Travel from USA to India with an expired H1B visa

Upvote:0

This is not even a problem. I went to india and they dont give a damn about your US visa. You are going back home with an indian passport, thats all matters. This is the same about the rumors floating about travelling through any European country with an expired H1B visa. Nobody checked anything when I went through germany.

Upvote:7

I don't see why the Indian authorities would care about your status in the US, but if they do, explain this (which also explains why you wouldn't have a problem in the US airport):

In the US, a visa is only required as an entry document. Continued stay in the country is not conditioned on the possession of a valid visa.

One official source for this is What the Visa Expiration Date Means on travel.state.gov. The first paragraph:

Sometimes understanding the difference between the visa expiration date and the length of time you have permission to remain in the United States can be confusing. These are very different terms. Also review our “What is a U.S. Visa?” webpage.

I assume you have continued to maintain valid H1B status, in which case you can explain the facts of your employment and so on to anyone who questions it.

Also, the US doesn't have exit immigration controls. They do receive departure information from airlines, but I don't think they would take any action against a departing traveler if they received information indicating an overstay. I suspect they would wait until the next time you tried to enter the country.

More post

Search Posts

Related post