Overstayed welcome in US before- will i get in now?

Baby4

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Darren

In a word or 2, Oh Yes!!!

threebeards

Not trying to frighten you but I heard a guy on Gerry Ryan this morning who had overstayed his visa in 2002 by 1 day and was refused entry this week. That said, he had been in the US twice since that without any problem. It mightn't be any harm to contact the US embassy to see where you stand.

Naked Lepper

<snip>Please don't advise people to do things like that<snip>

threebeards

AFAIK, emigration (sp) is done in Dublin/Shannon. Certainly in the case of the guy on the radio, he was turned back in Dublin

Baby4

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threebeards

Baby4 wrote:

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Have a look at the US Embassy site. You might find the relevant info there or at least a contact phone number. You're better checking it out and getting it sorted if possible rather than being disappointed at the airport

Benedict XVI

Contact the Embassy and come clean (ish) about it.

Last year there was a guy from the US Embassy on the radio.
This was his advice to people who may have overstayed in the past and are concerned about not being let in for a holiday in the future.

Contact the Embassy,
Tell them your story (don’t say you worked, just say you went traveling).
Bring plenty of evidence that you are only going on holidays and have every intention of not staying in the US.
They will most likely give you a Visa and you will have no problem at the airport.
Do not try to ‘wing’ it at the airport.

Irish people get into the US on what is called the Visa Waiver program, which means that we do not actually need a visa to enter, however this does not mean that we cannot get a visa if we need one of any reason.

If you enter on the Visa Waiver program and do work you can be excluded from the US for up to 10 years without appeal.

I’d get on to them ASAP.

BTW if you are traveling direct to the US from Dublin or Shannon you will go through immigration in Dublin or Shannon, if you are going via any other country you will go through immigration in the US.

lady_j

threebeards wrote:

AFAIK, emigration (sp) is done in Dublin/Shannon. Certainly in the case of the guy on the radio, he was turned back in Dublin

not necessarily true, my friend made to through dublin, was turned away in New York. They had overstayed a visa by 2 days a couple of years before hand. As has been suggested before, come clean about overstaying but say it was travelling over stay. I wouldnt risk going without contacting the embassy.

CountryWise

Now im a little worried when reading this, i was in the US in 2003, didnt overstay my welcome or anything though, i was on the J1 and stayed for 11 or 12 weeks but how do they know i eventually left the country i mean i didnt hear anything from them from the time i arrived in US till this date, the thing is i have a road trip booked in July and im getting worried that il be turned back after pumping lots of money into the trip?

Do they just do the Admin work to ensure you left again?

pow wow

When you surrender the piece of your I94 that was stapled into your passport they update their records to show you left. They did have electronic machines called USVISIT machines where you did it yourself but these were being phased out when I left in May.

CountryWise

I dont think i had one of these at the time( I94) but we were asked for one, the guy at the aer Lingus did ask for something but i had nothing stapled to my passport so he gave a blank one to fill out and i did, im not very confident now though after reading this.....

Lex

Hi all,
I'm could be in similar trouble as I hope to travel to the US this summer for a holiday.

I went to Canada for the summer of 2001 on a J1 type work visa. While there I visited some relations in Buffalo, NY. They collected us in Toronto and we traveled across the US border by car. I got a Visa Waiver Program card stapled to my passport.

We only stayed in the US for one weekend so I was no-where near overstaying the 90 days, but when we returned to Canada I wasn't asked for the Waiver Program card back and didn't know I had to surrender it (only found this out this year!).

I contacted the embassy and they say I need to prove that I didn't overstay the 90 days of the visa waiver. I also need to surrender the Visa Waiver card (which I still have!).

I told him I left by car so I had no record of leaving the US. The guy then said that if I could prove that I left Canada by presenting a boarding card for my flight home that would suffice.

I don't have the boarding card for that flight so I don't know how to show them that I actually left in Sept 01 when I did.

Does anyone have any ideas?

I've been thinking that I could show them my college transcript as I returned for my final year. I can also show them my bank records to show ATM activity on my account in Ireland for Sept/Oct '01.

Is there anything else that I could provide to convince them??

pow wow

CountryWise wrote:

I dont think i had one of these at the time( I94) but we were asked for one, the guy at the aer Lingus did ask for something but i had nothing stapled to my passport so he gave a blank one to fill out and i did, im not very confident now though after reading this.....

You must have got one when you entered the US - did you lose the original one? I don't know how but it's worth checking they tied the records up between the one you were issued at entry and the one you surrendered when you left as they have unique ID numbers on them which are attributable to you.

Benedict XVI

Lex wrote:

I've been thinking that I could show them my college transcript as I returned for my final year. I can also show them my bank records to show ATM activity on my account in Ireland for Sept/Oct '01.

That should be fine, just bring copies to the airport for your flight (If you are flying direct from Dublin or Shannon you will go through immigration in Dublin or Shannon)

If you have any evidence that you were in Canada after you returned from the US that should be fine too. Anything like a credit card receipt, payslip, boarding card from flight back to Ireland would be fine.

DArcy

Folks, the only time you go through immigration in Dublin is when you're on the early flights. For example, if you fly to JFK on the 10am flight, you go through immigration in Dublin. But for the later flights, the whole immigration thing is done in JFK. Be wary...just cuz you get on the plane doesn't mean you there.

And that guy who overstayed his visa by a day got in...he's a mate of mine