A couple of weeks ago I posted a thread on the situation of my Australian girlfriend who overstayed her visa while she was 17 and I have an update on what exactly happened.
Somehow she enrolled in a school under the visa waiver system for her final year of high school during the 2010-11 school year. She was 17 years old during her entire ordeal in the United States. Her father married an American citizen with three adult daughters so my girlfriend was living with her step-sister during her stay here. In late January of 2011 she took a weekend trip to Canada with her sister and when she re-entered the U.S. they found that her visa expired in a few days and that she was illegally attending school, which she was clueless about. She claims that the customs agents considered an immediate deportation but instead they gave her two weeks to say goodbye and pack her things. But rather than leave, she consulted and attorney and applied for a greencard with her step-mom as a sponsor. The attorney advised her to finish school and stay in the country while the application was processing. In August, however, she got in a huge fight with her step-sister, who kicked her out. Being a teenage girl, she refused to apologize and her real mom wound up flying her back home after a few weeks of living with her best friend.
She has been extremely unhappy since she left in August of 2011 and wants more than anything to visit the U.S. for the summer, but she's afraid that she has a 3 year ban for some reason. The customs agents gave her no paperwork or documentation that would give her any information on her situation, just a strange code written in her passport which i won't include here in case it contains personal information. But based on the information I've given, is it possible that she could be barred from entry even though she was 17? And how should she proceed from here if she wants to come back in say, May or June? Is it possible to somehow search for the official legal status of a specific individual? She turned 18 last October so she is no longer a minor.

