Would the history of having applied for a green card hurt the chance of getting a tourist visa in the future?

[jshading]

I’m a Chinese citizen working in the U.S. on H-1B. My company can apply green card for me anytime, but I have a concern – I have always been itching to travel the world. So if I do travel, I will leave the U.S. for 1-2 years and then try to come back on a 10-year tourist visa to visit my boyfriend and interview for new jobs (I know technically one is not supposed to look for jobs while on a tourist visa, but I heard that as long as job hunting is not the “primary reason” of the trip it’s fine).

 

So my question is, if there is record (PERM or I-140 application) at USCIS that I have applied for green card, would that hurt my chance of getting a tourist visa in the near future? I’m worried that the USCIS would interpret the history of having applied for a green card as immigration intent and therefore refuse all my future tourist visa applications.

 

Despite my concerns, I’m still seriously considering applying for a green card, because I still don’t know how soon I will be able to travel (it depends on a lot of things, including boyfriend’s plans). Thank you very much for helping me thinking through this!

[JoeF]

Once an I-140 is filed, it is pretty much impossible to get a visitor visa.