UPDATE ON EXTENDING B2 VISA (I539)

[TonyL]

Just to advise that as of December 18th, our application to extend our Visa, (I539) was approved.?
Now at least we know that once the borders re-open and we have had our vaccinations, we should be allowed back into the USA.
Merry Christmas to everyone on this great forum.

 

[Tom]

Thanks for the follow-up Tony. Good to know that you eventually received a response.

Merry Christmas & happy new year to you and your family.

 

[Boat Addict]

Great news, we are looking foward to getting up with you folks  again. We have been spending some time on the road down south all by ourselves without any problems for sevices ..

 

[Tom]

[quote author=Tony]Now at least we know that once the borders re-open and we have had our vaccinations, we should be allowed back into the USA.[/quote]

Since you followed the rules, and previously received the acknowledgement letter, there was no danger of not being allowed back in on your next visit.

 

[TonyL]

Tom, whilst I have no doubt that our lack of any criminal record and that we did everything by the book as any visitor to another country should, was conducive to the outcome. We both know that when dealing with any government department, nothing should be taken for granted.
We never did.

 

[Tom]

When I first started visiting the US in the '70s, the agents at US airports had a stack of large (6" thick) hard cover books listing all the undesirables. They'd painstakingly flip through the pages to see if you were listed before stamping your I-94 and allowing entry. As you can imagine, the lines (queues) were long and slow  :

Never had an issue gaining entry.

I still find it mind boggling that there was no outbound check, and nothing like "passport control" seen at UK airports; The (paper) I-94 was removed from your passport by the airline check-in person, you flew out, and the I-94s were forwarded to Customs & Immigration (or whatever they were called in those days).

 

[Tom]

I occasionally wander/rummage back through prior threads, and stumbled on this saga well documented as information for others by TonyL. Maybe this stuff will all change again with our new immigration policies?

 

[TonyL]

What new immigration policies?

 

[Tom]

What new immigration policies?

More lenient policies reversing what the prior administration was putting in place, mainly affecting illegals. Don't know if eventually things will loosen up across the board. Just thinking aloud.

 

[TonyL]

Aaah, I see, well I know a lot of Americans think us Limees should be illegal, but I don't think there are any plans that will affect us for the near future.

 

[Tom]

Aaah, I see, well I know a lot of Americans think us Limees should be illegal, but I don't think there are any plans that will affect us for the near future.

Just curious if they granted you a visa to cross the Severn Bridge

 

[TonyL]

They don't even charge us anymore imagine the poor Welsh people once having to pay to re-enter their own Country!!

 

[Tom]

They don't even charge us anymore imagine the poor Welsh people once having to pay to re-enter their own Country!!

Aye, they changed the 'pay' direction a couple of times.

 

[TonyL]

Well, after being away for a year, we landed back in the US on Monday 8th, having complied with the conditions placed on visitors. Anyone that has been following this thread will be aware that last year we applied to extend our stay in the US, which was granted, but we didn't get approval until after we had returned home.
When we got to passport and immigration control, we had a very pleasant discussion with the officer and showed all the relevant paperwork, and have been granted permission to enter for 6 months.
I then asked him about leaving the US near the end of the 6 months and entering Canada, could we re-enter the US without leaving North America.
He wasn't sure so got a senior officer involved.
Their answer was very interesting, if not exactly definitive. They said that their is no hard and fast rule to stop someone coming back into the US, but the decision would be up to the border control officer at that time.
In their opinion, if we had been away for an extended period of around 4 months or more, they personally would not consider us to be "Visa running" and would approve re-entry.
I think the moral is quite simply, tell them the truth, hide nothing and realize that you are a visitor and guest, it's up to you to prove your intentions, not the CBP officers to prove otherwise.
It's nice to be back.

 

[Tom]

Well, after being away for a year, we landed back in the US on Monday 8th, having complied with the conditions placed on visitors. Anyone that has been following this thread will be aware that last year we applied to extend our stay in the US, which was granted, but we didn't get approval until after we had returned home.
When we got to passport and immigration control, we had a very pleasant discussion with the officer and showed all the relevant paperwork, and have been granted permission to enter for 6 months.

Great news Tony, and thanks for sharing. Welcome back to the USA!

They said that their is no hard and fast rule to stop someone coming back into the US, but the decision would be up to the border control officer at that time.

That's been the rule for as long as I remember.

In their opinion, if we had been away for an extended period of around 4 months or more, they personally would not consider us to be "Visa running" and would approve re-entry.

A very logical answer. Glad the BP officer got his boss involved.

 

[Larry N.]

Welcome back, Tony.

 

[TonyL]

Just to keep everyone up to date. We crossed back in to the US on Monday. We had no issues at the border other than the expected questions on how long we had been in Canada, what travel plans we had in the US, did we have a return flight home booked (we do) and we were granted another 6 months.
Obviously, they wanted to know what food, alcohol etc we had on board, we had to surrender chicken, eggs (both recent additions to banned list) tomatoes, peppers and oranges.
We crossed at Sault STE Marie Michigan.
I think the bottom line as we've always said is,
Be honest,open and civil when entering another country, the border officials have a hard responsible job to do. Don't be disrespectful to them by lying.

 

[Laura & Charles]

Welcome back! Hope we can meet up!

 

[Tom]

Just to keep everyone up to date. We crossed back in to the US on Monday. We had no issues at the border other than the expected questions ...

Thanks for the update Tony

 

[Ex-Calif]

Be honest,open and civil when entering another country, the border officials have a hard responsible job to do. Don't be disrespectful to them by lying.

Kinda the same with every official IMO. They don't make the rules, they are just trying to earn a paycheck. There are very few organic "abusers" of power, IMO. There us a larger subset of "burn outs" who over the years have lost patience with the dumbassery of people.

I was coming in from an Asian flight and an elderly Filipino lady was at the customs bench next to me. As I eavesdropped I gleaned she was "finally" immigrating to live with a daughter or son or some such.

I know many of these elderly folks think they won't be able to get the things they are used to having. This lady had a huge stockpile of foodstuffs in her luggage, all getting confiscated and tossed in the bin. They finally opened her coat and pockets and pulled out mangos, rice and all kinds of crap. It was a little sad. In one respect, the hiding of the fruit indicated she knew it was wrong and if they were "doing their job" they could have fined her and if they really wanted to could have denied her entry.

Of course they didn't do that.

I traveled a ton for business. I got a lot of "welcome homes" from the border agents and I always declared foodstuffs I may have brought back. Usually snack items purchased on the trip that I didn't want to throw away. My experience was that if it wasn't "fresh" produce they generally didn't care.

They always cared about money through and I was always asked if I was carrying $10k+ bucks with me.