B2 Visa Validity date

[kumaranbose]

My in-laws I-94 expires on May 28th 2012. I applied for visitor visa extension on April 15th 2012 and the case status is in "Initial Review" stage as of May 20th 2012. I did receive the receipt notice.

1. If i don't get a decision letter by May28th, can they legally stay until we get the decision. If so how long can they stay? Is this information officially shown in uscis website? I can't find it nowhere.

2. If the extension decision comes back as "Rejected", they will be leaving ASAP obviously and we are prepared for that. But my big doubt is in that case will it mean they have illegally over stayed until we got the decision letter.

Again i could not find any official documentation that clearly states about their legal status while the extension decision is in processing. And we are really confused what to do at this stage.

Any help or advise is greatly appreciated,

[peace999]

Yes, they can legally stay till the response comes. If it is a denial , they have to leave asap.
The system will record an overstay as they will be depositing the old I-94 at departure.
But it is not a problem.
All they have to do is keep their extension response letter and departure boarding passes to show at the next US entry.

[kumaranbose]

Thank you peace999.

So if they overstayed and if the decision comes back as "Denied" then they have to leave ASAP and their visa will also get cancelled.....I am absolutely now clear about that!

But what if they leave before the I94 expires (i.e) before May 28th and then the decision letter comes later next month as "Denied" - Will that still cancel their visa?

We are at a decision point to whether send them back before I-94 expires or wait till the decision comes over. If the visa will get cancelled regardless of overstay or not, then we would rather overstay and check it out.

Your opinion on this visa cancellation would be really helpful.

Thanks,
Kumaran

[peace999]

Visa is cancelled by the officer at next US entry only if he determines that they overstayed during the last visit.

If they can convince the officer at next entry that they left immediately after the denial letter , it should not be a problem .
But in reality, it will be at the discretion of the officer.

What I suggest is;
If they wish to be 100% safe, they should leave before May 28 that is expiry of their original
i-94. And forget about the current extension application. Make sure they deposit the I-94
with their airline at check in ,when leaving US.

In future, apply for an extension at least 3 months in advance of the expiry of I-94, if your granted stay is 6 months.
That way you will get the response well before the I-94 expiry.