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Comment by reisse | Hacker News Reader

Ah, the classic programmer's mistake of treating complicated human interaction systems as a computer programs.

There is no State Almighty judging you to the last dot of absurdly complicated rules (well, in 99.99% cases when you don't actively look for trouble). Like, if you overstayed Schengen visa for one day because you messed up with counting entry and exit days, but used it otherwise for its intended purpose, the border officer likely won't even notice. Or for tax residence, a lot of countries I know just take what you say about your trips at face value - especially when there is no way to check it.

Just relax. If you don't know how to count your days in Morocco because they changed the time zone in an inconvenient moment, the officer evaluating your documents doesn't know that too. It's truth and best effort that counts.

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It's absolutely not best effort that counts.

I've heard many stories of people overstaying their visa in the US by e.g. one day, by way of a mishap or honest mistake, and subsequentially being denied visas or turned away at border control. The effects of this can go on for years and years... it's basically zero tolerance

Overstaying in the US

Anywhere else, less strict. Still can be problematic yes. And of course depends on the circumstances

Its tru for Schengen visas too. Overstaying a day because of a cancelled flight is enough to deny future visas, they are very strict. It depends on the country you are applying to, and from. There are also exit requirements, like having to leave Schengen from the same country you arrived in.

hate to break it to you, but this isn't accurate

I overstayed my visa by a week in Thailand couple of decades ago because the task I was sent out to perform took longer than expected. I just had to pay a reasonable fine on exit that I then claimed back on my expenses. There was certainly not even a suggestion that I would be unwelcome in Thailand in the future.

Why is the US so awkward?

Overstaying a visa is a big deal. You should not be counting days or nights because you should not let yourself be in the country anywhere near the expiry of a visa.

Yes, this feels like calculating to the second when you need to arrive at the airport so you'll spend zero time at the airport.

Instead, arrive a bit early to the airport, and analogously, don't run visas down to the last hour based on the minutiae of Moroccan timezones etc.

> You should not be counting days or nights because you should not let yourself be in the country anywhere near the expiry of a visa.

You're privileged if you're able to do so. In many occasions people have single-entry visas with one day leeway from tickets submitted to the consulate.

For USA, A Visa is a right to request entry into the country. The I-94 defines the duration you are authorized to stay. You can have an expired Visa and time left on you I-94 and remain in the country.

>Like, if you overstayed Schengen visa for one day because you messed up with counting entry and exit days, but used it otherwise for its intended purpose, the border officer likely won't even notice.

When that wasn't automated that might have been the case (not that its a good thing).

It's certainly not the case now that there is literally an API that tracks that.

Enforcement is arbitrary and vibes based, but only if you broke a rule. If you didn't break a rule they find it much harder to punish you, no matter what the vibes are. But also if you have good vibes you might not get punished no matter what rules you broke.

That's all true until there's a dispute. Being relaxed about these things is a very bad idea if the consequences are potentially severe.

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