Question: Why did John Lennon and Yoko Ono originally move to the United States?
Answer: John Lennon had loved New York from the first time he visited in his Beatle days, and considered it the cultural center of the world, as evidenced by his comment: "If I'd lived in Roman times, I'd have lived in Rome. Where else? Today America is the Roman Empire and New York is Rome itself." What brought John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono to the city in August 1971, however, was Yoko's child Kyoko Chan Cox; when Yoko divorced from Kyoko's father, jazz musician Anthony Cox, she was awarded custody of the child, but her father, apparently feeling John Lennon's lifestyle inappropriate for Kyoko, kidnapped her. John and Yoko's trip to New York in 1971 was initially temporary, but in failing to find Kyoko, the couple decided to stay. (Kyoko and her mother were finally reuinted in 1985.)
In order to stay in the country, John and Yoko were granted temporary B-2 visitors' visas to the United States. These visas were scheduled to expire on February 29, 1972.
