Hello everyone,
My spouse and I were able to successfully enter USA from Canada without any issues today, after completing our soft-landing in Canada. I used the AVR option to enter.
We landed in Canada by flight at Toronto Pearson Airport on June 16th and went into self-isolation for 14 days. During that time, the EO was signed on June 24th and I was a bit tensed if I’ll be allowed to return back to USA since I had an expired H1B stamp on my passport and was planning to use AVR. Also I was outside of USA when the EO was signed so wasn’t sure if it would affect me or not.
We flew back today (July 6th), from Pearson Airport. We were flying American Airlines. While we were checking in at the counter the lady behind the desk had no clue about AVR and was searching for a valid visa stamp on my passport. When I handed her the I-797A, she still did not understand what to do with it. After consulting with someone, she entered something on her computer from my I-797A, which allowed the system to print a boarding pass.
After that we crossed security and headed towards US Immigration. The officer was very polite and asked for our passports. I had an expired H1B Visa, with a valid I-797A and I-94, and my spouse had a valid F1 visa stamp with recent I-20.
Officer:- Why did you visit Canada? Answer: To immigrate and start the PR process.
Officer:- How long were you in Canada? Answer: 20 days
Officer:- Why so long and why didn’t you return back sooner? Answer: Because we had to self-isolate for 14 days.
Officer:- Where do you live? Answer: US City
Officer:- House Address? Answer: XXXXX (Not sure why he asked that)
He stamped our passports and handed them back to us. The whole process was smooth, without any issues. I did not have to mention anything about AVR to the officer.
The whole experience of soft-landing went well amidst the coronavirus outburst. My sincere thanks to everyone on this forum who have contributed their experiences and have taken time to answer questions posted by other members. I was closely following all the threads on this forum and reading everyone’s experience with border crossing, which gave me a lot of confidence boost.
My best wishes to all those who are planning a soft-landing soon and hopefully everything goes smoothly for you all as well. Please feel free to message me if you have any questions and I’ll be happy to answer them all.