We are Australians travelling to the USA and we want to stay for 6 months. There is a visa waiver program for 3 months only. Does anyone know if you can go to Mexico or Canada (for a day or so) and then re-enter the US for ANOTHEr 3 months??
Has anyone done this?
OR, has anyone ever had a tourist/visitor visa (12 months) for the USA and how hard was it to get?

No you cannot go to another country for a couple of days and come back in. After our trajedy on Sept 11 all passports are tracked with increasing scrutiny so it is not even worth trying.

Contact our Embassy in your country. They would be the best contact for you to get an extended visa. You just have to be sure to have your plans, places you are staying etc... in hand before applying.

A friend of mine stayed in US for 10 weeks then went to Canada for a month and then came back into the US by bus - getting another 3 months visa - he had an air ticket out from San Francisco and he changed the departure date to 1 week after he tried to cross the border - As soon as he got in to US and automatically got the 3 months even though he said he was only stayng for a week - he then changed his air ticket to 3 months away and so got another 3 months stay in America