Arranging Travel for My Father-In-Law

[Beachey]

So as I mentioned, my father-in-law successfully was granted a visa. My wife's cousin who we were going to have travel with him was not (Late 30's, divorced, no kids=denial).

 

Couple questions about arranging Baba's travel.

 

Our intention is to buy him a round trip airline ticket for a five month stay. I recognize that the Officer at the border has the final stay but if he can show the 5 month itinerary, is it reasonable to expect he will get a 5-6 month stay?

 

He speaks no English, we will have to drive to LAX to pick him up. My intent would be to have a instruction letter in English/Chinese with our address/phone numbers. I may even try to fill out an example customs form for him. My understanding is the I-94 is now electronic and automatically generated. He will be on a Chinese airline direct from Beijing so he should be able to get help from the crew/fellow passengers. Do you think there will be any issues getting through immigration/customs?

 

I will also be buying a 5 month medical policy for him.

 

Any other advice/lessons learned?

[dnoblett]

My mum in law is visiting, her return ticket is for 3 months, even so the POE automatically stamps it for 6 months. No worries, I have yet to see a post where they set a shorter stay.

Customs declaration form instructions may be posted in the back of inflight magazine in Chinese.

Yes I-94 is electronic, can get a copy of it at cpb.gov after arrival.