0

I entered the US 2 times in my life, one was at 1993 and that was for a few days under a diplomatic passport and one was in 2012.

However according to my old passport I entered the US on Feb 27 2012 and left the US on May 26 2012. Those are the 2 stamps I can find on my old passport.

The time has come for me to take an 8 day trip to the US with my fiancee and am about to complete the ESTA questioner. I counted again and again the days I staid in the US during 2012 and it comes down to 90 days exactly (27/02/2012 - 26/05/2012).

I am worried if I am making a mistake with the count and I have actually overstayed my previous ESTA or I didn't and the 90 days I stayed there is totally fine. There is a question under the ESTA application which asks if I have ever overstayed and want to know what to answer on that.

Also apart from having a return ticket, booked accommodation, travel insurance, which other documents do you recommend having with me to prove that I indeed intend to get in for 8 days? Do we need any payslips that we are fully employed, any deeds for land we own etc? or am I just overthinking?

Also I do have my old passport (haven't destroyed it yet) should I bring it with me in case they have wrong times at the border? Saw few posts where they are stating that the border control has different days than what the actual entry-leave dates were. Or is owning an old non-valid passport anymore considered sketchy of some kind by the US border control? (That passport has the stamps of the entry day and the leave date)

Improve this question
4
  • 4
    The US does not stamp (or otherwise examine) passports on leaving. If you have a stamp from May 26 2012, maybe that is another time you arrived in the US? – mdd Sep 25 '18 at 0:32
  • 2
    @mdd many users here see the stamp that indicates the date by which they must leave and assume wrongly that it shows the date when they left. In reality the "until" stamp is placed in the passport on entry, so of course it is exactly 90 days after entry. Itor12, is the May stamp at the bottom of the oval "admitted" stamp from February? – phoog Sep 25 '18 at 4:19
  • yes it is, you might be right on that one, I'll have to check and find airline tickets and such. When I first saw it I thought man I never left that late from there. – ltor12 Sep 25 '18 at 6:23
  • @mdd you were perfectly right about that. The stamp says I entered on the 27th of february I assume. I left on the 6th of may and not the 26th, so that should give me about 20 days I guess and I didn't overstayed my visa! Thanks for the clarification. – ltor12 Sep 25 '18 at 6:30
2

By my calculations, the number of days you stayed in the US in 2012 (assuming you actually left on 26/05/2012 since the US doesn't stamp when you leave) was exactly 90 days. This is acceptable under the VWP and you should not encounter any problems due to the length of previous stays.

You can also access your own US travel history at https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/. This is useful for double-checking what dates they have on record.

Improve this answer
3
  • 2
    The website apparently only works for travel history in the past 5 years. – mdd Sep 25 '18 at 0:50
  • thats a really helpful site, as mdd mentioned its only for the past 5 years but good to know, thanks. – ltor12 Sep 25 '18 at 6:43
  • This answer is right regarding days, its 90 days exactly when you class day of entry as day 1. Ive stayed for the full 90 days in recent years and been back for short trips since and been fine every time. – BritishSam Oct 25 '18 at 8:00

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.