moving to the US on a round-trip ticket??

[Andy_R 12]

For some reason round-trip tickets are MUCH cheaper than 1-way ticets ($1000 vs $3000) from Japan. We're thinking about getting a round-trip ticket and just not using the flight back to Japan.

Anyone have any experience with this?

Will it affect her being able to enter the country if she has a return ticket she doesn't intend to use?

Will the airline be able to punish us for doing this?

Your advice please!

[Kazulie 132]

A lot of people purchase round trip tickets because it is cheaper. Once you get here you should call the airline and cancel your return flight. They may even give you a partial credit toward another flight at a later date.

Also, some airlines have special pricing for those flying here for immigration purposes. You may want to research that as well.

[rok 3]

round trip price(two- way) is always expensive than one-way. How can it be otherwise? This is confusing to me but ya you can cancel the returning ticket at your convenience.

[Kazulie 132]

round trip price(two- way) is always expensive than one-way. How can it be otherwise? This is confusing to me but ya you can cancel the returning ticket at your convenience.

Not true at all. Most of the time a one-way is more expensive than a round trip.

There are a lot of reasons for this.

One being that airlines discount a round trip flight because they know they have your business going both ways. If one ways were cheaper, you may book a flight with one company and then switch to a cheaper one on the way home.

Also, generally one way flights are usually used for business and round trips are used for vacations. The airlines figure that if businesses are paying for it then they can get away with making the prices more expensive. Usually this is a last minute reservation and is desperately needed, so the businesses will pay whatever the airlines tell them to.

The list goes on.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Kazulie

[Andy_R 12]

OK, so does anyone know if it will it affect her being able to enter the country if she has a return ticket she doesn't intend to use?

[Wyld Blu 35]

OK, so does anyone know if it will it affect her being able to enter the country if she has a return ticket she doesn't intend to use?

No, it makes no difference. The airlines don't report unused tickets to the USCIS. My husband immigrated here from Holland on a round trip ticket, we never intended to use. Buying one way was FAR more expensive then round trip and we also never cancelled it with the airlines because we got the cheapest one available, which was not refundable anyway.

-Blu-

[Andy_R 12]

Thanks for sharing your experience! I guess we will continue with the plan.

I did this before (I'm a a USC) and there were no problems, but honestly I was a little concerned with my fiance doing the same.

[Gaijinsan 3]

Thanks for sharing your experience! I guess we will continue with the plan.

I did this before (I'm a a USC) and there were no problems, but honestly I was a little concerned with my fiance doing the same.

Just as an side -- Not sure where you are flying from/to, but Singapore Airlines actually has reasonably priced one-way tickets NRT-LAX.

Should be no problem using a round-trip ticket from the US immigration perspective. Some airlines, if they really wanted to be nitpicky, could try to say that intentionally not using the return leg is a violation of the contract of carriage, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. When I flew from Japan to return to the US, I used only half of a round-trip ticket. My wife (the immigrant) and kids used one-way tickets.

[Kajikit 65]

We never even bothered to cancel the return leg of mine... we just ignored it.

[Dave&Roza 748]

We never even bothered to cancel the return leg of mine... we just ignored it.

You can do that, but there have been a couple of horror stories where the Rreturn leg was sold by the airline and the person's name was not removed and THEY had to prove to USCIS that they did not leave the country. Much easier to contact the airline and just cancel the ticket and have a cancelation number to show USCIS should that happen. Also remember that during this entire process the burden of proof is on YOU not the USCIS.

We bought a RT as the one-way was $1000 more. The return leg was 89 days after arrival just in case and it was canceled once we were married.

Good luck,

Dave

Edited June 26, 2012 by Dave&Roza

[Kazulie 132]

You can do that, but there have been a couple of horror stories where the Rreturn leg was sold by the airline and the person's name was not removed and THEY had to prove to USCIS that they did not leave the country. Much easier to contact the airline and just cancel the ticket and have a cancelation number to show USCIS should that happen. Also remember that during this entire process the burden of proof is on YOU not the USCIS.

We bought a RT as the one-way was $1000 more. The return leg was 89 days after arrival just in case and it was canceled once we were married.

Good luck,

Dave

Agreed. Please just cancel the return so you have zero chances of having an immigration issue late. It only takes a few minutes. And like I said, you may get lucky and get a voucher towards another flight!

[Peter_Pan 661]

I'm going to buy a round ticket with a return date in 2013, and I will use it too to visit family back home.

[rkk1 34]

I'm going to buy a round ticket with a return date in 2013, and I will use it too to visit family back home.

I was also thinking about this when my husband comes here to the US.... just saving the return ticket for the following year, so that he could go home to visit family. But I don't know if it will actually end up saving money in the long run or not, as he will again have to pay a one-way return ticket back... unless he again saves that return ticket for the following year. In the places I looked, the return ticket was just a bit over 1/2 of the roundtrip so it didn't really matter too much, as the savings would be minor (around $100) and probably not worth the hassle of saving the return ticket for undetermined usage. Check kayak.com and see if you can't get a reasonable fare there.

Edited June 29, 2012 by rkk1

[X Factor 1,112]

We never even bothered to cancel the return leg of mine... we just ignored it.

That is something I would probably do - it will save a ton of time trying to call and cancel

[sms78 18]

You can do that, but there have been a couple of horror stories where the Rreturn leg was sold by the airline and the person's name was not removed and THEY had to prove to USCIS that they did not leave the country. Much easier to contact the airline and just cancel the ticket and have a cancelation number to show USCIS should that happen. Also remember that during this entire process the burden of proof is on YOU not the USCIS.

We bought a RT as the one-way was $1000 more. The return leg was 89 days after arrival just in case and it was canceled once we were married.

Good luck,

Dave

can somebody educate me about this please? In what situation someone have to prove USCIS that they did not leave the US??