Overhaul of "Contiguous Territory" Rule : Eliminated for Many
Posted Mar 15, 2002

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) is implementing significant changes to the "contiguous territory" rule. These changes will impact all persons who make applications for visas in Canada and Mexico. Also affected are nationals of countries that have been designated by DOS as state sponsors of terrorism. Effective April 1, 2002, neither the visa applicants nor the nationals of the designated countries will be eligible for "automatic" revalidation of nonimmigrant visas, based upon the "contiguous territory" rule.

Under current law, individuals who travel to countries physically joined to the U.S., or to certain adjacent islands, may reenter on expired visas if they have been absent from the U.S. for thirty days or less and have a valid arrival / departure record (Form I-94) with an un-expired period of admission. If these conditions are met, the expired visa is considered "automatically revalidated" to the date the individual requests to reenter the U.S. However, as of April 1, 2002 this ability will be eliminated for two significant types of applicants for admission to the U.S.

The benefits of this rule will no longer be available to individuals who apply for new non-immigrant visas during their stays abroad. This is due to heightened security screening of all visa applicants and the delay caused by this process. The Department of State does not want people to be able to return to the U.S. under the "automatic revalidation" procedure as a way of avoiding security checks.

In the past people routinely applied for new non-immigrant visas in Canada and Mexico with the knowledge that they could return to the U.S. using the "contiguous territory / automatic revalidation" procedure if the non-immigrant visa was not issued for some reason. However, this safety net has been eliminated. Of course, if the individual is able to obtain an approval of the new non-immigrant visa, s/he could enter on that visa and need not be concerned about the changed rule.

As of April 1, 2002, the contiguous territory rule will also cease to extend to any national of a country that has been identified as a "state sponsor of terrorism." Currently, the designated countries are Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, North Korea, and Cuba. This list is subject to change by the DOS.

In light of these changes, we again remind our MurthyBulletin and MurthyDotCom readers that reissuance of visas within the U.S., through the DOS is a safer option to renew many types of non-immigrant visas. We have written several articles on the topic of visa revalidation with the DOS from within the U.S. These articles are available on MurthyDotCom. A basic outline of the procedure and link to the DOS WebSite are in our article entitled, H1B : Reissue - Revalidate from the U.S. And there is a recent update, Visa Revalidation Progress.