DEE_UK

Hello Friends,

I posted this up on the Canada forum, and have had a reply back, but have been advised to ask the US forum as well!

Heres the link: My Post

To save you having to go to the original post, below is my question:
And the response:
Yes, I did go to the website, but could not find what I was looking for! I'll try again tomorrow, when I'm a little more alert! However, can anyone tell me whether I'll have any issues coming back?

Thank you!

Dee

AdobePinon

I'm no expert, but I think you'll be fine as long as your H1-B visa stamp has not expired. If I were you, I'd get a dated letter from your boss saying that you still have a job and that they still need you. Take a couple of recent pay stubs too. This way you can prove that your reason for visiting the US is still valid in the (unlikely but possible) event that the immigration people give you a hard time.

rbtuk

Visiting Canada for a few days is no problem - my experience of crossing by car at a border post. I have been over to Niagara Falls on half a dozen occasions and each time the USA side does not even take the I-94 from your passport. The Canadian side will require you to get a 90 day visa in your passport at the office, which again is no problem. Each time I have just taken my passport with my H1B visa stamp and my US drivers licence (which you have to carry anyway).

dunroving

The OP never mentioned a visa stamp in his/her passport (though I didn't read the whole original thread from the Canada forum).

A UK passport and "H1B papers" won't get you back into the US, I know because I've tried it twice and was refused at the departure airport.

As others have said, if you have an H1B visa stamp in your passport, you should be OK.

I've never traveled to Canada so I'm speaking only generally about travel outside the US.

kevntrace

You should be fine so long as you have the H1B stamp in your passport. The advice about a letter and pay stubs isn't bad either. You're unlikely to need it, but its better to be safe than sorry.

I almost got deported when I went over the border from Detroit to Windsor for one evening, then tried to get back in. A bunch of us went with my visiting boss for a few bevvies in Windsor. This was all a spur of the moment thing. Plus it was my first time out of the US since initially arriving - I was very naive about immigration at the time

Everything went fine until we tried to cross the border back into Detroit - because we had made this trip on the spur of the moment, none of us was carrying our passports. My boss was the only USC in the car. The immigration officer ripped a new arsehole in my boss, but let him re-enter the US. The rest of us (all H1Bs at the time) were sent back to the Canadian side to wait there until our boss returned with our passports.

Given that my boss was only visiting us in Detroit (he lived in San Fran), he had some serious navigating to do to find each of our apartments (we were spread out across the northern burbs), then enter each apartment and find a passport! Lets just say it was a long night

Wintersong

Hubby just returned from Canada on H1b. He went there specifically to renew his visa, which expired in September. No problems at all at the border.

He is always super cautious when he's travelling and takes proof of employment (pay stubs and letter from employer) which I don't believe he has ever been asked to show. You need to take your I-797 and you need to have a visa in your passport with plenty of time left on it. Probably more than 6 months, because when we returned to the US in April (with visas due to expire in September), the immigration official was a bit iffy with us re: the amount of time left on them.

Rbtuk mentioned getting a Canadian 90 day visa - I'm confused about this as I thought British citizens didn't need a visa to visit Canada

rbtuk

British Citizens are part of the visa waiver program and do not need to apply for a visa but still must get a visitors visa stamped in the passport. There is no problem with this at all, just a case of having it stamped at the border crossing. Valid for a period of 90 days or may be even 6 months.