Immigration from 3rd Country. Possible?

[kabelo]

I will start my PhD in America in August, probably on a J-1 visa. My sister currently lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and I want to visit her, so we had the following idea:

I book a flight from my European starting point to Rio, via New York. Those flights are only slightly more expensive than going directly to New York.

When checking in for my return flight from Rio, I ask them to not check my luggage through, but rather put New York as final destination. I know people who have done this before, so technically it's possible. I would then get out in New York, and immigrate to America on my visa.

My main concern is whether immigration authorities track and match flight records, and whether they care where I'm coming from. While I will be on a visa and thus permitted to enter the country, the records would show me flying back to my home country in Europe. I don't want to get any trouble with those officers when trying to immigrate at the New York airport.

Another concern is whether airport staff in Rio would let me check my luggage to New York, rather than the European final destination. Again, I know people who have done just that, but that was within the EU.

What do you think? Do you know people who have done something similar? What's your advice?

[Andean Pat]

HI! I don't think I completely understood. You are saying that you want to enter the US on your connection place? I don't think that's possible, but you should check. 

 

I my experience, Delta Airlines had a very cheap flight to NY via Atlanta, but I wanted to go to Atlanta. A direct flight was more expensive! So I asked the agency if I could buy my ticket to NY but check my bags to Atlanta. They said they couldn't be sure that was possible. 

 

If your final destination is the UK but you want to enter the US, I don't know, after all you have a valid visa. The problem is not where you come from but rather why you don't complete the flight. Besides, I don't know how are US officers with British citizens. Check with the International student office, the DHS website and you can even call the US embassy in the UK, just to be sure. 

 

Have you been to Rio?

[random17]

Anytime you connect through a US airport and are arriving from another country, you have to go through immigration and collect your luggage anyway. In that sense, it wouldn't matter if the final destination isn't the US because there isn't anything stopping you from leaving the airport.

 

However, I can imagine that it would cause red flags at immigration if you have a continuing ticket and don't plan to use it, even though you will also have a valid visa. I think you'd be better off not having a round-trip ticket back to Europe and instead having the return flight terminate in NYC. 

[wtncffts]

I'm also confused. Is it just a matter of price? As in booking return UK - Rio via NY is cheaper than one-way UK-Rio via NY, then Rio to NY?

[kabelo]

Thanks a lot for all your help. To clarify: Yes, a return flight UK-NYC-Rio seems to be cheaper than booking one-way UK-NYC-Rio and one-way Rio-NYC. Weird enough, costs of air travel hardly ever reflect the distance traveled.

Random17, thanks for pointing out that I'll have to immigrate anyway. I wasn't aware of that. So I clearly would be able to enter the US, the question is just whether not completing my trip would cause any problems in the long run. I'll need to find out, asking the US embassy is probably best.

More generally, I'm wondering how non-citizens do stopovers at US airports? Do they need to register with SEVIS (i.e., properly immigrate, including passport stamp), or is there a special exemption for transit passengers? In the former case, I guess my plan should work. In the latter, probably not, as it would require explaining my situation to the immigration officer -- not exactly a desirable situation

If you have more ideas, please share them. I'll post an update when I know more.

PS: Andean Pat, I haven't been to Brazil before. But I'm excited to go!

[kabelo]

Do they need to register with SEVIS?

 

Oops, I actually meant ESTA. Acronym-confusion

[mariiiiie]

Hello!

Yes you need to register with ESTA and go through immigration and customs, so my advice ensure you have at least 2 or 3 hours between your connections!!

Otherwise if you have the response to whether it's actually possible to enter the US earlier than one month before starting school I'd be happy to know because I would like to do the same, i.e. enter the US early July as a tourist then leave the country to go in vacation somewhere, and reenter with my student visa.

[kabelo]

Hello!

Yes you need to register with ESTA and go through immigration and customs, so my advice ensure you have at least 2 or 3 hours between your connections!!

Otherwise if you have the response to whether it's actually possible to enter the US earlier than one month before starting school I'd be happy to know because I would like to do the same, i.e. enter the US early July as a tourist then leave the country to go in vacation somewhere, and reenter with my student visa.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that's possible (but it's not what I plan to do). So, if you first enter as a tourist (on the ESTA), leave the US and then return on your visa, you should be fine.

[kyjin]

Have you considered booking a round-trip ticket with different end points?  A friend in my cohort is doing that.  He's moving to the US from Canada for his PhD, but is planning on spending the summer in Japan first. So he bought a round trip ticket that's Canada to Japan, but the return part of the trip is Japan to New York.  Cheaper than buying one-way tickets, and I bet it'll be cheaper than buying your roundtrip flight to Europe, plus you won't be in a legal grey area with immigration.