A tourist visa reveals to you all the splendor of America’s nature: canyons, waterfalls, deserts, mountains, sights and wonderful cities. But for only six months, further stay in the country is considering illegal and punishable by law. But what if you fell in love with all this so much that you don’t want to leave at all? Is it possible to extend your stay in the country, or stay at all?
As sad as it may sound, there are not many options. But they are. Let’s start in order.
1. Pull the cat by the tail. Extension of a tourist visa without leaving the United States.
This option is suitable for those who just want to stay in the country for a longer time, and are not yet thinking about how to get a green card.
Few people know that a tourist visa can be extended for another half a year without leaving the country. Preferably served one month before the end of your six-month stay.
I would advise you to consult a lawyer for remove conditions on green card, but in reality everything is quite simple:
and. You need to provide a document that proves that you will retain a job for the duration of your absence (it’s not for me to tell you how to do this, all adults, I didn’t work at all at the time of submitting the tour visa);
b. You have a business visa (B1) , that is, you open it for conferences, seminars or business meetings. Then you need to find conferences and seminars that correspond to your specialty and attach invitations to them to the documents (usually screenshots from meetup.com are enough, and all seminars do not have to be paid)
from. You have a tourist visa (B2) . You can buy some kind of tour of the states, attach it to the documents and, for a reason, submit that you have not seen enough of all the splendor of the country.
If this is your first visit to the country, the probability of extension is about 90%, if you did everything correctly with the documents. The decision comes in 2-3 months, but even if your residence status has expired, you are waiting for the decision legally, if you are refused, you will have about two weeks to leave the country. With each subsequent entry, the probability naturally decreases.
And now, in principle, we already have a year in our pocket, but, as they say, you get used to good things very quickly. What else can you do?
2. Change from tourist status to educational status. Plus from one to 5 years.
The only negative is that you have to really learn. Although no, not the only one – you still need to pay for your studies. It can be as a one-year English language course for $ 10,000, and a college in North Carolina for $ 500 per semester. Usually, the transition to another status will help you to do it at the school / college of your choice.
This method allows you to gain more time and get the opportunity to officially work for a year after training, during which, in principle, you can try to find an employer who will sponsor your visa.
It is important to understand that when you change the status of a tour visa to a study visa within the United States, leaving your home country will void your study status. Therefore, if you want to go home and return, then you are unlikely to succeed.
These two methods will help you stay longer in the country and decide if it is really worth it. There are two more real ways to stay. This is a political asylum and a wedding with a US citizen / citizen. Well, one for the lucky ones is the green card lottery. Nobody forbids you to play it, find it in the USA,
3. Political asylum. Probably the most popular way among travelers on a tour visa.
Watered asylum is a very long and dreary process. The advantage of this process is that it usually takes a very long time, so you can apply for a work permit and social security number after 150 days of waiting for a decision on your case. Since they understand that you will work illegally and money into the treasury it will not bring, therefore, in fact, you become the owner of the same rights as a person with a green card and will be required to pay tax.
As you can imagine, the reason “I don’t want to go home” does not fit the criteria by which you can be granted asylum. Therefore, people go to dodgy tricks and come up with all sorts of nasty things about themselves and their loved ones. This is fraught with consequences – both from the moral side and from the physical. I will give only one piece of advice on this matter – find a good lawyer.
4. Wedding with a US citizen. For money, for love. As you wish.
Usually, after two months you already receive a temporary green card, which in two years will become permanent, after checking the sincerity of your intentions. I heard that a lot of people make money on this by offering themselves as husband/wife, but be careful. s very often people are blackmail and extorted even more money, and when the truth is revealed, a citizen is threatened with court and prison, and you will be deported and banned. to enter for life.
It’s not a lot like that, but the opportunity to stay is always there, the main thing is to want.
