Few weeks of overstay due to 9/11 Terrorist attack & I-485 Application

BelRed

New Member
Hi

My parents visited US on B2 visa in March 2001. They were scheduled to depart US on Sun 9/16 before their I-94 expired a week or so later in Sept.
But there was a national airspace lockdown in US in Sept and Oct 2001 while Bush administration tried to figure out how to introduce security at US airports and not allow non-travelers to come all the way to airplane boarding gate to drop or receive people.
Finally when flights resumed across US in Oct my parents departed US in Oct, 2 or 3 weeks after expiration date on their I-94
Not sure if this is considered as unlawful presence in US, or was I-94 expiry automatically adjusted for everyone who were suppose to leave US by air in those months.

Other than this my parents have always departed US much before expiration of I-94 during 5 or 6 visits on B2.
While renewing their B2 visa in 2014 they were asked about the overstay in 2001 and Visa Officer was convinced of the reason for late departure and B2 was renewed.

Now while submitting I-485 for concurrent AOS, the only overstay question I noticed is 78.a. and 78.b. Have you been unlawfully present in US for more than 180 days or more than one year.

Does I-485 Application not care about any unlawful presence less than 180 days?
Or should any short overstay or unlawful presence (even if unwillingly due to circumstance) be mentioned in Part 14. Additional Information, just to make sure there is complete representation in the application.
 
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Part 8 #78a and b are about the unlawful presence ban. They would answer No to those as they did not have an unlawful presence ban because they left after accruing less than 180 days of unlawful presence (and even if they had accrued more than 1 year of unlawful presence and then left, the max unlawful presence ban is 10 years which would have been long over anyway).

For Part 8 #17, they would answer Yes, since they were out of status, and in the explanation, simply state the facts of when the I-94 expired and when they left. Current or past status violations do not affect Adjustment of Status in the Immediate Relative category (spouse, parent, or unmarried under-21 child of US citizen).
 
Thanks @newacct
BTW, always wanted to ask you. What was your old account name? Assuming you created newacct after misplacing credentials of old account.
 
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