scoobysteve

I will be travelling to the US in November for a wedding in Vegas and have booked a villa in Phoenix where me and my wife intend on staying for Christmas and New Year. Then after the 90 days are up we want to come back in without having to go back to the UK where we originate from. Would it be OK to go to the Bahamas for a week or what about a cruise. We have no intension of working we just wanted to spend 6 months in the US, before you mention B2 we will be applying for a L1 after this trip to expand our business in the US and we need a full year to do that, and we was told that its not a good idea to apply for a L1 after being on a B2, we are mainly concerned about if we have to leave the continental US before we can come back in.

Many thanks in advance
Steve

scrubbedexpat099

Most likely not, as I am sure you know.

But you are rolloing the dice and who knows, you might be lucky?

uknobby

It is never a very good idea to do back to back VWP entries you only actually have to leave the USA before your ninety days is up so any foreign country will do Canada,Bahamas, Mexico etc but how the Officer at the POE on return will look at this is anyone's guess.

lisa67

visiting Canada (and I think Mexico) does not reset your clock. They do not remove your I 94 from your passport and therefore you will not receive another 90 days if you try and reenter.

scoobysteve

Thanks for that what about the british Islands like Caymans/ Bahamas etc.

Bill_S

Canada in particular is wise to this game and the Canadians might not let someone in if they are close to the end of a VWP stay. There was a report on this board a couple of years ago - somebody tried to get into Canada on day 88 or 89 of a VWP stay, but the Canadians said no. The person didn't get a flight back to the UK by day 90 and wound up overstaying and thus became ineligible for future VWP entries. Playing with fire can get you burned.

scoobysteve

Thanks but I have no intention of going to Canada or Mexico I was thinking of going to one of the carabian islands. Whats your thoughts on a week in the Bahamas and then re trying, I beleive the immigration is done in the Bahamas airport.

BTW what would happen on future trips over if we got refused at the Bahamas airport. ??

Orangepants

This is also true for the adjacent islands. I did it once, popping back to Cayman for one week but I got a hell of a grilling in secondary and they gave me another 90 days but told me never to use the VWP again as I had "thoroughly" abused it and they shouldn't be giving me another 90 days. '

Go further afield - how about a trip to Peru? Still no assurance they will admit you again after having been there already for 90 days.

scoobysteve

wow thanks for that, its a bit worrying. If we were to go back to the UK for a week or 10 days how would that improve our chances. I really wanted to avoid this if poss.

Songbird

The issue here is not so much which country you could visit as an interim but rather the question of back to back entry. 90 days in the US, a week in an adjacent country, then back again to the US - very risky imo. As a rule of thumb vistors are advised to spend at least as much time out of the USA as they do in it.

Noorah101

Canada, Mexico, and adjacent islands are not supposed to reset your 90-day VWP stay.

Going further away is best.

That said, back-to-back trips are discouraged no matter how far away you go. But as always, it's up to the POE officer of the day to let you back in or not. General rule of thumb is, spend more time outside the USA than you just spend inside it.

Of course you can try, just be prepared to be turned away on the 2nd visit.

Rene

scoobysteve

OK what if we were to apply for a B2, BTW we live and have residence in Portugal (I know B2 in London are very rare) and after 1 year applied for a L1 as is our intension, is this a good or bad idea, someone told us its not good to apply for a L1 after a B2. ???

keaki80

I was going to say the same as Songbird. I remember my attorney telling me you needed to be away from the country the length of time you'd already been here. So you'd need to leave for 3months. To be honest, I think it needs to be back to your country, too. There are a lot of issues like employment and commitments back home. If they think you have nothing back home, like family, home, job, commitments, they get a little nervous and suspicious.
Border officials, I mean.
I went through the 3rd degree regularly, visiting here often before taking the plunge - especially as I had family in Canada and went across the border often. Even with the 3mth visa, didn't mean they had to let me back in if they didn't like my answers.
Your question doesn't sound a good idea, but I'm interested to see what other people think.

Noorah101

To my knowledge, it's difficult to get a B2 visa if you are eligible to travel on the VWP, no matter where you live or have a residence. You haven't really said why you need to stay in the USA for 6 months instead of 90 days...what is the compelling nature of your lengthy stay?

I'm not sure what the problem is with the B2/L1 issue, except that I think to qualify for the L visa you must have been working for the company for at least 1 year, and if you've just returned from a B2 visit, you obviously weren't working during that time. But, I also think the L visa needs you to work 1 out of the last 3 years, so not sure how that ties in.

Best thing to do is have a consultation with an immigration attorney who can explain the L visa in more depth and address your concern with traveling on a B2 just before using obtaining an L1.

Rene

scoobysteve

Thanks all for such great responses, I will try and answer the main portion of questions.

Firstly I own a Real Estate company in Portugal and this has been in opperation for 7 years, more recently we have been approached by numerous investers that have stated that they wish to buy in both Portugal (where I live & opperate my business) and the US. We decided to open a sister company in Florida to cater for these clients and potential revenue under the L1 scheme. But we dont want to start this porcess just yet as we need to be in the US for various reasons that will keep us there for over 3 months, firstly a wedding in Nevada, then we are spending Xmas & New year in Phoenix until Feb when the VWP runs out, but in April I turn 50 and I have a 2 week harley road trip organised for my birthday with 9 other riders all booked and paid for. We retrun from this early May.

Thats the real reason but we would say that we have a extensive road trip organised that would need more than the 90 days, we have in fact just got back from a month in Canada driving across it and we would say that we now want to see as much of the US as we can but 90 days would not give us enough time to see it all, we could show itins and funds available this is not a problem we even have a website for this trip.

I have financial commitments in Portugal and the company as well we have staff that run the company when we are not there which is why I can take this time off.

Thats about the jest of it, I think.

Regards Steve