Revalidating I-94

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bluemtn

Registered Users (C)
FIXING I-94 ERRORS

I am not sure how I should approach this issue. Here is my situation:

My H1-B visa expires 12/DD/2005. (I have visa stamped in my passport until that date)
My Indian passport expires 04/DD/2004.

I returned from a short vacation to India in mid-July. The Immigration officer at SFO airport told me that although I have a valid visa until 12/2005, but since my passport expires in 04/2004, he can only validate (Admit Until) my I-94 until 04/DD/2004. He said that after getting my passport renewed, I can apply to the local INS/BCIS office to extend the I-94.

My question is has anyone gone through this type of problem, wherein you have had to extend your I-94, without leaving the country? Can any tell me what I should do once I get my passport renewed. I live in Phoenix, AZ and I am not sure if I should approach the local INS/BCIS office or should I send my passport to the INS?BCIS office in California service center.

Thanks in advance to all your replies and help.
 
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Revalidating I-94
I am not sure how I should approach this issue. Here is my situation:

My H1-B visa expires 12/DD/2005. (I have visa stamped in my passport until that date)
My Indian passport expires 04/DD/2004.
--- Renew your passport through nearest Indian consulate or embassy
I returned from a short vacation to India in mid-July. The Immigration officer at SFO airport told me that although I have a valid visa until 12/2005, but since my passport expires in 04/2004, he can only validate (Admit Until) my I-94 until 04/DD/2004.
--- Officer was correct
He said that after getting my passport renewed, I can apply to the local INS/BCIS office to extend the I-94.
---- Yes you can do it visiting local BCIS office
My question is has anyone gone through this type of problem, wherein you have had to extend your I-94, without leaving the country?
-- Many have done this
Can any tell me what I should do once I get my passport renewed? I live in Phoenix, AZ and I am not sure if I should approach the local INS/BCIS office or should I send my passport to the INS?BCIS office in California service center.
----- Go to nearest Local BCIS office or Drive to Mexico and when you enter through US border post get new I-94 valid till your Visa stamp or getI-94 corrected, show the new passport (once you get new passport you have to keep both the passports attached in future)
 
Thanks for the info

ginnu, Thanks for the information. I will contact my local BCIS office in Phoenix.

Thanks again.
 
My I94 Experience

Hi !
Here is my I94 expiry case.
I went to India in mid feb & returned to LA on March23rd 2003.
At port of entry Inspector gave me I94 Upto May10th ,2003
As my visa validity date is upto Apr 30 ,2003 + 10days.
At the POE i showed my new H1B which is valid upto Nov 2005.
But they ignored my new H1B & they gave I94 Upto May10th 2003.
One of my friend said that i don't have to worry about I94 which is issued at poe because my new H1B has validity upto 2005.
in June my client absorbed me as permanent into the company.
At the time of filing my H1B ,my company attorney raised objection
& said that my I94 has expired. & then they denied filing my H1B.
Then i went to local BCIS office in LA. when i spoke to officers They blindly said that my I94 ,is valid until 2005. The fact is they also don't know proper rules. they were not even bothered to listen my case & asked me to leave the office. I had no other option , so i left.

But after a week once again i went to local BCIS office to try my luck. This time by gods grace i had oppurtunity to talk to a very good officer.She immediately understood the problem & told me that it's a mistake of POE inspector & she gave me a form to fillup. & she issued me a new I94 validity until 2005.

So you can go to locla BCIS(INS) office & explain the situation clearly. They will give you new I94 valid upto your new H1 B valid date.

Good Luck!!
 
Thank you sdk_home for sharing your experience and giving me an idea as to how I should proceed in getting a new I-94.
 
bluemtn - Were you able to revalidate your I-94

Hi !

I am having a some what similar problem with my I-94.

I want to know how you solved your problem.

Here is my situation.

I have been working in the US since 1998. I went to India in November of 2002 and came back in January of 2003.

I had my Visa Stamp on my old company which was valid till July 2003. My H1B Petition with them was also vaild till July 2003. My H1B
petition of the company where I was/am working is valid from July 2002 to April 2005.

I came back to the US on my Old Company Visa Stamp. I showed them the Old Company Petition as well as my New Company Petition. The INS officer at the Port of Entry (Los Angeles) entered the End Date of my Old Company H1B Petition (July 2003) on the I-94 card by mistake instead of entering the end date of my New Company H1B Petition (April
2005).

Today I wanted to apply for my Visa stamp extension and noticed that my I-94 is expired. My friends are telling me that I am out of status from July 2003.

Can you please let me know if I am really out of status though I have a valid H1B petition till April 2005. If I am out of status what can I
do to retain my original status. Also is there any other way I could renew my I-94 without leaving the country.

Any kind of help/suggestion is highly appreciated.

Can you please tell me in more detail on how you approached your problem.

Can you please send me your contact number so that I can call and talk to you in detail.

regards,
Markand Shetty.
 
Information required from bluemtn

hi bluemtn,
i too am in the similar situation like urs. my passport is expiring in 2005. it would be of great help if you could give me some info regarding the renewal of teh passport - i mean the detail procedure and docs required, and where is hould file it.
Thanks
 
There are two type of I-94 for each individual working in US with H1B. First is the I-94 departure card which will receive and staple to your passport next to the visa stamp by POE officer, and up to the date of the expiration date listed in the stamp (or the passport expiration date). The second I-94 is also the USCIS approval notice I-797A. I believe you are talking about the white I-94. When leaving the US by plane, white I-94 will be collected by airline agent.

As I understand that as long as you're in US, you do not have to revalidate the visa stamp if it expired, which also meant the white I-94 card is also expired since it's based on the visa stamp.

My visa stamp expired in Oct 2002, as well as the white I-94 departure card. Recently, I applied my H1B extension through premium processing, and got approval in 3 business days. I don't see why the white I-94 card need to be revalidated if you're in US and your second I-94 (I-797A) is valid.
 
please clarify me

Hi bllau
I don't understand how you got extension of stay, As per my knowledge concern you should indicated by BCIS as you are out of status since your i-94 has expired! and then you should go out of country to get the new i-94 while coming back to us, then only you can work legally in us.

please correct me if i am worng ,and i need your out put to solve my friend problem.


thanks in advbance
 
I am still trying to understand my mess as well as the inconsistency of the mess of treatment of I-94 by the immigration officer or USCIS. So far, I have read response from different people that some get POE version of I-94 till the I-94 (from I-797A) of the new company although having the old company visa stamp at the POE, and some only get the validity till the visa stamp (based on old company though the I797A was shown to forgot to mention an experience in my previous post. Actually I never surrenderred my I-94 in my I-797A because I always surrenderred the white POE copy each time I went out of US, the white POE I-94 is always valid, and I never encountered any problem reentering. However, when I just left the US 3 weeks ago, I surrenderred the white POE I-94 which already expired because the officer stamped till the visa stamp expiration date (Oct 02), although I showed I-797A, as well as the I-94 from my current I-797 expired in Feb 04. When I applied for the H1B extension, I think my lawyer submitted photocopy of both, and USCIS gave me the approval with a new I-94 valid from Feb 04 till March 06. I didn't surrender this new I-94 because my lawyer said it has not been started yet, i.e. not till Feb 04. I would assume the I-94 from my I-797A validifies my stay. Then two weeks ago, I successfully obtained the H1B stamp till March 06 in Malaysia US embassy the next business day. I will know if I encounter any issue when reenter US at the end of the month based on the new US-VISIT system.

I was quite frustrated with the confusion of I-94. First, I found no evidence about whether the POE officer should stamp the validity of the I-94 upon arrival till the expiration date of the I-797A instead of the old stamp. Each time I enter, he/she only looked the stamp (since can't enter US without stamp except visa waiver countries citizen), and scan the stamp though the computer. The only evidence was a letter posted by Jim in this forum. I would be more interested to see a official statement in the USCIS website. My lawyer also not sure which is correct. Even when I read majority of the posts here, no consistent treatment even some try to argue at POE or USCIS. Also, there should be immigration officer grabbing the I-94 card at the airport upon departure rather than the airline agent, because I am not sure if some of them understand they're doing the process correctly. Another interesting experience is about 5 yrs ago, when my friend left the US, he surrenderred his I-94 to the airline agent, but upon seeing the I-94 being thrown into trashcan, he asked the agent if he could get it back, and he/she gave him back, and he reenterred US without any problem few weeks later. He still got the original copy somewhere.

They're lack of standard or clear process about I-94. Officers use their own judgment to decide the validity, which is really confusing to us.
 
Hi everyone,

Here's my take on the I-94 Confusion.

1) The Stamp on your passport is a document required to ENTER
the US. You can enter only before the expiration date on the
stamp
2) First I-94(white) indicates how long you are allowed to stay
in the US.
3) You get further extension of stay by subsequent I-797s. If you
look carefully on the bottom part of I-797, you'll see a new
I-94 attached to it with a statement - Remove the I-94
attached below and staple it over the existing I-94 in your
passport.

Now since you have already enetered the country legally -based on the stamp AND you have legally got extension of stay - based on your new I-94 attached with I-797, you are very much in status my friend. Only thing you dont have at this stage is the permission to (RE)Enter the country. You can get this permission either by getting your passport stamped in the US (With in one year of stamp expiration) or before you come back from your next trip abroad.


If your problem is also the expiring Passport, I suggest you get the passport renewed from the Indian consulate your area falls under and then send the new and the old passport for visa(stamp) revalidation along with other documents.....
 
whatagc,

If you friend has I-94 expired due to POE officer's mistake, but still have valid I-94 from I-797, you can file the correction I102 at local USCIS office. I was running out of time last time since I just found out this confusion but has to travel. Although I got two-weeks time to decide if needed to stop by the USCIS office, my lawyer advised not to since she consulted several people, and different USCIS officers gave different response, and has a risk for immediate deportation if they're incapable of understanding the problem. I 'might' be lucky to not turn in my I-94 from I797 which is still valid, but prepare for any question when entering US at the end of the month. Good luck!
 
I-94 errors

sdk_home,
My situation is similar to yours. Latest I-94 issued at POE recently has expiry dt: 03/DD/2004, same as my old visa expiry date.

And the new H1 approval has I-94 valid till 08/dd/2005.

After reading your post, I visited the local BCIS office but the person there has no clue. She said "I-94 is a simple entry/exit document and your status is determined by the new H1 approval"
and asked me to leave.

What was the form you were asked to fill in?
May be I should try again.


bheemboy
 
I94 with I797 , Without the I94 #

Hi ,

Strange is how things happens with BCICS approvals.
My previous H1 expired last month , Dec13. I had applied for my H1 extension back in Sep 03, and i finally got my H1 extension approved last week. Actually i had got my wife's H4 also with it.

I was very happy on getting both of those in the mail. But when i opened and went carefully through it, i was shocked to find that the I94 which came along with the I797 H1 Approval did not have the I94# on it. All the info. on my I797 as well as on that I94 sheet [with regards my particulars like name,DOB etc.] were correct. It even has the EAC no on it except for the fact that it did not have I94 no. on it.

Actually there are 2 small perforations at the bottom of the I797 approval. One is the I94 which is the right hand side one, which is said , needs to be stapled along with the white I94 in my passport. Now this white I94 which i had got when i last entered U.S expired along with my previous H1 on Dec13.

So the only valid I94 i now have is the one which came with this new H1 approval. But i am not sure whether that that I94 is valid without any I94# on it. This no is seen above the Receipt no in bold.

My Wife's H4 has that I94 no on her's but not on mine, though both of us got approved together. Ridiculous isn't it?

The other small perforation , the left hand side one, says
"Detach this half for personal Records".

That has a Receipt # , followed by I94#. Then Name, Class and Valid From.

In my case, on this left hand side perforation, there is number against Receipt # which matches my receipt no. but there is no number against the I94# , when there should be one. My Wife's H4 does have the number against the I94#, but mine does not.

This is my second H1 extension and my previous h1 extension, did have the number against the I94#.

I am quite at a loss as to how can BCICS approve my H1 without giving me an I94 #. That too do it for one of the application ie H4 but not for the other i.e H1.

I am assuming that I94 number is required , since in future whereever the current valid I94 number is asked, i would need to provide this no. Without this no. though my H1 is valid, i would be considered illegal.

Now with this, what does this mean to me?

1] Am i out of status since my previous white I94 expired with my previous H1?

2] Now what do i need to do to correct this problem? Do i need to file again for a H1 correction or just the I94 correction?

What does that mean to me in future becoz of this issue.? Though i have a valid work permit to work becoz of I797, i do not have any valid I94 to continue to stay in U.S , becoz of this I94 issue.

3] How long does it take to correct the problem?

4] I need to get my visa revalidated as well through St Louis. Do i need to submit this I94 as well for revalidation?
Can i submit for my visa and at the same time, have this corrected?



Would appreciate ur immediate responses on this.

TIA

P.S.
 
My I-94 problem pls help

Friends,
My i-94 is getting expired on June 1st 2005. I have just applied for my H1B extension and I am not going to get new I-94 till I get my new approval notice.
Does this mean that I will be out of status till I get my new I-94?
Thanks
 
Re: My I-94 problem pls help

Originally posted by pranashvi
Friends,
My i-94 is getting expired on June 1st 2005. I have just applied for my H1B extension and I am not going to get new I-94 till I get my new approval notice.
Does this mean that I will be out of status till I get my new I-94?
Thanks
Click to expand...

You are still more then a year away!
 
H4 extension with expired I94 for KID

what are the chances of rejecting H4 extension for 6 yrs kid here is US whose I94 is expired 9 months back?Parents are in valid H1 status
 
Another I94 Question

Hi My current visa stamp and I94 expires in October 2004. My company has applied for a visa extension. Will I go out of status if I do not get an approved 797 (and an I94) along with it by October ? Is it true that I will remain in status as long as the extension is applied for?
 
nilekum said:
Hi My current visa stamp and I94 expires in October 2004. My company has applied for a visa extension. Will I go out of status if I do not get an approved 797 (and an I94) along with it by October ? Is it true that I will remain in status as long as the extension is applied for?
Click to expand...
My understanding is that, you get an automatic 240 day extension when you file for the extension. Others plz. correct on that if that is not the case.
 
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