Do stays in Canada/Mexico automatically count towards the US admission period under the VWP?
According to numerous online reports (e.g. the US Embassy in the UK), a VWP national who enters the US by air solely in transit to Canada or Mexico, and then spends over 90 days in Canada/Mexico, unless a resident of Canada/Mexico, will be in violation of the VWP, refused re-entry to the US and barred from future travel under the VWP.
Is this really correct? It would imply a VWP national wishing to spend e.g. 4 months in Mexico would need a tourist/transit visa for the US if both the trip to and from Mexico takes place with a flight connection in the US. This would frankly be ridiculous.
My understanding is instead that stays in Canada/Mexico do not count towards the VWP admission duration on an automatic, strictly binding basis (as the reports suggest); rather, if the stay in Canada/Mexico is sufficiently short that it can reasonably be considered a mere side trip from the US, the CBP is likely not to grant a new 90-day admission period, but only the remainder of the original 90 days.
Best Answer
The "numerous online reports" are not true.. Your understanding is much closer.
Let's start with the obvious - you cannot be in violation of US immigration overstay rules when you are not in the US. The US cannot and does not enforce this.
The actual rule is very simple. If you re-enter the US less than 90 days after having been admitted on a VWP, having visited only Canada, Mexico or the adjacent islands, you will normally be readmitted on the same I94 and must leave 90 days or less after the initial admission. That is all. Everything else that is said, like time in Canada "counting toward your time in the US" is just an approximation to try to explain the above.
If you spend a short amount of time in the US, then leave and spend time in Canada or Mexico etc., and attempt to return more than 90 days after the initial admission, you are eligible to be admitted under a new I94. Whether you are admitted depends on your circumstances, just like it did when you were first admitted. If you have spent only a few days in the US, and intend to spend only a few more, and have not in any other way made yourself undesirable, you are virtually certain to be readmitted. If you spent a long time in the US and only a very short time in Canada etc. then it is very likely that you will be denied readmission. (That is true even if you went somewhere outside the Canada Mexico Caribbean area.)
In any case you have not overstayed in the US.
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