Air travel on overstayed visa

[kevdman 5]

Hi Group  I have a good friend who wants to travel from state to state via air.  The problem is she has overstayed her s months limit on her 10 year tourist visa. The visa is not expired and she is in good standing otherwise.   Is she save going through TSA at airports for domestic travel in the USA?

Thanks much

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

She’s not “in good standing” if she’s overstayed - she’s automatically invalidated her visa. 

There have been reports of tsa checks on status at some airports, so no she’s not necessarily “safe”.

she needs to go home before she stays long enough to incur a ban.

[Coco8 1,042]

Technically they can look up when the i-94 expired, so the fact that the visa is valid for 10 years means nothing. It risky.

 

That said, I've traveled with my passport plenty of times and it doesn't even have a visa stamp on it (I have approved petition and visa is only to get back into the US). They never asked me anything. But who know how it works; maybe they have a list of people that overstay and if you friend is on the last, it can trigger ICE going to look for her at the airport. 

 

Best thing is to either fix her status or leave. If she already overstayed she won't be able to come back, so that was a waste of a 10 year visitor visa. Her visa will be voided automatically and she will not be able to get a new one, maybe ever. And depending how long she overstayed, she could have a 3 or 10 year ban. If she is looking to adjust by marriage or something like that, better do it soon and inside the US.

[geowrian 22,337]

She probably will be fine. She may run into somebody from CBP working the lines alongside TSA. If so, then she can run into problems. It's always a risk to travel when out of status...usually it's not an issue but there's always somebody in the news who got unlucky and asked for evidence of immigration status.

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

You have to show proof of ID when flying. I presume her proof of ID is her passport?

Judging from recent posts on VJ I understand tourist visas still get the length of stay handwritten in their passports. TSA may not check the visa of course. Or they might.  I haven’t had to use my passport as ID for 5 years so not up to date with if they would glance at it or not.

[bakphx1 789]

I've traveled with my husband domestically since he arrived.  They check the name against the boarding pass but didn't look further.  Generally, that's it, but no guarantees of anything, of course. 

[Rusty72 68]

Gee I don't know why all of us have to jump through hoops and get all sorts of wait and frustration when we immigrate ...

You'll be fine is not an answer.. Do the right thing

[Jojo92122 1,924]

6 hours ago, kevdman said:

Hi Group  I have a good friend who wants to travel from state to state via air.  The problem is she has overstayed her s months limit on her 10 year tourist visa. The visa is not expired and she is in good standing otherwise.   Is she save going through TSA at airports for domestic travel in the USA?

Thanks much

The visa was automatically void once she overstayed.  It's no longer valid.

If she was in good standing otherwise, then you wouldn't be on here with the fear that she would be detected and deported by traveling.

Any air travel that puts her near CBP, puts her at risk of detection for being in the US illegally.

[kevdman 5]

3 hours ago, Jojo92122 said:

The visa was automatically void once she overstayed.  It's no longer valid.

If she was in good standing otherwise, then you wouldn't be on here with the fear that she would be detected and deported by traveling.

Any air travel that puts her near CBP, puts her at risk of detection for being in the US illegally.

I appreciate your information.  I don't care for the flippant remark though.  All I meant when I indicated her visa was in otherwise good standing was that her visa is current and she had complied with all the other conditions of the visa.  No doubt she's in hot water now.   That aside, I really do appreciate the info.

Thanks much.

[Jojo92122 1,924]

3 minutes ago, kevdman said:

I appreciate your information.  I don't care for the flippant remark though.  All I meant when I indicated her visa was in otherwise good standing was that her visa is current and she had complied with all the other conditions of the visa.  No doubt she's in hot water now.   That aside, I really do appreciate the info.

Thanks much.

Her visa is not current because she did not comply with all the conditions on her visa.  You are trying to paint her as a good law abider otherwise seems like an attempt to diminish her visa violation. 

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

28 minutes ago, kevdman said:

I appreciate your information.  I don't care for the flippant remark though.  All I meant when I indicated her visa was in otherwise good standing was that her visa is current and she had complied with all the other conditions of the visa.  No doubt she's in hot water now.   That aside, I really do appreciate the info.

Thanks much.

Again - her visa is no longer current or unexpired, it’s voided. That happened on day one of her overstay.

And you don’t get to choose which conditions of a visa to comply with.  A tourist visa only has two main conditions - don’t work, and go home when you’re supposed to. And people who violate the latter for any length of time usually end up violating the former too. 

This affects other people from her home country too by the way - the more people from a country who overstay, the harder it is for the next genuine applicants to get granted visas.

 

 

Edited May 21, 2018 by SusieQQQ

[kevdman 5]

12 hours ago, Coco8 said:

Technically they can look up when the i-94 expired, so the fact that the visa is valid for 10 years means nothing. It risky.

 

That said, I've traveled with my passport plenty of times and it doesn't even have a visa stamp on it (I have approved petition and visa is only to get back into the US). They never asked me anything. But who know how it works; maybe they have a list of people that overstay and if you friend is on the last, it can trigger ICE going to look for her at the airport. 

 

Best thing is to either fix her status or leave. If she already overstayed she won't be able to come back, so that was a waste of a 10 year visitor visa. Her visa will be voided automatically and she will not be able to get a new one, maybe ever. And depending how long she overstayed, she could have a 3 or 10 year ban. If she is looking to adjust by marriage or something like that, better do it soon and inside the US.

Thank you

[Jojo92122 1,924]

7 minutes ago, kevdman said:

Wow, this place has changed since I last used it.  I see folks have become quite judgemental.  I was asking for information only and to help get that information I was passing on what I knew about the visa.  I did not request a assessment of my friend.  Nor did I attempt to diminish her violation.  I simply wanted to make it clear her 10 year visa was intact other than her clear violation of the conditions.  You answered my question.  I thanked you. Please let that terminate our conversation.

Saying that her visa was intact other than her clear violation after it has been revoked is like a drunk driver with a revoked driver's license saying his driver's license is good other than the drunk driving.  You can't seem to say that the visitor visa is void because she violated the conditions of her visa.  Her visa is no way intact.

[kevdman 5]

11 hours ago, bakphx1 said:

I've traveled with my husband domestically since he arrived.  They check the name against the boarding pass but didn't look further.  Generally, that's it, but no guarantees of anything, of course. 

Thank you

[TNJ17 1,329]

It doesn’t matter if her visa is valid for 10 years or 20. If she spent more time than she was awarded at port of entry, ie the date on her most recent I-94, she’s illegally staying in the US and subject to deportation if caught. Also, her visa isn’t intact. It’s been voided the minute she overstayed, so she’s not in good standing. Traveling domestically doesn’t put you through immigration, but you never know what can happen with the current White House administration. 

Edited May 21, 2018 by TNJ17