Originally Posted by
vesicle
So please clear something up for me...were were told by an Immigration officer when checking in AND at the embassy when getting the visa that since the US tourist Visa is good for 6 months at a stretch all that was necessary was a border crossing and re-entry to get another 6 months.(barring a grumpy ICE guy)
However...reading some of the info above makes it sound like Mexico and Canada (the most logical crossings) don't count for the 'reset'...can anyone verify?
Thanks.
Yes, I can verify that the clock is not reset from personal experience for both, people on the Visa Waiver program and for people on a B1/B2.
A student of mine came to work with us in SAN while I was there for a longer research stay. Due to having family in Toronto, he flew Europe-ATL-YYZ (one week stay)-SAN. The stay in ATL was approximately 3 hours before leaving for Canada. This was the time when the clock started to tick - as the student noted when being told when reentering the US. This was bad, as his flight back to Europe would have been four days after the three months of the visa waiver period. Trying to save the fee for rebooking and being in SAN anyway, we went to Mexico for a day of sightseeing and at reentering asked at the border whether there was any way to extend his stay by reissuing a new I-94W. The answer was that this used to be possible in the past but is not an option anymore. I then asked whether a similar policy also applied to people on a B1/B2 (since I have also a B visa, plus a J) and was told that this is the case (i.e., in both cases one has to stay in Canada or Mexico for more than 30 days before the clock is reset). So you'd better plan on a vacation in the caribbean if you want to prolong your stay this way
Just to reiterate my point above: the time starts to tick even when one is in transit (since all "transits" via the US imply entering the country).