Returning to home country with no visa?

[Darnell 8,479]

I not think you are 'legal' in the USA, at the moment.

[christeen 966]

If you have not filed for a spousal visa and the visa you entered the USA on is cancelled then you are currently NOT legal... USA does not grant automatic status upon marriage... You must petition and apply for that privilege... However, to answer your question, you are free to leav anytime regardless if you are here legally or illegally. However, you might encounter a ban or need a waiver when you do apply for your visa. Overstays are forgiven when you file for adjustment of status within the USA (but you must remain in the USA while it processes or apply for Advanced Parole)...

[aaron2020 11,651]

I am legal in the states now because I am married to a US citizen. They only cancelled it after I got married. The plan is for me to get a visa for my husband to come to RSA so we can get married there too and he can start living in RSA.

Marrying a US citizen does not make you legal. You have not applied for a green card, so how are you legal?

You are living in the US illegally.

As Mitt Romney said - you can self-deport. You can leave. The US does not care if you leave.

[kristidef 0]

Marrying a US citizen does not make you legal. You have not applied for a green card, so how are you legal?

You are living in the US illegally.

As Mitt Romney said - you can self-deport. You can leave. The US does not care if you leave.

Yes that's what I meant - I am living in the states legally until we apply for the green card but the tables have turned and he is joining me in my home country on a fiance visa from my home country. I just need to know that when I leave, I won't have any hassles at the airports.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Yes that's what I meant - I am living in the states legally until we apply for the green card but the tables have turned and he is joining me in my home country on a fiance visa from my home country. I just need to know that when I leave, I won't have any hassles at the airports.

You simply don't get it.

You are not living in the US legally. You are living here illegally.

You have overstayed your visa an your husband has not file to adjust your status. So you have no legal right to be here.

If you are legally living here as you insist despite everyone telling you that you are living here illegally, then why are you scare about leaving if you are here legally?

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

OP: Being married by itself does NOT give you any benefits or permission to live in the US. You are illegal and subject to deportation at any time, it doesn't matter that you are married.

You can choose to leave at any time. You will not be hassled at the airport.

[belinda63 3,041]

Buy a ticket, go to the airport, all you need is your passport. Get on plane, leave USA. As simple as that. Returning might be another issue but it doesn't sound like that is in your plans.

You are not here legally. You are subject to deportation at any time which could change your plans to get arrested, go to jail, see a judge, go back to jail, be escorted to the airport, get on plane, leave USA.

There is no problem with you leaving the country.

[Shiobhan 235]

OP must be from one of those countries an exit visa is needed or U cannot leave,

OP legal , illegal, visa , no visa buy your ticket & go .Is'nt your husband a USC by

birth? he ought to know that exit visas are not required, and no U are not legal here

once visa was cancelled

[NickD 203]

With an agreement our DOS made with Colombia, wife could not enter Colombia without a Colombian passport, she had to renew her citizenship to get it. $$$$$$. So she used that to enter her home country, no problems, the reason why they know, our DOS puts in her home country as her place of birth.

But when she went to leave, she again showed her Colombian passport, they would not let her leave because she did not have a US visa in her Colombian passport. So she had to dig out her US passport to leave. Her POE was a woman, and just told her she was a lucky stiff to have that.

With a US passport, can enter and leave many countries without a visa, well not in Brazil, they require a visa first, other countries that require that visa, may not want to even visit. But with most of those countries, required to have a visa to come to the USA which is one reason many of her family cannot visit us. Very difficult to get.

Good point about trying to leave your home country without having a US visa stapled into your foreign passport. Well foreign to the USA.

[MichaelOrtho 0]

Any person is authorized to stay in the USA if he has US Citizenship or has visa (not expired) with autorization to stay (often a stamp in the passport). If your visa expired you had to leave USA before expiration or to change status before expiration.

If you overstayed valid period of your visa, you are in the USA illegally.

You can leave USA without any problem, but your overstay will be noted in the DHS Customs and Border Protection System and if and when you will try to enter again you will be denied and get a stamp with three or ten years ban. One friend lawyer said to me that bans are very tricky to override and that it is better to apply for waiver before trying to enter and get ban. There are people entering without that, but that was an error by Port-Of-Entry Officer.

There are two ways to legalize your overstay and to be pardoned for it. First is to apply for Adjustment of Status (I-485 and I-130), and second is to leave USA and to file a waiver request (to be pardoned for your overstay) and I-130 application and later GC application through a Consular Processing (in US Embassy).

The easiest way is first, but that does not pardon your overstay before you have a green card in your hand. You will have a protected status until GC. You can get Advance Parole Document but if you leave USA you will not be able to return even with that and your application will be cancelled. One day when you get GC, everything is pardoned and no one can penalize you because of overstay (that is the law).

[MichaelOrtho 0]

One more thing: you cannot change admission category from inside USA (exception is Adjustment of Status).

What that means? Example is when you have H1B or J-1 visa and it expires. People think that if they have tourist visa still not expired that they can just remain in the USA on that other visa. That is a big mistake. To use tourist visa (B-1/B-2) you should go out and return to be admitted with B-2 category. That is the reason if you get work visa (example is H1B) while you are on B-2 or start with some education with J or F visas, you have to be admitted to USA on that new visa, and to do so you have first to leave USA. Many people do it by going to a short trip to Canada, Mexico or Bahamas (it depends where you are in the USA), but you cannot avoid going out first. Now, you are late for that because you will only get a ban (if you do not have a waiver or GC).

I wrote this because I expected that it was a reason for you to think that you were here legally.

[newacct 688]

Any person is authorized to stay in the USA if he has US Citizenship or has visa (not expired) with autorization to stay (often a stamp in the passport). If your visa expired you had to leave USA before expiration or to change status before expiration.

If you overstayed valid period of your visa, you are in the USA illegally.

There is a lot of false information here. A U.S. "visa" is ONLY for entering the U.S. After entering the U.S., a visa has no meaning. What determines your status in the U.S. is the I-94. The visa expiring is irrelevant. For example, international students in the U.S. who have not left the U.S. for a lont time often have their visa expired many years ago, yet they are in legal status. You can enter the U.S. on a tourist visa on the last day of its validity, and get 6 months of duration of stay -- the visa will be expired, but you are in legal status.

You can leave USA without any problem, but your overstay will be noted in the DHS Customs and Border Protection System and if and when you will try to enter again you will be denied and get a stamp with three or ten years ban. One friend lawyer said to me that bans are very tricky to override and that it is better to apply for waiver before trying to enter and get ban. There are people entering without that, but that was an error by Port-Of-Entry Officer.

Not necessarily true. The bans are caused by a certain period of time of "unlawful presence", not "overstay". Being out of status does not mean you have unlawful presence. The OP, who entered as a J-1, almost certainly does not have unlawful presence.

You can get Advance Parole Document but if you leave USA you will not be able to return even with that and your application will be cancelled.

You might want to see the Matter of Arrabally decision from last year.

One day when you get GC, everything is pardoned and no one can penalize you because of overstay (that is the law).

Unless you lose or give up your GC.

One more thing: you cannot change admission category from inside USA (exception is Adjustment of Status).

Not true. There is also Change of Status (COS). For example, an F1 can change to an H1b inside the U.S. Again, it's the I-94 that matters. You will get a new I-94 when you change status. The "visa" is irrlevant; you may never have had a visa for the new status.

[NickD 203]

We sure had a deadline for filing our AOS papers, had a top US immigration attorney advising us. So rather than going on a honeymoon, were filling out forms. Thinking about long term, well not quite that long. With delays, there is such a thing as a visa extension form. Only takes extra money to get that.

But when once our AOS was initially approved, she was free to stay here legally with that NOS piece of paper. Couldn't work nor travel, couldn't have a joint band account, but could travel with yet another form, a traveling document for around 360 bucks as I recall. We also paid extra for an EAD card, then she could work, get an SS number with that and share my bank accounts. With all this immigration stress out of the way, then we could enjoy our honeymoon. But only to have the stress of our AOS interview about a year later, USCIS isn't exactly noted for speed, and to have sufficient documents to prove to them we were not committing fraud.

Just saying there are means to stay here legally and even travel abroad, but will cost you an extra thousand bucks for each person. In my case, wife and her daughter, was an extra 2,000 bucks.

All it takes is money and filling out forms correctly.