Past visa overstay impacting tourist visa

[starmanT 0]

15 years ago (I think sometime between 2008-2010), my family overstayed their visa. I'll try and give some background.

 

So I'm a US citizen, but my mom, sister and father are not, my dad came on a H1B and my mother on the spousal version of that.

My dad is <abusive>, so my mom was kept in the dark about a lot. She doesn't know what exactly happened and it's next to impossible to get details out of him. The things I know, I found out after many many long discussions with him and I really don't want to deal with him any more. 

 

 

They had applied for their green card and were in the 'waiting' period of it (I think you're not supposed to leave the country during that time). Then there was some situation, where their visa expired and they overstayed. I believe it was for a couple months. He claims he paid for something called 245i where you pay for the months you overstayed. So there was no penalty (his words but again he's very untrustworthy) but I also know they were banned from entering the country for 10 years after this (again his words). We are past that 10 years period now. 

 

After those months when they overstayed, my family moved back to their home country and they haven't been back since. I grew up, came to the US for university and am working here now. When all this happened my sister and I were kids (she was around 12-13). 

 

My sister has applied for a tourist visa but I'm sure when she goes for her interview they will ask her about all this. She has no intentions of moving here and she's well settled in our home country. 

 

My question is, is there any way I could request records for her and my mom, in the US, to find out exact dates and stuff when they overstayed? We are going to consult a lawyer but I'm sure they will also ask for details about this. We don't have any paper trails or anything so it's very difficult to get those dates. They both have social security cards. 

 

If I do a FOIA request, would that help? Conversely, would doing that negatively impact her application in any way? 

 

Any advise is appreciated

Edited September 13 by Crazy Cat

[appleblossom 2,326]

You doing a FOIA request won't impact her application in any way. What is your home country?

[starmanT 0]

2 minutes ago, appleblossom said:

You doing a FOIA request won't impact her application in any way. What is your home country?

Thanks for the information. 

Will doing a FOIA request give me information like dates they overstayed and whether 245i was paid or not? 

My apologies if this is a stupid question, I don't have much knowledge about FOIA or visa processes. 

 

My home country is India. 

[Crazy Cat 41,599]

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Edited September 13 by Crazy Cat

[SalishSea 17,744]

42 minutes ago, starmanT said:

Thanks for the information. 

Will doing a FOIA request give me information like dates they overstayed and whether 245i was paid or not? 

My apologies if this is a stupid question, I don't have much knowledge about FOIA or visa processes. 

 

My home country is India. 

I wouldn't get my hopes up.  Being from India, with a past overstay and previous attempts at getting a GC, their chances are slim to none.

 

You should probably just petition them for green cards if they want to come here.

[starmanT 0]

19 minutes ago, SalishSea said:

I wouldn't get my hopes up.  Being from India, with a past overstay and previous attempts at getting a GC, their chances are slim to none.

 

You should probably just petition them for green cards if they want to come here.

Thank you for the advice. I will speak to them about this and give it more thought. 

[Boiler 45,311]

If they were here for 2 years and on a H4 they would not have overstayed.

 

Sounds more like a B.

 

245i makes no sense with those dates anyway.

 

The Visa would be in her passport

 

You can look up the I 94 online

 

She will have to disclose her prior visit to the US anyway as part of the application process.

 

I agree sponsoring her makes more sense.

[starmanT 0]

1 hour ago, Boiler said:

If they were here for 2 years and on a H4 they would not have overstayed.

 

Sounds more like a B.

 

245i makes no sense with those dates anyway.

 

The Visa would be in her passport

 

You can look up the I 94 online

 

She will have to disclose her prior visit to the US anyway as part of the application process.

 

I agree sponsoring her makes more sense.

Thank you for your response. My apologies if it wasn't clear in the post, they were here for longer than 2 years. They came in 1997 and stayed till 2010-2011. 

 

Can you elaborate what B means? 

Can you also explain why 245i doesn't make sense for those dates. 

 

I did not know that I could look up the i94 online, thank you for informing me of that. 

[starmanT 0]

2 hours ago, SalishSea said:

I wouldn't get my hopes up.  Being from India, with a past overstay and previous attempts at getting a GC, their chances are slim to none.

 

You should probably just petition them for green cards if they want to come here.

Is it advisable to petition for GCs, if they aren't coming long term?

For my mom, I was planning to apply for GC once my income and job is a little more stable, since I was hoping to have her live with me. However, my sister is well settled in India with her own family and only wants to come for a vacation. 

 

[Boiler 45,311]

That makes more sense my comments were based on the original post.

 

Obviously they need to track down exactly what happened and when, for example on the face of it if your Sister was 12 when they left and she was born presumably in India and they were here 14 years that does not quite add up.

 

I assume you were born in the US when they were here.

 

There is no point petitioning your sister if she does not want to immigrate and it seems she was here for quite some time out of status, Mother is looking to move Sister here, well I agree with appleblossom.

 

Your Mother, yes she has served her 10 year bar for an overstay so the next question is if anything else is in her past that will require a waiver as you cannot file one.

 

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/i-94

[Lil bear 4,143]

9 minutes ago, starmanT said:

Is it advisable to petition for GCs, if they aren't coming long term?

For my mom, I was planning to apply for GC once my income and job is a little more stable, since I was hoping to have her live with me. However, my sister is well settled in India with her own family and only wants to come for a vacation. 

 

It is unlikely they will ever get a visitor visa with their overstay history and ties (you) to the US. If they do not want to immigrate then no, petitioning doesn’t make sense .. but given that you are considering petitioning for your mother, it’s the any possibility that they may want to immigrate in the future. The process for them will take 20 years until a visa is available .. filling a petition now and letting it sit for that time is sometimes chosen as  a safety net that’s then  ready IF they want it later. Your decision 

 

[starmanT 0]

2 minutes ago, Boiler said:

That makes more sense my comments were based on the original post.

 

Obviously they need to track down exactly what happened and when, for example on the face of it if your Sister was 12 when they left and she was born presumably in India and they were here 14 years that does not quite add up.

 

I assume you were born in the US when they were here.

 

There is no point petitioning your sister if she does not want to immigrate and it seems she was here for quite some time out of status, Mother is looking to move Sister here, well I agree with appleblossom.

 

Your Mother, yes she has served her 10 year bar for an overstay so the next question is if anything else is in her past that will require a waiver as you cannot file one.

 

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/i-94

My apologies if my response didn't clear things up. I'll try and give a better timeline. 

My sister was born in India in 96, my family moved to the US a year after that. 

Their visa status was all good right up till sometime around 2010, after that there were some work issues with my dad which caused them to go out of status. 

So they were out of status for about a year max (I think it was just 4-6 months but assuming a year since I don't have the facts). 

 

The issue about not knowing these dates is that there isn't a paper trail. I believe my dad has the documents but it's going to be next to impossible getting them from him, that is why I posted here looking for alternatives to find out the exact dates and what exactly happened. 

[Boiler 45,311]

Your Sister is not going to know the details but your Mother should at least know the dates give or take? Do they have their Passports from then?

 

FOIA has been mentioned, I 94 not sure what else to say.

[appleblossom 2,326]

45 minutes ago, starmanT said:

 

Their visa status was all good right up till sometime around 2010, after that there were some work issues with my dad which caused them to go out of status. 

So they were out of status for about a year max (I think it was just 4-6 months but assuming a year since I don't have the facts). 

There is a time limit for H visas, I don’t know if that was the case back in early 2000’s? But if so they must have either had different visas or been out of status for much longer than you think. Perhaps somebody else knows if the limit was the same back then. 
 

 

Edited September 14 by appleblossom

[Boiler 45,311]

It was the same then, the 245i throws me.