Wanted to share my recent AVR experience while returning from Canada post-soft landing.
We traveled from Calgary to Denver with United Airlines. We went to the airport 4.5 hours before the scheduled departure time as we heard of many incidents where people spent several hours in getting boarding passes and going through CBP secondary inspection due to traveling on expired US visa. However, our experience was mostly smooth.
1. Boarding Pass: The airlines agent issued us boarding passes after I showed her the expired visa and valid I-797A approval notice for extension (which has a paper I-94 attached at the bottom). She had to call the United helpdesk though to make some fixes at the backend as the system wasn't initially allowing her to issue boarding passes with expired visa. Overall, we spent ~30 mins at the counter to get the boarding passes (we had anticipated a much longer wait time)
2. Security: There was hardly any queue in the security section (~15 mins)
3. CBP: The CBP pre-clearance process was the most seamless experience. I didn't even have to tell the officer that I want to use AVR. I just presented the passport and I-797A extension approval notice. Since the expired visa was on my old passport, I gave him both new and old passports for review. He put an entry stamp on my new passport with admit until date matching the end date on I-797A and paper I-94. He also told me to detach the paper I-94 from the I-797A approval notice and staple it with the passport. When I checked the CBP website later, my online I-94 record had been updated with the latest arrival date and new admit until date. This is a new I-94 # (different from the paper I-94 #) and it reflects my new passport details
Note:
- Although I was carrying AVR guideline printouts from the CBP and travel.state.gov websites, I didn't have to show these either to the airlines agent at Calgary or CBP officer as they seemed quite familiar with the rules
- I was also carrying my employment proof letter, recent paystubs and marriage certificate (as my wife is on dependent visa). None of those were required but it's better to carry those just to be safe
- The CBP officer didn't ask me any additional questions such as purpose of my trip to Canada, duration of stay etc. but I was prepared to answer those questions
- While flying from Denver to Calgary (with United), the airlines agent wanted to check if I would be able to return to the US on expired visa. She wasn't familiar with the AVR rule but another agent checked my I-797A and asked her to issue the boarding passes immediately
I hope this helps others who're planning their soft landing or general trips to Canada on expired US visa using AVR. Thanks everyone who contributed to this forum earlier with their experiences and valuable tips!
