Do visits to conferences while a visiting scholar reset the 90 days under VWP?
I will be a visiting scholar at a US university for 3 months. I have to leave the country twice to speak at conferences. I will not be returning home;only attending these conferences and returning to complete my visiting scholar stint.
Does such time out of the country: a) get deducted from the 90 day limit under the visa waiver program, b) make no difference and is the visit is seen as one continuous stretch of 90 days from initial arrival, or c) "reset" the clock so that re-entry after my first conference starts a new 90 day period? (each conference related trip is about 7-10 days as the locations are very far away)
As I will be out for 20 days, it's a big enough chuck of my stint that I'd like to "hold on" to it and not have it eat into my 90 days.
Best Answer
You should not be using the VWP to enter the US as a visiting scholar. The VWP comes instead of B1/B2, while the status you're interested in is J1. You should get a proper visa and then you won't have to worry about what happens if you get caught breaking the terms of your stay.
Since apparently there's a lot of ignorance on the matter, here's the official quote from the US State Department:
Citizens from a country participating in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) who want to enter the U.S. temporarily as exchange visitors, must first obtain a an exchange visitor visa. Exchange visitor program participants cannot travel on the VWP, nor can they travel on a visitor (B) visa.
Here's the chart of visa types matched to visit purpose. As you can see, visiting scholar requires J type visa.
Here's the terms and conditions of the VWP program. As you can see, it is explicitly limited to tourism or business(B1/B2 visa):
The purpose of their stay in the United States is 90 days or less for tourism or business (Visitor (B) visa) purpose of travel.
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