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I'm going to redeem my ANA mileages to get a return flight between Tokyo and LA/NY. However, the availability is pretty scarce and thus the only viable itinerary is the following:

  • Tokyo to LA on April 20 (22:55 - 16:45)
  • NY to Tokyo on July 19 (18:15 - 21:15 +1day)

In this case, I would stay in US for 91 days, which exceeds 1 day of the visa-free requirement.

So I would like to make it to 90 if at all possible. Can I arrive at 16:45 but wait in the checked-in baggage lane for 7 hours before getting through the immigration? The problem might arrise in the ESTA application, which requires you to fill in the flight number, though I'm not sure what it is all about...

Or is there any other workaround to stay up to 90 days legally?

JonathanReez
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Blaszard
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1 Answers1

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If you arrive at LAX internationally, you will be in a corridor between the gate and the immigration desks. There are nothing but bathrooms before immigration, and immigration is before baggage reclaim and customs. To delay your purported arrival until the next day, you'd be abandoning your bag for 7 hours and probably be hanging around in the bathroom to avoid being approached by security to find out what you're up to.

According to a post on flyertalk and another on lonelyplanet and probably your own previous VWP stamps, your entry date is day 0, so it looks like you'd be fine with 90 days. That is of course providing CBP is ok with you staying for the maximum possible time on the VWP.

Update: I just googled some images of a VWP passport stamp that has both arrival and admitted to date and got two different ranges. One gave 91 days according to a date duration calculator, and another gave 90.

Berwyn
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