Not sure if I'm out of status or not

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dierna

Registered Users (C)
This is a long story, so bear with me.

We've been in the US since late 2004. My husband has TN status. Early this year, he changed jobs, but left me and our children (one was born in the US, so there's no issue for him) behind in case they denied him the new TN and denied him reentry on the TN for his old job because it was expiring in a few days (the renewal had already been mailed).

He got the new TN, and started his new job two weeks later. The renewal for his old job was approved (we have the letter from USCIS), so our daughter and I got TD status with the previous employer. Granted, he'd quit that job by the time we received the letter, so the temporary I-94 cards are in the possession of his previous employer.

I called one of the crossings, and the officer told me that so long as my husband remains in status, his dependents can stay in the US. I asked him if we would need to go to the border to get new I-94's and he said "you'll only need them if you want to leave the country". I'm not so sure he gave me the correct information though, and they NEVER give you their names when you call.

His TN is up for renewal in a couple of months. We're planning on renewing by mail. We've been unable to get back to Canada to get TDs on his new TN (I don't drive, so it is really difficult for me to do it on my own, and we cannot afford airfare), so I'm not sure if our Canadian child and I are out of status. My husband still has valid TN status.

Does anyone have experience with this? We're wondering if there's any way to find out if we've got valid TD status, but we don't want to alert USCIS either, so I don't want to call them in case it causes trouble.

If our TD status is not valid, will it be denied if we try to go to the border and obtain it? The last thing I want is for my family to be broken because of this. I know we should have made it work, even though my husband was not able to get time off from his new job to go up to the border with us, and honestly, I'm so terrified of them at the border (after a really bad experience at his first extension that kept us in Canada for several months) that they'd probably think I'm trying to get away with something so I wouldn't chance going without my husband to do all the talking.

We're actually considering hiring a lawyer, but if there's any way we can avoid that, we'd prefer it.
 
Remember, it was technically you that applied for TD for you, not the previous employer (they applied for his TN). So, your request for TD extension, since he maintained continuous TN was never invalidated when he quit the old employer

You are in TD status, with the expiry date written on the I-94 written on your TD approval notice.

the only hiccup is that your now expires on a differnt date than your spouse's TN, but this is not a problem unless your extension has expired, which from what you say it has not. Just be sure tio send inb the renewals before your TD expires, not merely before his TN expires.
 
Thanks Nelsona. So if we extend it by mail (our preference, since it would cost us a heck of a lot more than the mail filing fee to travel to the border), how would we go about that? The I-539 form asks for the I-94 numbers, which we never received since the previous employer has them. They never forwarded them to us, so we don't have them to put on the form. Will this be a problem?
 
Ah, you see, that is a BIG problem. They should have given you those I-94s.

You absolutely need these!!

At the very least you need to know the number of your I-539 petition, so that your approval can be verified.

You should have got these months ago.

All that writing above and you failed to mention the most important point.
 
I don't know if they'll give them to us now. USCIS sent us the I-797C notifying us that the application for extension of temporary stay was approved. But they sent it a month after my husband started his new job, and his previous employer's lawyer did the paperwork, so the I-94s were sent to her and she did not forward them to us since he'd changed to another employer.

I wonder if sending a copy of the I-797C would be sufficient evidence that we have TD status? It says our status is valid until 02/2009. Unfortunately, the print with the receipt number is over top of the letterhead, so we can't photocopy it to include it with our extension since the receipt number won't be visible. Would we write that in the space for the I-94 number, I wonder?
 
The I-94 and the receipt number are not the same.

If you were going to the border I would be taking this with me, as this shows that you did apply and get TD approval. this would be enough at the border.

But, if you are going to apply by mail to extend your status then you need proof of being in status, which is a copy of your unexpired I-94. The Notice of action without the I-94 is not of great value.

You should request the I-797s for the TDs with the I-94 attached, as it is yours.
Your first step is to ask (demand) your I-94s from the petitioning lawyer.
 
That could prove to be difficult, but we will give it a shot. Thanks for all the help, nelsona!
 
I will say this about what the officer said:

I called one of the crossings, and the officer told me that so long as my husband remains in status, his dependents can stay in the US. I asked him if we would need to go to the border to get new I-94's and he said "you'll only need them if you want to leave the country". I'm not so sure he gave me the correct information though, and they NEVER give you their names when you call.
Click to expand...

This is completely misleading and false. You are entitled to TD status as long as spouse remains in valid TN, but you must continually maintain that status while in US by either posessing an unexpired I-94 in that status or by having applied for extension of such status before expiry and be within the 240-day grace period awaiting approval.
 
In our experience, none of them know what they're talking about at the BC crossings (which is why we prefer to renew by mail, to avoid dealing with them). But if you're correct about TD being tied to the TN holder and not the employer, we are not out of status. If we can get the I-94 from the lawyer, we should have no trouble at all with our extension.
 
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