Is he banned from re-entering the USA automatically or not?

[India04843]

Hello,
My boyfriend spent 10 years in the USA as an undocumented person (illegal alien). He then left the USA and moved to the UK six years ago and now would like to go back to the USA for a few weeks to visit friends. We have seen online that whoever overstays in the USA is then banned for 10 years from re-entering. Would this ban be mentioned on his passport at all? His passport when he was leaving the USA was not stamped at all. He has acquired an ESTA permit a few months ago, but before he buys the ticket etc he would like to know if he has been actually been banned or not. Is there any way of finding out without having to call the American embassy or without having to risk arriving in NYC, only to be sent right back to the UK on the next plane?
Kind Regards
India

[Aged William]

Was your boyfriend officially "removed" by ICE, or did he just happen to leave without being found out or questioned by the authorities?

Either way, it is likely that the lack of a valid and in-date departure relating to his previous visa will be on his USCIS record flagging him as an overstaying offender.

I wouldn't run the risk - especially as there travel restrictions and/or more detailed checks on arrival from the UK due to Covid.


(Note that ESTA requires honest answers to confirm eligibility to travel to the USA under the VWP, but eligibility to actually enter the USA is done by CBP on arrival.)

And in answer to your question: there is no way of getting this information (lawfully) without asking the authorities due US confidentiality laws.

[India04843]

Hello and thank you for your response. He wasn't removed by ICE, he just left on his own accord. His actual visa expired in 2002 and he left the USA in 2014. I wonder if his departure would have been added to his USCIS record or not... He has since then had to renew his passport in the UK and his name on his new passport happened to be spelled differently than his name on his original passport. I wonder if that is going to make a difference... The passport number is different too, could this perhaps be in his favour...

[Aged William]

All individual passports have a unique reference number but renewals etc are often linked to previous issues on various databases so a new number on its own may not conceal his past, even with a different spelling of his name.

Also, I don't think it's a big secret to say that some law enforcement agencies use similarity searches (aka fuzzy-matches) so it's not a given the variations of his name won't pop up.

The one thing I can think of that may be in his favour is the 2003 reorganisation of the US federal system after 9/11. It *might* be that his record of overstaying a 2002 visa *might* not have been kept so it depends how risk averse he is if he wants to chance it or not.

[India04843]

Thank you William, I imagine then he would just have to do it and see if he gets noticed or not. Hopefully he will have fallen through the cracks and will manage to enter the country!