Question details
My boyfriend is here in the US on a student visa. He graduates at the end of the week. He has put in his application for OPT and it is pending. We had plans to travel to Canada to visit his family for the holidays but now are worried that he will not be able to get back into the US since the student visa expires and the OPT has not been issued yet. Do we have any other options?
ANSWER
Get together with the school and tell them the visit is only to Canada. Also contact CBP. Once OPT is approved, travel to Canada and back to USA for less than 30 days MAY be an option without a visa. This is referred to as "automatic visa revalidation." You can do a search for that term on http://travel.state.gov