Re-Entry For A F-1 Student

Hello everyone.. i will say sorry in advance for the long post, but please do understand my worries here..

I entered the US in september 2003 as a student with a F-1 visa. I attended classes and broke no rules at all the the first 2 semesters of school (fall and spring). Everything was fine upto this point.

However, for the fall 2004 semester, i did not register for any classes (i was kinda depressed being away from home), and so fell out of status. At this point, i thought i will wait for and register for the spring semester beginning in january 2005. BUT, in december 2004, 2 guys from the INS/ICE came to my dorm and said i will have to come with them--basically, they arrested me. I posted bail, but still was in detention for 30 days, coz they had to do INTERPOL, FBI and all sort of checks on me--all those checks came up clear. I was released in january 2005.

At an immigration hearing in april 2005 , the judge game me "voluntary departure" until august 2005( i had to leave before august 2005. He did not ask me to pay any bond amount or did not attach any other conditions to the voluntary departure.)

Also, i forgot to say one thing. When the INS guys picked me up in december 2004, they also took my passport. So i had to get back my passport from them after the 'voluntary departure' hearing. I went and got it in april 2005. i found out that the INS :

1. crossed out my visa and wrote "cancelled" on my passport.
2. gave me a form called GS-146. They asked me to give this to the American embassy in my country, so that they actually know that i returned as i said i was going to.


So, I left the US in june 2005 ( 2 months before my voluntary departure deadline) and presented the form GS-146 to the American embassy exactly as i had been asked to.

Now, I had been taking classes at a local university in my country for the last 2 years.Few months ago, I applied and was accepted as a transfer student to an american university and i also received a new I-20 from them. This I-20 is for studies starting in october 2007.

My question:

(1) Will I be granted a visa by the embassy now, once i tell them the story you read above?

(2) Do i have to get any sort of waiver or anything in advance?

(3) Does any form of restrictions apply to me (such as denial for 3 years, etc)?




Please keep in mind that I have no record of any sort of crime ever, either in my country or in america.(no traffic fines, no nothing at all) Also, while I was in america, I never exceeded work limits for foreign students, nor did I do any sort of unauthorized work. So basically the only thing that went wrong in my case was that I DID NOT REGISTER FOR 1 SEMESTER FOR CLASSES. It really feels weird that i was actually in jail for 30 days for this sort of a mistake. Anyways, all will be well if this whole thing ends well!

Someone please answer my questions!

THANKS A LOT!

What is your period of ineligibility, following the voluntary departure?

that's what I would like to know! I mean, after the immigration hearing they just gave me a paper called "certificate of service" and it says that i have been granted voluntary departure. This paper says nothing about period of ineligibility.

So, based on the info I gave above about when i went out of status,etc, can anyone please tell me if I a period of ineligibility applies to me??

Please help!

Try making an inquiry with U.S. Customs & Border Protection.

I cant find the answer anywhere on that website!

Can anyone else please help me? I'll just quickly summarize my case.

Entered US on student visa sep 2003. First two semesters at college went by normally. Went "out of status" on October 10th 2004 due to non-registration for classes during my third semester. Was arrested in December 2004 for being "out of status". Was released in January 2005 after posting bond.

At removal proceedings on April 1st 2005, I was granted voluntary depature. This is exactly what it says on the court document: Respondent's application for voluntary departure was granted until 8/01/2005 upon posting a bond in the amount of $ N/A.

I was also given a form GS-146 to present to the US embassy in my country once I go back (And I did this exactly as told)

I left the US on june 9th 2005, before the court deadline.

Based on the above, will I be refused entry into the US? Am I ineligible to enter for a certain period of time?

I'd really appreciate any help from you guys, coz I cant find the answer anywhere else. Thank you so much everyone!

Quote:

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Quoting f1student

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I cant find the answer anywhere on that website!

Can anyone else please help me? I'll just quickly summarize my case.

Entered US on student visa sep 2003. First two semesters at college went by normally. Went "out of status" on October 10th 2004 due to non-registration for classes during my third semester. Was arrested in December 2004 for being "out of status". Was released in January 2005 after posting bond.

At removal proceedings on April 1st 2005, I was granted voluntary depature. This is exactly what it says on the court document: Respondent's application for voluntary departure was granted until 8/01/2005 upon posting a bond in the amount of $ N/A.

I was also given a form GS-146 to present to the US embassy in my country once I go back (And I did this exactly as told)

I left the US on june 9th 2005, before the court deadline.

Based on the above, will I be refused entry into the US? Am I ineligible to enter for a certain period of time?

I'd really appreciate any help from you guys, coz I cant find the answer anywhere else. Thank you so much everyone!

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I think I have good news, or maybe not. I found a few things about voluntary departure from a pdf file online, published by Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, a nonprofit law office that supports human and civil rights. According to their website, they "provides holistic, free legal services to immigrants, refugees, and U.S. citizens detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Arizona for immigration processing."

The document says: Note if you have been in the U.S. illegally for over 180 days but less than a year and you get voluntary departure from the judge, this three year bar to returning to the U.S. does not apply. This line is in the 2nd last paragraph on page 6 of the document at this link http://www.firrp.org/documents/KyrMa...Depenglish.pdf

I found this document on this page http://www.firrp.org/kyrindex.asp This page has links that may help other people who are concerned with deportation and voluntary departure.

Are they right? Does this mean I do not have any ineligibility to re-enter? Someone please tell me this is not wishful thinking!

By the way, the school that I was studying at before was in colorado. But the reason I really want to go back to America now is that I've been accepted as a transfer student to Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. For those who dont know, it's a great university, very prestigious. I dont want to miss the chance!

Anyways, please tell me whether the above is true. THANKS!

"Try making an inquiry" means contact them and ask. It is possible that you do not have a period of ineligibility, as outlined in that document, although a history of immigration problems can still interfere with your obtaining a subsequent visa.

Oh yeah I did that the frst time you asked me.:) But I dont think they'll be in any hurry to answer my question...

You see , my student visa interview is on September 10th 2007, and I it would be great to have an indication beforehand on whether the embassy is going to directly reject my visa application or not. Another thing: Say I do get a student visa--in that case do u think the customs at the airport will have any reason to refuse entry?

(I want to point out that the non-registration for classes for one semester in college is the ONLY blemish I have on my immigration record. I never did any unauthorized work, and have no criminal history, either in America or in my home country.)

If there are any immigration lawyers (or anyone familiar with voluntary departure) reading this post, please let me know what you think...PLEASE!!

THANKS AGAIN!

I don't disagree that you may have escaped with no period of exclusion. The issue is, nobody here can be sure what happened, and what we don't know can affect the outcome. If you do get the visa, it's reasonable to infer that you're in the clear - as long as you provide accurate information, any impediment to immigration should be detected prior to the issuance of the visa and should prevent its issuance.

Thanks aaron for the reply. If anyone else has any opinion, I'd really like to know!

And I'll let you all know how the september 10th visa interview goes.

Thanks!