I will be a visiting scholar at a US university for 3 months. I have to leave the country twice to speak at conferences. I will not be returning home;only attending these conferences and returning to complete my visiting scholar stint.
Does such time out of the country: a) get deducted from the 90 day limit under the visa waiver program, b) make no difference and is the visit is seen as one continuous stretch of 90 days from initial arrival, or c) "reset" the clock so that re-entry after my first conference starts a new 90 day period? (each conference related trip is about 7-10 days as the locations are very far away)
As I will be out for 20 days, it's a big enough chuck of my stint that I'd like to "hold on" to it and not have it eat into my 90 days.