extension of tourist visa

[jimandjosil 0]

Hello everyone. Here's our situation...my sister gave birth last Aug 14th. and I'm due to give birth next year march 15th. And our mom holds a 10 yr tourist visa. My sister's in laws bought a ticket (as their gift) for my mom to go to the US this October 15th to help my sister out. Now here starts the conflict...her return date to the Philippines is April 4th.

My sister of course wants to maximize mom's stay with her so she just suggested for mom to get an extension of visa...I have heard from a lot of people that it is being frowned upon by immigration. But in turn we have to be the one to pay for that extension of visa fee and actually take the risk and if she's denied then too bad for us....but mom already had stayed with them for the whole duration.

I suggested that mom should cut her stay with them short instead of going home april...she should just go home january at least by then, my sister is already 5 months healed after her CSection. Then come back here again to stay with us before my due date....say march 12. That would have given her ample time to stay out of the US plus immigration will see that she didnt maximize her first visit..thus avoiding refusal at the port of entry.

Is this a better solution?...Of course we will have to pay for the change of flight fee and her ticket back here again?

At this point my sister and I have a rift because she refuses to cut my mom's visit short and just throwing the risk out there to apply for an extension of visa at our expense...if she's approved great if not too bad....we pay the fee and we don't get my mom's help...she only has 1 and this is going to be my 2nd child...so I think we need mom's help more than she does.

Any ideas? comments? and whats the guarantee of the extension???

Thanks.

[Lexlee08 18]

Hi kabayan,

There is no guarantee of visa extension, I can say that basing from my experience, when I had my youngest child back in 2005 we filed for extension(we even used an immigration lawyer) and still got denied. We have a very detailed explanation of why we were requesting for extension and even proofs of return ticket,etc. The reply we got was if she is helping me with childcare then that is considered "employment" even without compensation, which was really ridiculous! Anyways there's no point of appealing so my mom just went home. As for her going back home early, you can try that route too but the problem I see with that is there is always a chance of refusal of entry too because the CBP officer might see that as an "abuse of visa", I know of 2 people already that were refused, the officer told them that they were "working here". The other scenario too is she might only be given 2 weeks, 1month or 3 months of stay, because the length of stay/I94 is upon the discretion of the CBP officer. I'm not being negative here but things are different now. Goodluck.

[jimandjosil 0]

thanks....i know both are risks but i think the extension of visa is riskier since this is going to be my mom's first visit. as for the re-entry we could only pray... that's why it should show that she was only here for 3 months then she went home again, came back after 2 months....I just hope this is gonna work.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

If you file for an extension (which I once did), and get approved, you win.

If you file for an extension and do not get approved, you lose nothing.

If you do not file for an extension, you lose an opportunity.

What exactly is the risk you are talking about? What's the worst option?

Not to file!

[jimandjosil 0]

If you file for an extension (which I once did), and get approved, you win.

If you file for an extension and do not get approved, you lose nothing.

If you do not file for an extension, you lose an opportunity.

What exactly is the risk you are talking about? What's the worst option?

Not to file!

If we let mom file for the extension and get approved...great....if we don't get approved we lose time with her...she needs to go home. Leaving me raw after the CS operation with no help at hand. So we all decided to just let her leave home earlier and come back after 2 months. We pray for her easy entrance at the port of entry the 2nd time around.