is a one way ticket to the states gonna cause trouble

[eyepecka]

im hoping to buy a one way flight ticket to alaska, with the intention of heading down all the way south to argentina...they are going to wonder why i have only an entering flight, maybe they will think im trying to stay... will i have alot of grief ? and if so does anyone know of anyways around the problem. ?... i will only have a letter from a charity im raising money for to show that im travelling south into canada etc... im from the UK.......

cheers loads

[dzug]

If you travel under the visa waiver scheme you will be sent home. In fact you will probably never get to leave the UK as the airline will refuse you boarding.

If you get a B2 tourist visa from the US Embassy you should have no problems. You need to allow at least a couple of months to get this. Last time I looked there was a 6 week waiting list for an appointment at the Embassy and it takes about a week to issue a routine visa after that. Longer if you have a criminal record.

[dzug]

You also need to do some research into other counties you will be visiting some of which may also have a ticket out of the country rule, though enforcement may be more haphazard than the US.

Another way round it would be to enter the US by land - there is then no onward/return ticket requirement for a visa waiver, though you still may have to convince them that you have enough funds to support yourself without working and on how and when you will leave the country.

Are you hoping to raise funds from people in the countries you visit, or just from people at home sponsoring you? The former I would have thought fraught with problems in immigration terms. It would be working, which is a no-no for a tourist just about anywhere.

[eyepecka]

thank you very much dzug...................... what im actually doing is riding a motorbike, from prudhoe bay down to tierra del fuego, to raise money and awareness for the fragile x syndrome charity here in england............ i intend to start the trip during august 2008, but it looks like i had better get intouch with the US embassy quite soon then............ so far the info. i have got regarding entering the central american and south american countries, is that all i need is my passport, international driving licence, the bike registration and my uk driving licence.............. it seems to me that aslong as i have my name on all the documents i will be fine crossing the borders..... but as you kindly mentioned i had better look into this more.......... leaving chile or argentina on the way home is gonna be grief coz i am gonna try and come back to the uk without the bike, and they will ask questions about that also, but thats another thing that needs research............... thanks again

[dzug]

I would guess that in most cases arriving with a vehicle counts as your ticket out. But arriving in the US by air you definitely need a ticket or a visa.