The Canberra man jailed in the United States for overstaying his visa by 90 minutes has been granted bail and allowed to return to Australia.
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In a court in upstate New York, Immigration Judge Steven Connelly gave Baxter Reid 120 days to leave the country.
Mr Reid was flanked in court by his American girlfriend Heather Kancso, and his father Tom Reid, who had travelled from Bermagui, New South Wales.
Speaking outside the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility before his son's release, Tom was glad the ordeal was over.
"We got the best possible result," he said. "We're ecstatic and very grateful to everybody whos given assistance."
Mr Reid and Ms Kancso were thrilled to be reunited.
"We're very happy and more than grateful for all the support," Ms Kancso said.
"Right now, we're just enjoying a nice cold beer."
Mr Reid was in the US on a B1 / B2 visa, which technically allowed him to stay in the country for five years but required him to leave every six months to renew it.
It's normally reserved for businesspeople who frequently travel to the US but don't need to live there.
Ms Kansco and Mr Reid travelled to the Canadian border at 10:00pm on Sunday, April 23, with Mr Reid's visa set to expire at midnight.
They were questioned by Canadian police for several hours and eventually turned back into the US at 1:30am Monday, April 24, where Mr Reid was arrested by US border police.
Speaking to the Canberra Times last week, David Immigration Law principal attorney Andrew David said that's not generally how the visa was supposed to work.
"Some people who get this, will go: 'Great, I've got 6 months, all I have to do is go out and come back in', and that's where the danger happens," Mr David said.
Ms Kancso set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for Mr Reid's defence, which raised over $US10,000 before it was closed down.
Speaking after the hearing, Mr Reid's lawyer, Richard & Kruger attorney Julie Kruger, said her client had avoided a forced deportation order, which would have seen him barred from the US for 10 years.
"He's got no criminal history, no previous history of visa violations and he was trying to comply with immigration visa laws," Ms Kruger said.
"It is very unfortunate what did happen. We were pleased that the Department of Homeland Security was willing to listen to our arguments."
"We had been talking to them over the last couple of weeks to come to an agreement."
Ms Kruger said the case had moved forward relatively quickly to other deportation cases.
Ms Kancso will be travelling with Mr Reid to Australia, having secured her visa to visit.
