A friend of mine and I were discussing tourist visas yesterday, and I started wondering about this:
A tourist visa to the States is valid for three months. What happens after the three months are up? Is a US tourist visa a one-time-only document, or can it be renewed? My friend previously lived in Argentina for 5 months while working for the Finnish consulate there, and he said that he knew of several people who had lived in Argentina for years on a tourist visa, travelling outside the country for a day trip when the time was up to renew their visa. Is such a thing possible to do in the US? If a tourist were to travel around the States for three months and then pop over the border to Canada or Mexico for a day trip, would he have a new three-month period upon his return?
I recently acquired touristic visa (B-2) and it’s valid for ten years. There is a limit how long you can stay at a time, but I don’t remember specifics at the moment. I’ll dig up detailed info that I get with the visa later.
Ok, I checked some info and it looks, that actual time is stamped upon arrival and may vary from 6 months (max) to 30 days. If guy from immigration see that you were in US very recently, he can stamp shorter time (30 days), or even refuse letting you in at all. So border-hopping seems to be very ineffective strategy.
FWIW my brother and his wife were on a trip of more than 3 months to the US a few years ago (before 9/11 IIRRC so rules may well have changed) and they made a short side trip to Canada for that very reason.
I guess it depends on the country visited. As I posted recently in a similar thread, there are enough ex-pats living long-term in Thailand on mere tourist visas that a small local industry exists specifically aimed at them in offering day trip bus “tours” to Cambodia. You only ever get just over the Cambodian border, and would be lucky to have time for a beer. The sole purpose is visa renewal.
The authorities are starting to crack down on this in Thailand. More and more people are being refused another visa. It often seems to come down to which border crossing you use. Bangkok has ordered a tightening-up, but much is at the discretion of the (bribe-susceptible?) officials on the ground. Many farangs (Westerners) have lived here for years on short-term tourist visas, stepping across the border to have it renewed every 90 days. Way back when, all borders were closed except Malaysia, and so the run down to Penang, Malaysia, became a staple of life for many expats. As Indochina became more settled, Lao and Cambodian crossings became the norm, even to Burma these days.
Farther afield, I’ve known people who flew down to Singapore, only to be refused. The Thai consulate in Hong Kong was notorious at one point for refusing visa renewals.
(Myself, I’m on a Non-Immigrant visa, renewable annually. Never did the tourist-visa bit myself.)
I seriously doubt you’d get away with that in the US. Even with a valid F-1 visa nowhere NEAR the expiration date, I’ve always been scrutinized within an inch of my life everytime I left the country and came back. If the officer even suspects you might have an intent to settle down (as opposed to return to your home country after the visa is up) they’ll probably ship you back posthaste in a crate.
Sorry. I’m rather bitter about how US visas work at this point in my life. :mad:
My Thai wife maintains a 10-year US visa in her passport. Each time we travel to the US, they give her three months. (Or maybe six months? Can’t remember.) More than once we’ve crossed over to Mexico for the day – Tijuana and Juarez – and each time we’ve returned to the US, it was not counted as a new arrival; her old “leave by” date remained in force.
I’ve known several people who have lived in Japan with tourist visas. They would go to another country and then come back, as mentioned in the OP. However, recently, Japan has started to be stricter as well.
My wife was given only a 5 year visa to the States, because we were married and they wanted to make sure we would apply for the proper visa if we decide to move to the States, so they are cracking down.
The 90 day visa run used to be the norm in the Czech Republic and a bit in the UAE. I have had real residence visas in both places, but now that the Czech Republic is part of Schengen, the 90 rule no longer works and there are thousands of Americans who are going to be stuck on March 21. (CR joined Schengen on Dec 21).
You get scrutinised when you leave the US?
I have been back and forth through the US and Canada a fair bit this last year, all using the I94 viasa waiver (British citizen). I have no idea how anyone would know I had left the country as no one ever seams to collect the little green tab of the I94 visa waiver card when I leave. I have only been questioned once regarding the number of entries I had made that year, although when I pointed out the entry and exit stamps from other countries , it was pretty clear I was not staying in the US. If you are just jumping over the boarder after 3 months, I would suspect that you are at the mercy of the INS people when you come back in, a pretty high risk strategy.
Wrt the OP, it is true in Argentina people stay here for a hell of a long time on tourist visas, either just jumping over the boarder every 3 months or paying a 50USD fine when they do leave.
Not much to add, really. Just wanted to say that I just went through the Immigration upon arrival and it all went surprisingly smooth. “Put your left index finger on the scanner”, “right index”, “first time in the states?”. All those while small camera took photo of my face. Whole process took maybe two minutes tops and I got six months (maximum) visa stamped. My guess is that they instantly see all history of my visits (hence “first time in states” question) and if they saw that I just left for couple of days they would be sending me back. But if I came visit US again, for example, next year, I probably got visa stamped no problem.