Meaningful Departure

[Driftit]

Hi there,

It seems the more I search and talk to people about what a meaningful departure is the more conflicting experiences and information I get given.

I have a B2 visa and am from New Zealand. I have a set date that I must leave by. I had originally planned to leave the US close to my expiry date to meet up with family who are travelling to Europe. I was going to stay in Paris for around 5 days before heading back to continue my travels in the US.

I was told by the US immigration agent in New Zealand that this would be fine. I just could not go to Canada or Mexico to reset my visa.
I was then told by someone in a random conversation that I would have to leave for at least 30 days. And have since found further information also stating this. But whilst searching I find others have even flown to places like Iceland or the UK and turned around immediately and were given another 6 months.

I need to find somewhere where this is black and white.

In the mean time I am spending a heap of money trying to extend my B2 just in case.
I can't exactly jump back on a plane to head all the way back to NZ for 30 days then come back. It would mean the trip is over for me. Total waste of time and money.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Trinity71]

Meaningful Departure

Hi there,

It seems the more I search and talk to people about what a meaningful departure is the more conflicting experiences and information I get given.

I have a B2 visa and am from New Zealand. I have a set date that I must leave by. I had originally planned to leave the US close to my expiry date to meet up with family who are travelling to Europe. I was going to stay in Paris for around 5 days before heading back to continue my travels in the US.

I was told by the US immigration agent in New Zealand that this would be fine. I just could not go to Canada or Mexico to reset my visa.
I was then told by someone in a random conversation that I would have to leave for at least 30 days. And have since found further information also stating this. But whilst searching I find others have even flown to places like Iceland or the UK and turned around immediately and were given another 6 months.

I need to find somewhere where this is black and white.

In the mean time I am spending a heap of money trying to extend my B2 just in case.
I can't exactly jump back on a plane to head all the way back to NZ for 30 days then come back. It would mean the trip is over for me. Total waste of time and money.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I think there is some confusion here between an incidental trip and a meaningful departure. If you are granted for example a 6 month stay (your I-94 dates) from let's say March 1 - Aug 31, and in May you go to Paris for a week. Your visa here is still valid until August so you should be fine to come back in. I say should be because it is always at the discretion of the POE officer.

A meaningful departure is when the 6 months are up, you return to your home country or depart the U.S. and do not immediately turn around and try and come back in, so a meaningful departure.

Some people who have been issued a 10 year multiple entry visitor visa for example may go home for 2 weeks and head back right away. Their trying to live here under the cover of a visitor visa and just go home for short amounts of time. That is not what the visitor visas are for. So for example, someone has been here 6 months "visiting", goes home and is back 3 weeks later trying to visit for another 6 months. This is what might cause a POE officer to grant maybe only a 2 week stay and that would also serve as a warning to the visa holder that they are not using that visa properly. Anything less than 30 days would not be considered a meaningful departure and then after that it's up to the POE officer if he feels like there is a valid reason for a new visit so soon after a previous one.


This is my opinion and not legal advice. Use of this information is to be used strictly at your own risk.

Trinity71