I 94 Number

[uscmasters]

Hi All,
I apologize if this question has been answered before. I searched before posting this and couldn't find relevant threads.

I had gone to India on H1 status recently and returned. At the port of entry, the officer did not change the Alien Number on the I-94 card to the old one. Don't they usually change the printed number to the old I-94's number? So is it a problem if your H1 approval letter (I 797) has a different I-94 number than your departure card?

I traveled to India on F1 before and I think everytime I came back, the Immigration folks at the port of entry made sure that they change the number to match whatever was the old one before stamping the validity period. Please help.

 

[ginnu]

Hi All,
I apologize if this question has been answered before. I searched before posting this and couldn't find relevant threads.

I had gone to India on H1 status recently and returned. At the port of entry, the officer did not change the Alien Number on the I-94 card to the old one.
Don't they usually change the printed number to the old I-94's number?
------------------NO, new I-94 will have new # printed on it
So is it a problem if your H1 approval letter (I 797) has a different I-94 number than your departure card?
--------------- NO problem, but if you had H1 extension approval then the I-94 attached with approval is same # of old I-94 that was submited to USCIS

I traveled to India on F1 before and I think everytime I came back, the Immigration folks at the port of entry made sure that they change the number to match whatever was the old one before stamping the validity period. Please help.

**Dont know your case full details, if it was F1 to H1 COS in US then you got I-94 with h1 approval notice you went to India and gave your I-94 to airline and got new I-94 when you came back, if that is true you will have NEW I-94 # printed on white I-94
--- 1 when you went to India you surrendered your I-94 at airline counter and I-94 # was XXXXXXXX
2 you came back to US and you were supposed to fill up new I-94 form and it will have different # on it as YYYYYYYYYY.
3 regarding Alien # you get A# only after filing last stage of GC (I-485) I-94 does not have A#

 

[uscmasters]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, its true that I surrendered the I-94 (that came with I-797) to the airline counter and the new one I got (new white I-94) at the port of entry has a different printed number.
While its true that they all have different numbers printed, during my previous entries into US, the folks at the port of entry always made sure that they struck through that printed number and wrote the number from the I-797 on the white I-94. But during this last entry, they somehow didn't do it. Now the I-94 number on the bottom part of the I-797 and the new white I-94 are different. Is this a problem? Hope this is clear.

 

[ginnu]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, its true that I surrendered the I-94 (that came with I-797) to the airline counter and the new one I got (new white I-94) at the port of entry has a different printed number.
While its true that they all have different numbers printed, during my previous entries into US, the folks at the port of entry always made sure that they struck through that printed number and wrote the number from the I-797 on the white I-94. But during this last entry, they somehow didn't do it. Now the I-94 number on the bottom part of the I-797 and the new white I-94 are different. Is this a problem?
------no problem, your latest white I-94 is valid I-94
Hope this is clear.

 

[uscmasters]

Thanks. That clarifies it for me.