Tweet
A 5-year ban of Unlawful presence in the US
Hello all. This is my first time on this forum. Kindly help me with this issue.
I was in the U.S. last year on a B visa on vacation. I intended going back because I had a well paying job back home. I was advised to stay back a while because there was an Ebola virus outbreak in Africa and my home country was one of the countries where it was most prevalent. My employer couldn't extend my vacation, as a result, I resigned from my job which I would have done this year anyway.
While I was waiting for the outbreak to subside, I decided to apply for admission for a masters degree program which I had the intention of doing this year.
I gained the admission so I had to apply for a change of status to F1. My resumption was October but because I needed a change of status, the school had to defer my admission to Jan 5 although I informed them about my i94 expiration date for November.
The status change was denied due to the fact that the number of days between my i94 expiration and my school start dates differed by 35days instead of a maximum of 30days. So, I was told to leave the country or file for an appeal.
I chose the former because the response time for receiving the appeal is not known and might be denied still. I didn't want complications and also didn't want to incur unlawful presence and over stay.
I got back to my home country and after a week, I went for an F1 visa interview. I was denied based on the reason that I couldn't demonstrate ties with home country, even when I wasn't given the opportunity. I was told by the visa officer to reapply anytime but preferably in 3months.
I applied again about 10days later since my status might not change in another 3months, and school was resuming very soon.
This time, another visa officer interviewed me, and all I was allowed to say was, 'good morning'. She actually verbally attacked me which was rather shocking to me. She gave me a ban of 5 years.
My questions are:
*Does she have any right to ban me for 5 years since that's not in the immigration law? She actually hand wrote the 5 year ban statement on the notice of denial letter she gave me.
*Is it possible she did that to stop me from re-applying, perhaps, she didn't input it on the system?
*If I deserve the ban, why did the first visa officer not issue it?
*Does the immigration 3/10 years ban not applicable after 180days and 365 days of unlawful presence? I got the change of status denial in Jan 11, and left the U.S. on Feb 19.
*Can one actually say mine was unlawful presence?
*Is there anything I can do to fight this?
I am very sorry this is a lengthy one. I needed to explain the situation as it is, for better understanding because I'm really worried.
Thank you for your prompt responses.
Edit / Delete Edit Quick reply to this message Reply Quote Quote Multi-Quote This Message
I was in the U.S. last year on a B visa on vacation. I intended going back because I had a well paying job back home. I was advised to stay back a while because there was an Ebola virus outbreak in Africa and my home country was one of the countries where it was most prevalent. My employer couldn't extend my vacation, as a result, I resigned from my job which I would have done this year anyway.
While I was waiting for the outbreak to subside, I decided to apply for admission for a masters degree program which I had the intention of doing this year.
I gained the admission so I had to apply for a change of status to F1. My resumption was October but because I needed a change of status, the school had to defer my admission to Jan 5 although I informed them about my i94 expiration date for November.
The status change was denied due to the fact that the number of days between my i94 expiration and my school start dates differed by 35days instead of a maximum of 30days. So, I was told to leave the country or file for an appeal.
I chose the former because the response time for receiving the appeal is not known and might be denied still. I didn't want complications and also didn't want to incur unlawful presence and over stay.
I got back to my home country and after a week, I went for an F1 visa interview. I was denied based on the reason that I couldn't demonstrate ties with home country, even when I wasn't given the opportunity. I was told by the visa officer to reapply anytime but preferably in 3months.
I applied again about 10days later since my status might not change in another 3months, and school was resuming very soon.
This time, another visa officer interviewed me, and all I was allowed to say was, 'good morning'. She actually verbally attacked me which was rather shocking to me. She gave me a ban of 5 years.
My questions are:
*Does she have any right to ban me for 5 years since that's not in the immigration law? She actually hand wrote the 5 year ban statement on the notice of denial letter she gave me.
*Is it possible she did that to stop me from re-applying, perhaps, she didn't input it on the system?
*If I deserve the ban, why did the first visa officer not issue it?
*Does the immigration 3/10 years ban not applicable after 180days and 365 days of unlawful presence? I got the change of status denial in Jan 11, and left the U.S. on Feb 19.
*Can one actually say mine was unlawful presence?
*Is there anything I can do to fight this?
I am very sorry this is a lengthy one. I needed to explain the situation as it is, for better understanding because I'm really worried.
Thank you for your prompt responses.
Edit / Delete Edit Quick reply to this message Reply Quote Quote Multi-Quote This Message
Comment