URGENT: My visa expires on June 18 and my plans of travel are being foiled

[Nicolaszz 10]

My F4 immigrant visa expires on June 18. Middle East Airlines is offering a flight  from Beirut to London on May 22 that you can connect to the US. I did book the ticket and the connecting flight but the latter was cancelled and there are no more flights I can book. I don't know what I should do I'm panicking and i'm scared i'll lose my visa :((((. I also lost 1400 dollars now or possibly more because of the flight from Beirut to London, and I don't know if I wanna take any more risk if they offer another flight

 

US embassy is sometimes offering repatriation flights through Qatar Airways for Permanent residents and US Citizens. I don't know if I'm eligible to go? I just have an F4 immigrant visa. One thing that could happen is that my mom can go ( She has the I551 thingy, when the immigrant visa is stamped by A CBP Officer and is valid for 1 more year ), and I can follow her? Is that possible? On the Qatar Airways flight, I mean.

Edited May 17, 2020 by Nicolaszz

[designguy 1,179]

You cant transit through London and arrive in the US if you are not a USC or PR. There is a ban from people coming from Europe and the UK so if you were to transit you would not be allowed in.

 

You arent an PR yet so you wouldnt be eligible for a repatriation flight. What country are you from? Lebanon?

 

They wont be opening the borders for regular travel for the foreseeable future. Potentially not until next year according to Steven Mnuchin 

[Nicolaszz 10]

2 minutes ago, designguy said:

You cant transit through London and arrive in the US if you are not a USC or PR. There is a ban from people coming from Europe and the UK so if you were to transit you would not be allowed in.

 

You arent an PR yet so you wouldnt be eligible for a repatriation flight. What country are you from? Lebanon?

 

They wont be opening the borders for regular travel for the foreseeable future. Potentially not until next year according to Steven Mnuchin 

My mom has the I-551 which makes her an LPR ig though, so according to the presidential proclamation, shouldn't I be able to enter?

From the proclamation:

 

(v)     any alien who is the child, foster child, or ward of a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, or who is a prospective adoptee seeking to enter the United States pursuant to the IR-4 or IH-4 visa classifications;

 

Edited May 17, 2020 by Nicolaszz

[designguy 1,179]

1 minute ago, Nicolaszz said:

My mom has the I-551 which makes her an LPR ig though, so according to the presidential proclamation, shouldn't I be able to enter?

From the proclamation:

 

(v)     any alien who is the child, foster child, or ward of a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, or who is a prospective adoptee seeking to enter the United States pursuant to the IR-4 or IH-4 visa classifications;

 

1) You say an F4 visa which is for brother and sisters of USC. 

2) What is your age? If you arent a dependant child then you wouldnt qualify

[Nicolaszz 10]

Just now, designguy said:

1) You say an F4 visa which is for brother and sisters of USC. 

2) What is your age? If you arent a dependant child then you wouldnt qualify

Yes, it is an F4. My mom has entered the US though, so her visa was stamped by the CBP guard to serve as an LPR for one year

I'm 17

[designguy 1,179]

3 minutes ago, Nicolaszz said:

Yes, it is an F4. My mom has entered the US though, so her visa was stamped by the CBP guard to serve as an LPR for one year

I'm 17

Got it. So you should be able to enter the US, however from what I've seen repatriation flights are available only to USC and LPRs. Because you only have a visa you are not yet considered an LPR and wouldnt qualify.

 

Have you contacted the embassy?

Edited May 17, 2020 by designguy

[Nicolaszz 10]

2 minutes ago, designguy said:

Got it. So you should be able to enter the US, however from what I've seen repatriation flights are available only to USC and LPRs. Because you only have a visa you are not yet considered an LPR and wouldnt qualify

The airport is closed anyway until June 8 while my visa expires on June 18.  And it might not re-open if things don't go according to plan. Some US embassies like the one in Cairo have said that Immigrant Visa holders are allowed to board on repatriation flights, but the one in Beirut says US citizens and LPRs. However, when I enter the form you have to submit, you're able to write your visa type, and its expiry date. It's a hopeless case anyway  

Edited May 17, 2020 by Nicolaszz

[milimelo 4,479]

Can you get to Germany? We’re flying out of Frankfurt to DC in June. 
I know Austrian is opening routes start of June as well do follow their web. 

[aceegreene 34]

3 hours ago, Nicolaszz said:

The airport is closed anyway until June 8 while my visa expires on June 18.  And it might not re-open if things don't go according to plan. Some US embassies like the one in Cairo have said that Immigrant Visa holders are allowed to board on repatriation flights, but the one in Beirut says US citizens and LPRs. However, when I enter the form you have to submit, you're able to write your visa type, and its expiry date. It's a hopeless case anyway  

Do try contacting the embassy and the airlines directly as well anyway. A completely different case but one of my friends went to Canada on a Canadian immigrant visa on a repatriation flight meant for citizens and residents. I would suggest keep pushing and get in touch with the airline directly or go to their local office if it’s open.

[Quarknase 1,072]

If you can get to London, there are actually daily flights to the US. United Airlines for instance is still flying min. once per day from Newark to London and back.

You cannot be picky regarding arrival airport. Check Heathrow's departure list for today, yesterday, and you'll see many flights to the US. Check those for the date when you reach London and take a flight to any metro city and book a domestic connections flight from there.

[Nicolaszz 10]

3 hours ago, Quarknase said:

If you can get to London, there are actually daily flights to the US. United Airlines for instance is still flying min. once per day from Newark to London and back.

You cannot be picky regarding arrival airport. Check Heathrow's departure list for today, yesterday, and you'll see many flights to the US. Check those for the date when you reach London and take a flight to any metro city and book a domestic connections flight from there.

I arrive at 5:30 PM on may 22 to London, so it's unlikely that I'll find a flight to anywhere in the US. I can only hope and beg for them to change my ticket so I can go on an upcoming repatriation flight that arrives earlier than 5:30 PM 

5 hours ago, aceegreene said:

Do try contacting the embassy and the airlines directly as well anyway. A completely different case but one of my friends went to Canada on a Canadian immigrant visa on a repatriation flight meant for citizens and residents. I would suggest keep pushing and get in touch with the airline directly or go to their local office if it’s open.

I will bug them out, I need to find a solution for this. Thanks

6 hours ago, milimelo said:

Can you get to Germany? We’re flying out of Frankfurt to DC in June. 
I know Austrian is opening routes start of June as well do follow their web. 

Do you know the exact date? My visa expires on June 18.

[milimelo 4,479]

17 minutes ago, Nicolaszz said:

 

Do you know the exact date? My visa expires on June 18.

https://www.austrian.com/Info/Flightinformation/Travel Alerts.aspx

Have your travel agent run the options and book you on a flight. Or call Austrian.

[Nicolaszz 10]

1 minute ago, milimelo said:

https://www.austrian.com/Info/Flightinformation/Travel Alerts.aspx

Have your travel agent run the options and book you on a flight. Or call Austrian.

Interesting, the day Beirut airport opens. I can only hope Austrian flies to the US as well, because the most popular route to the US from here, Turkish Airlines, has cancelled all of its flights until another notice.

[Quarknase 1,072]

52 minutes ago, Nicolaszz said:

I arrive at 5:30 PM on may 22 to London, so it's unlikely that I'll find a flight to anywhere in the US. I can only hope and beg for them to change my ticket so I can go on an upcoming repatriation flight that arrives earlier than 5:30 PM 

from a quick google search I see one flight at 10 in the morning on the 23rd to Newark, and one flight at 3 in the afternoon to JFK. Both airports are on the list of airports that allow for arrivals from those countries if you qualify (keep in mind that you must arrive at one of the airports that accept passengers from the countries on the travel restricted countries).

sure, it's not preferred to have a long layover, but it's definitely a great option (compared to letting a visa expire) and if you monitor departures as I suggested, you'll see that the United flight in the morning (Flight UA 15) has been reliable the past days so it should be a safe option.

 

[Nicolaszz 10]

2 minutes ago, Quarknase said:

from a quick google search I see one flight at 10 in the morning on the 23rd to Newark, and one flight at 3 in the afternoon to JFK. Both airports are on the list of airports that allow for arrivals from those countries if you qualify (keep in mind that you must arrive at one of the airports that accept passengers from the countries on the travel restricted countries).

sure, it's not preferred to have a long layover, but it's definitely a great option (compared to letting a visa expire) and if you monitor departures as I suggested, you'll see that the United flight in the morning (Flight UA 15) has been reliable the past days so it should be a safe option.

 

I'll need a transit visa to stay overnight.

 

This website over here however: https://sterling-law.co.uk/en/uk-visa-enter-transit-uk/ says that Lebanese nationals don't need a visa to transit Landside. How legitimate do you think this is? On the UK gov website it just lists people who need transit visas and Lebanon is one of them. The gov website doesn't differentiate between visas for landside and visas for airside.

Edited May 17, 2020 by Nicolaszz