I've found that it's quite futile to expect American citizens to actually understand how their own visa and immigration laws work.

Unfortunately it doesn't stop them from having strong opinions about them.

Case in point: public charge and political rhetoric that (at the very least) wildly stretches the truth about immigrants applying for benefits.

I remember talking to a britisher about the US border situation on a forum that also included yanks. He had asked for advice, and I relayed a bunch that was evergreen, but was passed around during the first trump admin.

The yanks all got confused, like I was making up a problem. And would not stop pretending like there are no border issues even after I presented multiple instances as evidence. Like if you can drive your car to the store and back there must also not be issues at the airport.

I feel like US media must isolate people severely. Whereas, countries that do business with the US, are kept keenly aware of the dangers.

I am intimately familiar with the immigration system as my entire family came to this country by applying for green cards and waiting. Not your average yank lol.

Not even just immigration. The US detains people based on the content of their phones.

Like beloved childrens authors https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/28/in-tha...

Or meme havers

https://hyperallergic.com/us-agencies-say-they-have-no-recor...

The advice is generally, that if you absolutely have to go to the US, that you start a fresh email account, and take an empty/clean phone signed in with your fresh email account through border security, then load a backup to your phone once through.

My understanding is that the validity of the visa has nothing to do with whether you are "in status". The visa is for entry and authorized status allows you to stay in the US. You could be authorized to stay in the US and yet have to petition to get a re entry permit should you choose to leave the US temporarily.

Now I wrote this and even I am not sure if what I wrote is fully correct. I know it is correct for at least one scenario but I anal and I am sure there are scenarios where what I said is not just false but dangerously bad advice.

My entire family migrated here. No one broke any of these laws. People went home and we figured it out eventually. Spare me. You probably read about this in a book somewhere. I lived it.

Again. I'm sorry for these people. But the law is easy to follow

I'm the US citizen married to a foreign spouse. I'm looking at the rules at the time we went through them--the application invalidated her non-immigrant visa, she could not enter but since she was here she was allowed to remain while the application was pending.