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How Long Tin I Stay In The U.South. As A Visitor?

Andy J. Semotiuk

I write about investor immigration and about Immigration bug.

This article is more than 2 years old.

How long can y'all stay in the U.Southward. as a visitor? Is information technology one month, iii months, half-dozen months or a whole year? Lately, I have received a lot of calls from confused Canadians, and other travelers to the U.S., who are concerned about beingness denied entry considering of past presence in the state. There is a lot of misinformation on social media, even from very reputable sources, on this issue.

Have for example, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) commenting on this question. On information technology'south spider web site the C.B.C. cautions readers about how long visitors are immune to stay, proverb, "Usually a maximum of 182 days, or most six months during a 12-month period. Those days can exist amassed during 1 trip or they could be the sum of several trips." Other reputable sources, such as for instance the Canada-to-Arizona web site, repeats, "Canadians visiting the U.S. enter on a B2 status. This is only the stamp y'all receive from U.S. clearing when you enter which will also have your 6 month maximum render date. The B2 visitor'due south visa allows Canadians to stay in the US for up to six months (182 days) in whatever 12-month period, so long every bit yous have the resource to support yourself, you do non work while in the US, and that you will render to Canada." The web site Snowbirdadvisor.ca warns, "According to the U.South. Immigration Act administered by the United states Citizenship and Clearing Services (USCIS), a Canadian resident, non-U.South. citizen nor Green Card holder, cannot exist in the U.S. for more than 180 days in a year ... Information technology is important to note that this is non a agenda yr just rather a rolling 365 mean solar day catamenia. Therefore, you lot summate by looking back over the last 365 days. If you have been in the U.S. for more than 180 days within the terminal 365 days you lot are offside and subject to deportation. You may as well be refused entry to the U.S. in the hereafter." Similar views are held for visitors from other countries. As you will run across below, this communication is all misleading!

Our office has been asked virtually this so many times by clients who were confused most information technology, that we decided to do some enquiry on information technology. It turns out there is no such law that prohibits a visitor to stay in the U.S. for more than than six months in a rolling yr. It is true that the Lawmaking of Federal Regulations says any visitor to the U.S. may be admitted for not more than 1 year and may be granted extensions of temporary stay in increments of not more than half-dozen months. But information technology says nothing about a six-month-maximum. Similarly, while Ira Kurzban in his Immigration Constabulary Sourcebook, one of the most reliable and highly respected sources, indicates that the U.S. Customs and Edge Protection (CBP) generally takes the position that a person may stay a maximum of six months per year, at that place is no dominion or written policy that requires that limitation. So, information technology is true that according to current do at U.S. ports of entry, a person who enters the United states of america and stays for six months before departing, may be barred from immediate reentry. However, the reason for barring reentry cannot exist due to a non-existent 6-month-maximum rule but has to be something else. As to what that something else may be, lets consider that.

When you are entering the U.S., the top concerns of U.South. Customs and Border Protection are: a) whether you lot are a terrorist or criminal, b) whether y'all may endanger public health and safe, c) whether you are saying that you are visiting, merely in reality, you are going to piece of work illegally, or d) you are saying y'all are a visitor only really you lot live in the U.S. permanently.I went into this in more detail in another commodity earlier.

The latter ii concerns are the chief rationale behind the policy of U.S. Community and Edge Protection blocking those who accept already spent six months in the U.S. in the rolling year. However, every bit U.S. Customs and Border Protection itself says on its own website, "In that location is no set period of fourth dimension Canadians must wait to reenter the U.S. after the end of their stay, but if it appears to the CBP officer that the person applying for entry is spending more time overall in the U.S. than in Canada, it will be up to the traveler to prove to the officer that they are not de-facto U.Southward. residents. One of the ways to do this is to demonstrate significant ties to their home country, including proof of employment, residency, etc." This spider web site postal service is worth copying and presenting to U.Due south. edge officials if yous are faced with the problem of being blocked from re-access by virtue of a fictional six-month-maximum rule. Presenting their own words back to them may get the only way to curtail the wrongful practice of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers on this important indicate. That'south something whatever visitor can practise.

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Andy J. Semotiuk