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This is the second time I came to America for.
As for the above sentence, is the preposition 'for' is necessary? In my opinion, the sentence should be revised to 'This is the second time that I have been to America.' or 'This is the second time I came to America.'
But my teacher told me that 'for' is necessary otherwise the sentence is incorrect. Is that right?
Well that depends, if you went to America for a purpose then yes you need a for as in "This is the second time I came to America for undisclosed reasons". But by itself it is not grammatically correct whereas both the examples you gave work as standalone sentences although I would prefer you say "This is the second time I HAVE COME to America" instead of "This is the second time I CAME to America".
This is the second time I came to America for.
is incorrect. If "for" expressed a purpose it could appear "stranded" at the end of the sentence in this way, e.g.
This is the second wedding I came to America for.
But when "for" occurs with "the first/second/third/... time", the preposition has to come first. The "for" is optional in this context, thus the following are fine:
I came to America (for) the second time.
This is the second time I came to America.
The use of the preposition "for" at the end of the sentence is incorrect. It has no complement. A preposition phrase requires a complement.
The past tense "came" is acceptable, but in British English the present perfect would be better: there is a clear link to the present:
This is the second time that I've come to London.
I'm not certain if AmE speakers would prefer present-perfect in that context.
