What to do if Visa Expires

[wwax 0]

My Husband and I are in the process of applying for an AOS for a B1/B2 visa, as well as all the other Alien Relative paperwork etc.

My husband and I only got married a couple of weeks ago (it still feels weird to call him my husband) I am getting rather stressed out as my B1/B2 visa expires on the 22nd of July 2009 , it all happened rather spontaneously and we didn't realise just how much paperwork would be involved with immigration but I have all my other paperwork sorted except for the medical due to a complete inability to find a decent civil surgeon.

Before I start freaking out completely and driving halfway across the country to find a civil surgeon that can fit me in some time this week for a physical I was hoping I could get some clarification on how the whole staying in the country while applying thing works. My understanding is that as long as I have the paperwork submitted by the 22nd July (when the visa expires) I can stay in the country until my application is either accepted or rejected. Is that the case? My husband is of the opinion that as long as we are in the process of filing, ie getting all the paperwork together, even if it is not sent in before my visa expires I can stay. I can't see how that could be the case but he seems to think that as people overstay their visas and still apply that I should be able to too.

If I can't get the paperwork in in time and am not able to stay, I still have my non refundable return ticket, a house and a work to go back to but as you can imagine as newlyweds we'd much rather be together if at all possible.

I know a lot of this is our fault for leaving things so late, but we didn't plan on things ending up this way so its all a bit chaotic at the moment.

Any help or advice appreciated.

PS If yet again I have managed to post in the wrong forum I'm sorry, could someone please move this where it should go if that's the case.

[rubyred 0]

it's to your advantage to get your application in ASAP, but your overstay - if you don't file till after your visa expiration - will be forgiven.

[sasaqlain 24]

Hmmmm..... First of all, you should apply well within your visa time frame. Over-stay can be forgiven but am sure you will be facing a grumpy IO on that. Secondly, you mentioned your spontanaity so many times, it makes the other person wonder, whether you are telling the truth. I for one am in the same boat as you, but won't over do it Neither on this forum nor in front of the IO. On that note, best of luck.

[wwax 0]

Hmmmm..... First of all, you should apply well within your visa time frame. Over-stay can be forgiven but am sure you will be facing a grumpy IO on that. Secondly, you mentioned your spontanaity so many times, it makes the other person wonder, whether you are telling the truth. I for one am in the same boat as you, but won't over do it Neither on this forum nor in front of the IO. On that note, best of luck.

I mentioned it so often as I posted the question to a board on another site and all I got was accused of all sorts so that I thought if I made the circumstances crystal clear here so I'd get some actual answers instead of comments about the situation. Which seems to have worked. Looks like I'll have to hunt me up a friendly civil surgeon (if such a thing exists) to get my physical in time. Thanks and best of luck to you too.

[sasaqlain 24]

Hmmmm..... First of all, you should apply well within your visa time frame. Over-stay can be forgiven but am sure you will be facing a grumpy IO on that. Secondly, you mentioned your spontanaity so many times, it makes the other person wonder, whether you are telling the truth. I for one am in the same boat as you, but won't over do it Neither on this forum nor in front of the IO. On that note, best of luck.

I mentioned it so often as I posted the question to a board on another site and all I got was accused of all sorts so that I thought if I made the circumstances crystal clear here so I'd get some actual answers instead of comments about the situation. Which seems to have worked. Looks like I'll have to hunt me up a friendly civil surgeon (if such a thing exists) to get my physical in time. Thanks and best of luck to you too.

Shop around and bargain with the CS's. They will always ask for cash and pocket the money tax free. I had a full medical with all the relevant age appropiate vaccinations for $160 here in NY. There was one who was asking for $360/- Took me 3 days to collect my I-693. Just giving you a heads up on the medical issue.

Good Luck.

[lechatnoir 0]

I was also worried about getting our application in before visa expired. My lawyer didn't seem too concerned about it and said it would be fine if we didn't make it...but I wanted to not press any buttons the wrong way you know? So, we ended up getting it on the 90th day exactly, but the lawyer said if we had gotten it in afterward it should have been fine as well. Definately shop around for a good civil surgeon... I had to call like 20 or so before I found one that actually did everything in their office and didn't charge an arm and a leg for it.

[Bobby+Umit 161]

File for the AOS asap (before the I-94 expires) - the NOA from that AOS puts your status to "applicant to adjust status".

Once you have that, you are "safe" till they either approve or reject your application.

nothing other than that makes you safe, not withstanding what lawyers tell you, since you will the one to face ICE if your "out of status".

But I suppose lawyers will make more money to bail you out of that

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

To add to what Bobby said, if you want to file immediately you don't HAVE to wait until the medical. You could send your application in and schedule an appointment with a CS shortly after. You will get an RFE but you'll also protect your status.

Protecting your status is more important if you live near a place where you are likely to come into contact with immigration like Texas for instance. If you live in a hut in the middle of the Rocky Mountains a few days late isn't as big a deal. Still I would do whatever possible to file by the 22nd.

Edited July 7, 2009 by lancer1655