re-entry with student visa after an overstay ?

I am a Canadian living in New York and I am probably going to overstay my six-month limit visitor’s (B2) visa by two or three months. My questions are:

1. How are overstays detected or tracked? As a Canadian I don’t have an I-94 so I’m wondering if there is any consistent system in place for tracking the exit dates for Cannucks. I’ve read the related posts elsewhere on this forum, but have not yet found a clear cut answer.

2. Will an overstay of two or three months likely prevent my future re-entry into the US, even if I have a student (F1) Visa? I understand that even a small overstay, if detected, may result in a three year ban, but I am wondering about the likelihood of this happening. I’m hoping that being in possession of a student Visa might allow me to ‘get away with’ having previously overstayed my visit to the US. Perhaps this is a risky gambit. Please advise.

1. CBSA and CBP are in communication. Is it consistent, no. And yet they detect many overstays.

2. A small overstay does not result in any official ban. What it does though is make you an overstay risk. Entry on F1 is a non-immigrant entry, so it could impact you being admitted. CBP doesn have to let you in, even with F1 status (F1 status that they would be granting you , btw)

So, the question becomes, why have you not left US at some point to avoid this risk altogether. You are at most 6 hours from border!

Thanks Agnelson,

Here's the thing, after having lived in New York for four months, I did return to Vancouver for a ten day visit . When I re-entered the US, the US customs agent questioned me about my comings and goings and, deciding that honest is the best policy, I told him that I had already been living gin NYC since July, 11. At this point he stamped my passport and wrote "B1/ Jan 1, 12". I'm pretty sure that the B1 = "visitor visa" and that "Jan 1, 12" = when it expires, so to speak. In other words he made it clear that I was not good for another six month visitor visa, but had to depart on Jan 1, 2012--six months after my original entry. So, hopping the border and re-entering for me did not do anything to extend my stay.

Here's the thing. When you ask a question, give the full picture.
You were not given a "six-month limit visitor’s (B2) visa ".
When you said you were "living in NY" I thought you had misspoke. Turns out you told the officer the same thing.

There isn't an officer even born yesterday that will accept a visitor saying the "live" anywhere in US. You were given a short-term I-94 with a specific return date. You are already on their watch list. I would not have let you in at all for that comment (how's that laws, flames?).
Your legal right to be in US expires on Jan 01, 2012. period. its not a figure of speach.

Stay past that date and what I already told you above:

2. A small overstay does not result in any official ban. What it does though is make you an overstay risk. Entry on F1 is a non-immigrant entry, so it could impact you being admitted. CBP doesn have to let you in, even with F1 status (F1 status that they would be granting you , btw)

becomes more and more of a possibility.


My guess is that you will be celebrating New Years in canada, if you are wanting to go to school in US.

No, obviously I did not say that I was "living in NYC" to the officer--though it's a matter of semantics, I was not so careless as to phrase it that way. I said that I was visiting for six months, living on a Canadian research grant, subletting an apartment, and writing a technical manual which required some research (but no actual paid employment). All of this was true and is still true --except that now my return date is uncertain.

I'm curious as to why you assume I am "already on their watch list." Is your guess based on your misconstrual of what I actually said to the officer, or on the fact that he stamped my passport? I take it that stamping and writing a date on a passport is not done routinely, but only when someone is deemed an overstay risk?

Yes, I understand that my "legal right to be in US expires on Jan 01, 2012." I also understand that the law is not "a figure of speach" (sic). Though my question was never about the letter of the law, but about the risks and potential consequences of breaking this law. So to be clear: you are suggesting that my passport being stamped indicates that I am being 'watched" so to speak, and that I face a potentially higher likelihood of later being denied an F1 visa due to my overstay. Got it.

Thanks again.

CE