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My parents visited the USA from June 31 to August 24, 2017 (two months). They came back on January 23, 2018. The immigration officer at the port of entry informed them that they could stay in the USA only for a month. He also mentioned that if they extended more than a month, he would make sure that they cannot enter the USA anymore. When I checked the I94, it showed six months. Should they stay here for a month and travel back or can they stay here for six months, per the I94?

Also, the other option is to visit Canada and renew the I94. Or should I contact USCIS to extend the visa? But as the I94 is valid, they might get confused with my request.

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    "Also, the other option is to visit Canada and renew the I94." Nope. Visiting Canada (or Mexico) won't reset the clock. They'll still be on the same I94.
    – user67108
    Feb 12, 2018 at 5:57
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    @dda Given the mention of 6 months, they obviously have a visa and not VWP. Although automatic-revalidation can be used to re-use an I94, it would not normally be done unless the visa had expired between entries.
    – Doc
    Feb 12, 2018 at 6:01
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    What does an admission stamp say?
    – mzu
    Feb 12, 2018 at 8:21
  • The admission stamp on passport doesn't reveal the date, as the officer has stamped the passport with only b2 visa as the type and no date on the passport. The reason I wanted to exit the country and reset the cycle was to check if they have mentioned this one month time in their system (in the back end notes). Although, the i94 is what we need to check, I was wondering if the officer's verbal information has importance.
    – immigrationHelp
    Feb 12, 2018 at 16:37
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    my parents said 6 months this time. For the first visit they said 6 months as well but they had some work so flew back to country, and visited again now. I believe while visa stamping in India they said a month or more as they had plans to stay here for only one month. Will that make a difference ?
    – immigrationHelp
    Feb 12, 2018 at 20:07

1 Answer 1

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+50

I think it's going to be difficult to give you a concrete and absolute answer to the question, but I think there is one obvious answer that should be followed.

Your parents should assume that the advice they got from the border agent was accurate, and they should honour the request.

There is a chance that they could stay longer and be fine - in fact, I think the odds are even pretty good that this is the case. However, the risk of staying beyond the date approved at entry is that they could be refused entry in the future for having breached the condition.

As mentioned by others, going to Canada or Mexico does not reset the I-94 time.

So, even though it may not be what they desire, I'd assume that what they were told is correct. The risk of being wrong that that time limit doesn't apply seems too high a price to pay, if they expect to be traveling to the U.S. in the future.

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