Over stayed J1 by 18 months

Apples30

Hi, ok, I know this was stupid, so only practical responses please, no ball breakers as I know I ridicliously I have behaved already.

I Had a J1 for 18 months up until May 2000. 4 weeks before it was up, I came home to Ireland for 2 weeks, and returned to NY on the J1 - there was 2 weeks left on my visa. I stayed until after Sept 11, returning home in December 2001. On my return flight, my i94 was not taken, nor did I return it to the US Embassy, so technically they probably assume I am still in the US.

Thing is I wasnt to try to sort this mess out - what channels, if any, do I need to go through in any hope that I could return on holiday to the US. I have one of those new machine readablr passports issued in JUne 2006.

Is this a total lost cause? Some people advise I will be fine, others that I have zero chance of every setting foot in the states again. I would just like to know if there is any way of sorting this or is it a case of arriving at the airport unprepared and seeing what happens, just to find out where I stand??

ANy help would be appericaited

BuffyBot

TBH - the US embassy is the place to enquire, not here.