Leo Le Brun

I have just been approved by NSC but I can't seem to shake this off: I had a J-1 visa that expired May 31st, 2001 and only left on July 3rd. Could that be a problem at the K-1 interview or at POE??? I have read everywhere that overstays aren't a big deal if they are less than 180 days but someone please give me a straight answer.

PS: after that 64 day visa overstay, I made a 2 week trip as a tourist in Oct 02, without any mention of the overstay at POE.

Caro

I don't think that you have a problem. I think that your situation can fall within one of these cases:

1) Your visa expired May 31st, 2001 but your IAP-66 expired after July 3rd.
2) Your visa and IAP-66 both expired before July 3rd and you were admitted with a D/S and no date.

In case 1), you obviously have no problem since you were still in status when you left (provided you maintained your status correctly).

In case 2), you should not have a problem (cf posts by FolinskyInLA) because when you have a D/S as opposed to a fixed date, you do not start the clock for unlawful presence.

Caroline

Leo Le Brun

Thank you Caro.

My IAP-66 expired on May 31st as well, but I can see the officer at POE wrote J-1 D/S on the stamp, under "admitted until". Does it mean the overstay won't show up on the POE computer?

Caro

I think (but I am not an expert) that technically it is not an overstay because the clock has not started to tick. I am not very familiar with this and I don't understand the D/S (duration of status) very well. Maybe somebody else can answer your questions better. Try also a search on alt.visa.us.marriage-based for D/S. There are some interesting posts on the subject

Caroline

Leo Le Brun

Thank you very much Caro. Maybe FolinskyInLA will come by and answer this one for me.