B Visa

B Visa extensions

Q1. I lost my mother recently and we brought our father soon after that. I have an older brother and both of us stay here in USA. He has a medical condition - semi-paralytic. My father has a B-2 multiple entry visa; arrived here on 27th Jan 2013, I-94 expired on July 26th and visa extension applied on June 14th.  How long can he stay here in US until the decision is made?  Will his multiple Visa get rejected if his extension is denied?

Normally I don’t recommend applying for extensions of tourist or business visa unless you have a very good reason for it. What happens is technically of course you can stay here while the decision is pending, but no later than the duration you have asked for in the extension application. Let’s say you asked for extension till September. You can stay here till the decision is made, but no later than September. But what happens is when you go for multiple entry visa stamping consulates do not like people getting extensions. Their concern is that a tourist visa is supposed to be for brief visits. Why are you going there and staying for a year, year and a half on tourist visa?

Also what happens is if you have stayed here too long and then when you want to come back again at the airport (even if you have a visa or visa is not an issue) you can have a problem because CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) may not take too kindly to people who return back very quickly. They don’t want to see a situation where a person is living in USA and visiting their home country.

Q2. What is recommended, he leaves immediately or waits until his extension decision comes?

If you don’t want to apply for his Green Card and he wants to leave to go to India I am not sure what is good but if he leaves early it might be easy to come back and also get further visas. This is a difficult decision to make.

Tourist visa extensions for gay couples

(partner is on J-1)

Tourist visa for gay couples or partner in a gay relationship is acceptable and it can be extended. If you look at the Foreign Affairs Manual, which is the body of policies that governs consulate decisions, you could say there is an exception. Sometimes people might not qualify for J-2 because they are not married. It might be easy to get a tourist visa and to keep extending it. However, there is one issue here. Since DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) was overruled, gay marriages are now recognized. So I don’t know if they are going to change this policy of issuing B visas.  Basically they would say that now you can get married and get J-2, so why are you not doing that. So to answer your question as to whether you can come and keep extending it, I don’t know the answer to that question under the present situation. Under the old situation you could have easily gotten extensions. So you can try, but keep in mind the earlier discussion on extensions (above). Consulates may not like it and CBP may not either.