems Couples Face

Kim Kardashian is on an Australian immigration watch list now due to her multiple trips to Australia taken to promote her handbag line and reality TV show. The cardinal rule of visitor visas in the US is that you are here to visit, not work. Aussies feel the same way and expect her to get a work permit or other work related visa for this type of "visit." Many couples I encounter in consultations run into conflicts with this tourist visa problem and what CBP thinks is a conflicting intent. If you plan to work in the US, then you need to enter on a B-1 but can't be paid in the US and have to have a foreign employer (this equivalent of this is perhaps what Ms. Kim should have had when she entered Australia); you can't enter on a B-2 in the US and expect to work. If you really want to work for a US employer or promote your business, you should apply for an H-1B, H-3, J-1, or other form of work related visa.

CBP is also on the look out for foreign nationals entering the US on visitor's visas with the ultimate intent to marry their US citizen spouses and overstay their visas. The fact that they're engaged or have these plans can lead CBP to deny a foreign national entry into the US, because the foreign national is violating the terms of their visa. To obtain a tourist visa, the foreign national had to convince the issuing consulate and the CBP officer at the airport when trying to enter the US that they plan to go back home at the end of their visit (just visiting). Marrying a U.S. citizen shows the opposite of this intent in most situations, unless you can show that the US citizen lives outside of the US or they plan to live elsewhere, which is a difficult burden to meet when faced with a CBP officer.