Terrybruc

just a little question....last few years my wife and i were attempting to
adjust my status after getting married while in the us on a visa waiver, money
problems however forced us to change our plans and instead we decided we would
return back to the uk once my wife had graduated.

Since i had overstayed my visa waiver by over a year i assumed i would incur
the usual ban, which is ok, we were resigned to that fact. However on leaving
the us, the ticket counter guy at O'Hare neglected to remove my visa waiver
from my passport.

Now i am wondering what i should do, itd be cool if i could get away with not
incuring the ban if only because id love to go back for holidays or whatever,
but its not such a big deal that i want to jump through hoops trying to
convince the INS that i didnt overstay my visa waiver and infact left before it
expired.

So basically does anyone know where i stand? Would i still be banned even
though they didnt receive my I-94 when i left, how would they know i had left
after my visa waiver expired as opposed to before.

It must be very annoying for people who honestly dont over stay at all but whos
I-94 isnt removed. Or does the INS have access to the passenger arrival
depature records of airlines etc in order to ascertain whether someone has
overstay.

uhh i kind of got a bit convulted there, but what i was basically trying to ask
is what would happen if i jumped on a plane tommorow to chicago for a visit and
arrived at immigration in O'hare with my old I-94 in my passport ? I assume id
be sent back packing but itd be a pleasant suprise if that wasnt the case. s

thanks if any can help, if you cant not to worry, ill be fine.

Rick

Paulgani

Hmm,

You enter the U.S. using a visa waiver. The government scans your machine
readable passport (name, number, etc...), thus recording your entry along
with your I-94W number.

You depart the U.S. without giving back the I-94W. BUT, the airlines have
typed your name and passport number into their manifests, which are sent to
the goverment as a condition to the plane's clearance for departure (i.e. if
you're a fugitive, officers will be waiting for you in the gangway just
before you board the plane, or at the latest they call you from your seat
after you've boarded).

You now try to reenter the U.S., pretending there was no overstay. As soon
your passport is scanned, they see a non-matched I-94W associated with your
passport number. You are then required to prove to them that your last
departure was timely, assuming they can't simply see for themselves based on
your passport stamps. No stamps and no evidence? Well, then a trip to
secondary inspection while you wait for them to search their departure
manifest database for a match with your passport number.

I just don't see how you could pull it off.

Paulgani

"TerryBruc" <> wrote in message
news:...
    > just a little question....last few years my wife and i were attempting to
    > adjust my status after getting married while in the us on a visa waiver,
money
    > problems however forced us to change our plans and instead we decided we
would
    > return back to the uk once my wife had graduated.
    > Since i had overstayed my visa waiver by over a year i assumed i would
incur
    > the usual ban, which is ok, we were resigned to that fact. However on
leaving
    > the us, the ticket counter guy at O'Hare neglected to remove my visa
waiver
    > from my passport.
    > Now i am wondering what i should do, itd be cool if i could get away with
not
    > incuring the ban if only because id love to go back for holidays or
whatever,
    > but its not such a big deal that i want to jump through hoops trying to
    > convince the INS that i didnt overstay my visa waiver and infact left
before it
    > expired.
    > So basically does anyone know where i stand? Would i still be banned even
    > though they didnt receive my I-94 when i left, how would they know i had
left
    > after my visa waiver expired as opposed to before.
    > It must be very annoying for people who honestly dont over stay at all but
whos
    > I-94 isnt removed. Or does the INS have access to the passenger arrival
    > depature records of airlines etc in order to ascertain whether someone has
    > overstay.
    > uhh i kind of got a bit convulted there, but what i was basically trying
to ask
    > is what would happen if i jumped on a plane tommorow to chicago for a
visit and
    > arrived at immigration in O'hare with my old I-94 in my passport ? I
assume id
    > be sent back packing but itd be a pleasant suprise if that wasnt the case.
s
    > thanks if any can help, if you cant not to worry, ill be fine.
    > Rick

Rickyb:

"paulgani" <> wrote in message news:<>...
    > Hmm,
    >
    > You enter the U.S. using a visa waiver. The government scans your machine
    > readable passport (name, number, etc...), thus recording your entry along
    > with your I-94W number.
    >
    > You depart the U.S. without giving back the I-94W. BUT, the airlines have
    > typed your name and passport number into their manifests, which are sent to
    > the goverment as a condition to the plane's clearance for departure (i.e. if
    > you're a fugitive, officers will be waiting for you in the gangway just
    > before you board the plane, or at the latest they call you from your seat
    > after you've boarded).
    >
    > You now try to reenter the U.S., pretending there was no overstay. As soon
    > your passport is scanned, they see a non-matched I-94W associated with your
    > passport number. You are then required to prove to them that your last
    > departure was timely, assuming they can't simply see for themselves based on
    > your passport stamps. No stamps and no evidence? Well, then a trip to
    > secondary inspection while you wait for them to search their departure
    > manifest database for a match with your passport number.
    >
    > I just don't see how you could pull it off.

Thanks

Thats sort of how i figured it would go, thanks for your time though.