Overstayed Visa As A Minor

[Yturrizaga Aguirre]

So my family brought me to the U.S. when I was 6 years old. Lived there with an overstayed visa. I came back to my home country at 15 and I want to know if I would be able to get any sort of non-immigrant visa before 10 years. I have heard about the 3 or 10 year bans, but since I was a minor , would I be able to visit the U.S. again? thanks

[Bastad]

So my family brought me to the U.S. when I was 6 years old. Lived there with an overstayed visa. I came back to my home country at 15 and I want to know if I would be able to get any sort of non-immigrant visa before 10 years. I have heard about the 3 or 10 year bans, but since I was a minor , would I be able to visit the U.S. again? thanks

Staying in the US after the allowed duration of your I-94 is called "unlawful presence", and the time of the ban (3 or 10 years) depend on how many days you were in the US in that way.

But you're lucking - if you accrued time of unlawful presence **before you were 18 years old**, none of that time is counted. Check INA 212(a)(9)(B)(iii) , which under "Exceptions" it reads:

No period of time in which an alien is under 18 years
of age shall be taken into account in determining the
period of unlawful presence in the United States
under clause (i).

So as long as none of that time, again, was accrued when you were 18 years old or older - you should be good to go.