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I am hoping to hear from other people with similar experiences. What I am wondering is, what are the chances that I will be denied entry into the USA, after having been denied in the past? See the explanation below.

I will keep this as short as possible. Roughly 5 years ago, I attempted to fly into the USA from Canada and was denied entry. I was denied because I had overstayed a visit in the past, which I fully admitted and didn't try to fight it. I dug my grave, so to speak..

After being denied, I didn't try to enter again for about 2 years. The next attempt, I drove so as to avoid losing out on a nonrefundable flight. Well, I was granted entry into the country after having my car and luggage thoroughly inspected and questioned. This time though, I had to pay a fee to enter the country and they stapled a form to my passport. The form stated that I was to exit the country by the date that I told the officer. I complied and exited on the date that I reported and I turned the piece of paper over to the Canadian border agent when I came back to Canada, as instructed.

I have not tried to visit the USA since that last time.

Now, my friends and I have a trip planned in August to Las Vegas and I am trying to avoid any complications. We will all be traveling together and flying from Canada to Las Vegas.

Do you think I will have any problems this time, after fully complying during my last visit?

I should note that I am a Canadian and I am also a full time student, so I do have ongoing commitments here in Canada. Employment commitment is questionable, as I am on contract at the moment for an internship and it is unknown where/if I will be working at that time.

Hopefully someone will some experience with this can chime in. Thanks!

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  • How long ago did you overstay your visa?
    – Karlson
    Commented Mar 5, 2014 at 17:24
  • I didn't have a visa (as far as I know..). Its hard to remember, but if I remember correctly, I stayed for about a year to a year and a half.
    – canadmos
    Commented Mar 5, 2014 at 17:30
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    You electronically receive a B1/B2 visa when you enter, which if I recall correctly allows you currently a 6 months stay. If you overstay you have an entry ban, which depends on the duration of overstay, so if you know when the overstay occurred it may provide more insight into whether you will continue having problems. As far as Passport Stamp you may not have received it but received an I-94 White Card which gets removed from the passport when you leave or if this was long ago you may have been crossing with a Driver's License.
    – Karlson
    Commented Mar 5, 2014 at 17:47
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    @Karlson good point. According to CBP you may be denied entry based on previous overstay, but there's not more detail on how. Maybe you could contact CBP and inquire ? help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/760/kw/overstay/sno/1
    – blackbird
    Commented Mar 5, 2014 at 18:01
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    @jwenting Aren't you confusing different things here? I don't think the TSA is in charge of this at all.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Mar 6, 2014 at 16:35

1 Answer 1

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TL;DR; Opinion only

The best I can figure your entry to the US in 2009 was a fluke. Generally speaking under INA 212(a)(9)(B):

(B) ALIENS UNLAWFULLY PRESENT.-

  • (i) In general.-Any alien (other than an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence) who-

    • (I) was unlawfully present in the United States for a period of more than 180 days but less than 1 year, voluntarily departed the United States (whether or not pursuant to section 244(e)) prior to the commencement of proceedings under section 235(b)(1) or section 240, and again seeks admission within 3 years of the date of such alien's departure or removal, or

    • (II) has been unlawfully present in the United States for one year or more, and who again seeks admission within 10 years of the date of such alien's departure or removal from the United States is inadmissible.

You should have received 10 year entry ban for the 1 year overstay in 2007, which would expire in 2017. The only thing that I can suggest is that I have sometimes noticed on busy land crossings the border control officers sometimes don't scan the passport of the arriving person (may be for the US reentry only but I can't be sure), or the system didn't flag you as having a ban (software error), which is possible due to a new passport or some other reason. So in 2009 on land crossing you should have been denied entry but were only given a going over by the CBP and Customs because you may have been acting nervously.

Going forward there is no reason that this ban won't come up when you try to travel to the US again. Additionally your admission at the border is if not fully then in a large part at the discretion of the Border Control admitting you to the US. With that in mind a previous ban may result in another denial of entry.

There are 2 forms that are for applications for Waivers of Inadmissibility(I-192, I-601) but I don't think that either will apply to you.

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  • Thanks for your information. For what its worth, I phoned the pre-clearance border office here in Toronto at the airport and spoke to a supervisor. While it was hard for him to say for sure, he also said that based on being admitted to the country after being denied, that I shouldn't have too much of a problem in the future. I hope......
    – canadmos
    Commented Mar 6, 2014 at 19:24
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    "You should have received 10 year entry ban for the 1 year overstay in 2007" But was the OP unlawfully present? Immigration terms are often complicated and counter-intuitively defined. Someone who does not have unlawful status is not necessarily unlawfully present (uscis.gov/sites/default/files/ilink/docView/AFM/HTML/AFM/…).
    – user102008
    Commented Mar 7, 2014 at 2:46
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    In particular, Canadian visitors who were not given an I-94 are treated like people admitted for Duration of Status, and people admitted for Duration of Status cannot start accruing unlawful presence unless 1) they get ruled against by an immigration judge, or 2) they apply for a benefit to USCIS, who finds a violation. (uscis.gov/sites/default/files/ilink/docView/AFM/HTML/AFM/…) Absent either of these, a Canadian visitor does not have unlawful presence, and thus cannot have a 212(a)(9)(B) ban.
    – user102008
    Commented Mar 7, 2014 at 2:47
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    Actually, I was wrong. I just found my old passport and it does have a stamp in it from the visit after I was denied. Stamped June 20 2009 with "Class B2" written on it.
    – canadmos
    Commented Mar 7, 2014 at 20:50
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    @canadmos: yes, by first time I meant the one during which you overstayed (2005). If you didn't get anything like any other Canadian, then you cannot have unlawful presence, and cannot have a 212(a)(9)(B) ban.
    – user102008
    Commented Mar 8, 2014 at 23:03

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