A Few Questions About the US and Visas (don't need answer fast)

In My Humble Opinion
1

STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY: You are not my lawyer, I am not your client, this is all hypothetical, yada yada yada.

I’m watching a based-on-a-true-story series about a Russian/German woman who scammed people and businesses in the US over the course of a few years from c. 2016 - c. 2020 (dates approximate). She apparently came and went from the US as she pleased, going to Ibiza for a few weeks here, Paris for a few days there, possibly Tokyo and Milan (haven’t gotten that far yet), presumably being in the US for months at a time.

If a German shows up at Kennedy with a valid passport on January 1, 2016, she can stay for 90 days, yes? So if she flies off to Ibiza on day 89 and then returns to the US on, say, June 1, 2016, does she just get 90 “new” days?

If you’re here on a 90-day visa, and on day 89 you get thrown into the clink for six months, can they then charge you with oversatying your visa once you’re out of jail, since you’ve now been here for well over 200-something days?

Also, let’s say you’re coming to the US for neither tourism nor work. Say you own a building that’s being built and want to oversee its construction. Is there a visa that is based on neither work nor family nor tourism available to such a person?

2

I’m not American, so can’t speak specifically for the US, but I do travel frequently, so have a broad understanding.

Every country has different rules, but a basic rule of thumb is that you can visit for up to 90 days within a larger time frame, eg 90 days out of 180 days, or 365 days. You don’t get to reset the clock just by flying out and back in again.

I highly doubt they would charge you for overstaying, but I am very confident they would deport you, both for overstaying AND for having a criminal conviction.

The definitions are leisure and business (not tourism). Leisure basically covers anything personal. In your example, it would depend on why I’m building a property. Investment on something I’m planning to rent out? That’s a business trip. Second home for my family? That’s a leisure trip.

3

You beat me to it. Your reply came up as I was composing mine.

Anecdote: I worked briefly for an automated fence company when I moved to Washington, that also installed security cameras. One client was Canadian, living in British Columbia, tho owned a building under construction in Bellingham. Unfortunately, he’d been busted for marijuana and was banned from the U.S. He used the video camera to keep track of his investment.

4

I think you can “reset” the 90 days by leaving and coming back later. I don’t think there are any limits like 90 days out of 360 days, to be honest. There are plenty of people traveling back and forth for business purposes who enter and leave a lot within a year.

One thing to note is that even with a visa waiver, you are still required to fill out an online form for travel authorization to the US. That authorization is valid for a couple years or until the passport expires (whichever is sooner). It’s no guarantee of entry to the country but a denial means a formal visa needs to be approved prior to travel. And this authorization can also be subsequently revoked.

5

Can anyone please tell me how the hell Anna Sorokin/Anna Delvey was able to live in the US for, by my estimates, about four years, frequently flying out of and back into the country, without anyone at Immigration asking any questions? I mean, I doubt ICE is keeping tabs on every foreign visitor, particularly not ones from First World, Western nations. But still…

6

As a German national, this person would be eligible for the Visa Waiver Program, a program available to citizens of 30 or so countries, mostly friendly European countries and a few in Asia (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan)–Canada is not on this list because they can enter under an even less restrictive program.

The Visa Waiver Program requires you have an ESTA, which is an electronic travel authorization for travel into the United States.

Under the VWP, you can cross from the United States for short trips into Canada, Mexico, or a few small island nations you’re considered to still be utilizing your 90 days, and it doesn’t end that 90 days early nor does it reset the 90 days.

Unlike a traditional Visa (tourist Visa B-2), if you are in the country under the VWP you cannot extend your stay, or convert to a different classification. So you cannot stay for 90, then get a tourist Visa and continue staying, you have to leave after 90 days. There is not actually a limit to the VWP usage along the lines of “you can only be in country for 90 days out of every 180 or 365 days”, you can, in fact, leave the United States and re-enter, and get another 90 days. The major exception to this is the VWP does not reset a 90 day window for the aforementioned trips to certain neighboring countries (Canada / Mexico / some nearby island countries.) However a hypothetical German, could return to Germany after 90 days and then fly back into the United States a week later under the VWP and stay for another 90 days.

Where you can get in trouble, is the Visa Waiver Program must not be used to circumvent another type of visa. So, if they see a pattern of you just “resetting” your 90 day VWP over and over, it will likely result in you being questioned at some point.

Citizens of Germany who are not interested in trying to get a work permit, have some relatively liberal visa options to stay in the United States for a pretty long time. The B-2 tourist visa has varying validity and duration of stay windows based on your country of origin and various reciprocity agreements. However, it is pretty liberal for Germany–a B-2 Visa issued to a German national will have a validity of 10 years, and an initial duration of stay of 6 months, which can typically be extended upon request. The validity window of 10 years means you can leave the United States and re-enter repeatedly during that 10 year window.

The big thing with the B-2 tourist Visa, is it cannot be used to “live long-term” in the United States and cannot be used in a way that shows such intent. It also cannot be used for extended business trips or attempts to work (there is another visa for extended but temporary business trips.) In practice if say you were a rich German who wanted to visit the U.S. and party on the beach in California for a long time while crashing with friends, you probably would not run into trouble spending many months and getting extensions on the Visa. But if you did things like rented an apartment and etc that showed signs you were intending to live in the United States on a permanent/long-term basis, they would likely conclude you were attempting to misuse the Visa and take action against you.

These sort of Visas are not tightly tracked, and the reality is many European citizens come into the U.S. on B-2 visas and stay for literally years.