Hi i am vincy, my friend had been to us on c1 visa and he stayed in us (not in ship) for a period of 5 months,

Question

he stayed in USA

for a period of 5 months and then he willingly left USA ,can he apply for visit visa and go back to USA or can he go on a H1 visa.or does he face a ban for this, if so what is the way to solve this

Answer 1

I think he had double C1/D visa because only C1 means transit visa and D is issued for crewmen to work on ships. I researched this subject because wanted to go working on the cruise ships myself. He must have arrived at the ship but he didn't. Here are the rules:

you can't apply for change of status on this visa

and you can work only there where the visa was issued for.

Your friend violated the law. He is not yet subject to be banned for 3 years - because he stayed illegal less than 6 months. But US embassy is known for it's hard rules and with slightest violations they can not approve visa - even without any violations they sometimes don't approve who knows why (i mean they say usually - not enought evidence of bands with Motherland but when is enough - nobody knows). The way to prove it is to try to get US visa. Some people changed their pasport and the last name there in the hope it would help. To some it worked indeed.

I think for exact information you or your friend should indeed call the embassy.