Conundrum . how long in the US

[kawatee77]

Planning a vacation? Finding your ideal destination is o­nly part of the job; there's also the matter of where to stay. Your accommodation preference will define your vacation as much as your intended place to get a little R&R, so be careful about the choices you make.

[malica]

Does that six month rule come from the Canada side or the US side? I mean, does the US only allow Canadians six months in the US, or does Canada take away certain benefits if you've been out of the country for too long? I've heard of snowbirds always having to return within six months, but I thought that was for their health insurance.

[Reba]

yep, if you're gone more than 6 monhts of the year, they can assume you are no longer resident and then no longer eligible for provincial health care services.

[waterwaterwaterloolooloo]

6 months is all you've got within one year.

and as far as not stamping the passport and the honours system, ive often asked myself the same. I have played by the rules but have been tempted (as my boyfriend was in the US and I was going to see him all the time when I could). But my passport was never stamped EVER, within the three years before I moved to the US and when I went to apply for AOS, my lawyer couldn't believe it hadn't been stamped. Luckily I saved the plane ticket stub when I last entered or they would have had a hard time. they should always stamp, I dont know why they stopped doing that.

[Reba]

they never have consistently stamped Canadian passports. Ever. Because it was never legally required for a Canadian to show passports at the US border, they never, or rarely, bothered. Generally, Canadians only get stamped (for now) if they get a visa. An immigration lawyer should know that.

Of course that'll all change as soon as they enact the passport requirements. Which for now have been extended because of backlog in applications.

[waterwaterwaterloolooloo]

I totally understand that Reba, and I think my lawyer was surprised because she didn't seem to know that Canadians could just come and go with a birth cert/drivers licence for the past 10000000 years. (a lot of the lawyers at the firm seem to be former immigrants themselves!) I find that some of the immigration lawyers I talked to didn't understand the border procedures between canada and america because it seems, especially at my office, they aren't dealing with many canadians at all.

Any ways-I still think they should always stamp if you have a passport. Every country in europe stamps, why don't we? It's good to have a visible record, in my opinion. My lawyer needed to know my last entry and it was March 8th. She said unless I had proof, there might be a problem. Luckily I had some but still.would they have taken my word?

[Reba]

The thing is that because we don't need visas to visit the US, there is no need for a stamp. That stamp you get in Europe is in effect a visitor's visa. No visa needed, no stamp needed.

If you fly between the US and Canada and if they scan your passport, rest assured they have record of your coming and going, with or without the stamp! Even without a passport, they'll have record of it.

If you drive across and you're hauled in to secondary inspection (interrogation ) they'll have record of your coming and going. If you drive across and they just wave you through however, there is no record other than your own word.

When I went for my K3 interview to the US consulate in Montreal and I filled out the visa application form (DS-3032 er summat?) there is a question that asks for dates and length of stay for any visits to the US. ANY US consulate or Department of State adjudicator in the US is going to be perfectly ok with answering that question with "I lived close to the border and drove over several times a year for one day trips for lunch, or for one week vacations camping in the Poconos" or whathave you.

The people who really matter are the consulars and the adjudicators, not the lawyers. From my own experience, and anecdotal experience of other immigrants to the US, the lawyers are rarely if ever helpful, and you're better off to do it yourself. Unless you're applying for asylum or refugee status, or you have a communicable disease or a criminal record, there's really no need for a lawyer IMO.

[waterwaterwaterloolooloo]

There was probably no need for me to get a lawyer, this is true. But I didn't want to screw the process up by doing it myself, if by chance I could. We could have saved ourselves a lot of money, but to be honest, our lawyer has been very helpful so far and gone with us step by step.