The associated press are reporting on an Australian woman named Laura McKenzie who has just finished a stint in an American detention center after she over stayed her tourist visa on the tail end of a Canadian winter. If you’re interested (and ever plan on going to the States or Canada) read on.

She apparently went to Canada for the winter (I know a few of you readers are planing this) before going on a 6 week tour through the States. The problem was, she had a stop over in Hawaii on her way to Canada. The stop over meant that her I-94 visa wavier (green form shown above) started counting when she landed in Hawaii (you get 90 days), and going to Canada does not reset this time (you have to leave the continent).

So when she finished the season in Canada and crossed into America “unknown to her” she only had a few days left on her I-94 (I find it hard to believe that the immigration official never told her this as the first thing they ask is how long you plan on staying). Weeks later on a bus trip in southern Texas (word of advice, if you’re going to over stay your visa, stay away from anything Mexican or Texan) she was picked up for over staying her visa and put through the illegal immigration system. Laura has obviously never read issue 4 of POP, which gives you all the American visa information you’ll ever need.

Laura is currently out on bail and awaiting a court date. Good luck to her, she is going to need it.