Surrendering I-94 at check-in

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clotty

Registered Users (C)
Until now I always gave my I-94 (as one ought to ) at the check-in desk before departure, but now with green card in tow, did you guys give your I-94 when you were checking in at the airport? This is such an unimportant quetion because I know that either way it won't make much difference at all since with green card we are not bound with all this I-94 business anymore, but still I was just wondering if anyone gave their I-94 at the departure point of their first travel after getting green card? Yeah, I am planning on going on a much-needed vacay; and GC came right in time, saving me from paying up for another RTD.
 
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clotty said:
Until now I always gave my I-94 (as one ought to ) at the check-in desk before departure, but now with green card in tow, did you guys give your I-94 when you were checking in at the airport? This is such an unimportant quetion because I know that either way it won't make much difference at all since with green card we are not bound with all this I-94 business anymore, but still I was just wondering if anyone gave their I-94 at the departure point of their first travel after getting green card? Yeah, I am planning on going on a much-needed vacay; and GC came right in time, saving me from paying up for another RTD.
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It doesnt matter. If I had the choice, I would not give any I-94 to USCIS. they are already confused. You do not want them to confuse them even more by handing them a departure card of a Permanent Resident.

Put it in a safe place if needed for your U.S Citizenship and stop worrying about details...USCIS didn't care before for I-94's and it doesnt care now that you are a PR. I-94 was created for Asylees for a different reason all together(temp card) but it went to become 10-12 year of issuing new I-94s..pathetic!
 
Hi guys-
I am a green card holder, and I was wondering if I really need by I-94 if I leave United States for travel. The problem that I have is that I sent my original I-94 to INS when I started to work on my papers. I don't have any copy of it(I just know the number). Should I request the original from INS?
 
wantmygcnow said:
It doesnt matter. If I had the choice, I would not give any I-94 to USCIS. they are already confused. You do not want them to confuse them even more by handing them a departure card of a Permanent Resident.

Put it in a safe place if needed for your U.S Citizenship and stop worrying about details...USCIS didn't care before for I-94's and it doesnt care now that you are a PR. I-94 was created for Asylees for a different reason all together(temp card) but it went to become 10-12 year of issuing new I-94s..pathetic!
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Thanks for the reply. But I was not worried. I already stated that I am aware that it was "unimportant". Technically we are to surrender our last I-94 at the time of departure, but I guess since we are LPR now, it won't make much difference either way, although I hardly think it will confuse them if we did.
 
ledona_19 said:
Hi guys-
I am a green card holder, and I was wondering if I really need by I-94 if I leave United States for travel. The problem that I have is that I sent my original I-94 to INS when I started to work on my papers. I don't have any copy of it(I just know the number). Should I request the original from INS?
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I-94 is for those who hold a visa or asylees. As a green card holder you will not be given an I-94 when you arrive in USA so it won't be terribly bad if you do not surrender your last one when you leave, so the fact that you don't have it right now is not a biggie; don't sweat it. I made the thread to see what people did, but I know that either way it is NOT an issue. If I had not had green card, I would be a bit more on the point of surrendering my I-94, but even then it won't be a big deal. For example it is those who have , say, B1 visa and they do not surrender their I-94 when they leave , and then two years later they want to get a F1 visa, but exactly when they departed back then may be a problem and they may need to prove with boarding pass and such because they did not surrender their I-94 when they left. It is basically telling you how ong you can stay and for them to track down exactly how long you stayed, but for green card holders it is a moot point because we do not need to fill out I-94's anymore anyway. I don't think I will give mine when I travel; if they ask I will say that I have GC and that will be the end of it.
 
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I travel 4-5 times per year...even when I was an asylee. I never gave my I-94 and kept all the of them.

Funny thing I did because in the RFE, they asked me for all the I-94 issued to me upon rentry..so if I was supposed to surrender my I-94 then why would they ask to show me?

Funny way USCIS works.
 
wantmygcnow said:
I travel 4-5 times per year...even when I was an asylee. I never gave my I-94 and kept all the of them.

Funny thing I did because in the RFE, they asked me for all the I-94 issued to me upon rentry..so if I was supposed to surrender my I-94 then why would they ask to show me?

Funny way USCIS works.
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It may be because when one gets granted asylum they automatically receive an I-94 stating the asylum status while they already have the I-94 from their last entry so they are left with two I-94's in their hands hence the "all" I-94's phrasing. I had always given my last I-94's when I travelled but this time now that I have GC I won't bother giving my last one.
 
clotty said:
It may be because when one gets granted asylum they automatically receive an I-94 stating the asylum status while they already have the I-94 from their last entry so they are left with two I-94's in their hands hence the "all" I-94's phrasing. I had always given my last I-94's when I travelled but this time now that I have GC I won't bother giving my last one.
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I have always recommended to keep your I-94's if you are an asylee and every record of travel(boarding passes) if you are a PR. In the future, you are asked to list your travels to countries and if asked, a proof looks better.
 
wantmygcnow said:
I have always recommended to keep your I-94's if you are an asylee and every record of travel(boarding passes) if you are a PR. In the future, you are asked to list your travels to countries and if asked, a proof looks better.
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I-94's are "arrival-departure" documentation; it is not meant to be kept (clearly tells you at the back to surrender it at departure), so I personally would not advise asylees to keep their I-94's , although keeping them is not a crime and will not be such a big deal, but surrendring it helps INS better keep track of your departure and arrivals, which is half the point of the document. Plus when they stamp the arrival date on the I-94 they also stamp it on your passport/RTD, so if you want to show the proof, you can show that stamp on the NP/RTD or you can make a copy of the I-94 and keep the copy. And in my opinion (I may be wrong) maybe the reason they asked for "all your I-94's" (in plural) was because in their system they saw those I-94 numbers being entered in their system at arrival points but those I-94's were not scanned at departure so they may have realized you had not surrendered them , so you eventually did upon their request. I mean I travelled a lot too but was never asked such an RFE so I am thinking maybe that may be the reason.
 
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I came to the United States with a J1 visa. I was an asylee until recently, when I got approved as permanent resident. Therefore, shouldn't bother wth the I-94?
 
ledona_19 said:
I came to the United States with a J1 visa. I was an asylee until recently, when I got approved as permanent resident. Therefore, shouldn't bother wth the I-94?
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I am in your shoes (I too am a LPR now) and I won't bother , simply because as a LPR we are not obligated to fill out I-94's anymore. Honestly, it won't matter if you surrender your I-94 now or not since you already are holding a GC now. Just make sure to keep your boarding passes just in case.
 
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I came to USA with work VISA and had one I-94 on my NP, after Asylum approval they sent another I-94 with Asylum Approval Letter. Then I went to COP, when I came back , IO asked me about NP and I gave it him( I do not know why...) , he took the I-94 that was on my NP ( H1 Visa) and sent me to Immigration office to get the stamp, when the officer in the office saw my Asylum Approval Letter and I-94s he told me RTD is enough for travel and He recommended to do not carry the letter and I-94 any more.
 
clotty said:
Until now I always gave my I-94 (as one ought to ) at the check-in desk before departure, but now with green card in tow, did you guys give your I-94 when you were checking in at the airport? This is such an unimportant quetion because I know that either way it won't make much difference at all since with green card we are not bound with all this I-94 business anymore, but still I was just wondering if anyone gave their I-94 at the departure point of their first travel after getting green card? Yeah, I am planning on going on a much-needed vacay; and GC came right in time, saving me from paying up for another RTD.
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Clotty! I am little bit lost here. Why would someone surrender the I-94 at the departure point. My understanding of I-94 is that it is status prove document, not a travel document. I have travelled once and I left I-94 at home. I took RTD, and it was as good as Passport. No one asked me any other document. My route was from Seattle to Newyork; from Newyork to Ethaopia via Italy. and from Etho to Kenya. and on my way back I took the same route. No need of I-94 and surrendering it; however, I don't really know about short term travels like going to Canada which need Greencard.

The only people who I am aware of who need to surrender their I-94 are people who are issued a short term I-94 and their I-94 expired and need to go back to their countries. these individuals need to surrender their I-94. Also, if you want to abandon your status you can surrender your I-94.

Note: My purpose here is not to discredit a point or prove one. Just to learn. So please don't be offended...

Your last question: Again Greencard is not a travel document. I don't even think you would need to take it with you if you have a travel document. The law says you should have your greencard with you at all times, but I have seen many people who travelled and left their greencard at home and no question was asked.

Again I have a problem with understanding th confusion here between travel document and other status documents...
 
faysal said:
Clotty! I am little bit lost here. Why would someone surrender the I-94 at the departure point. My understanding of I-94 is that it is status prove document, not a travel document. I have travelled once and I left I-94 at home. I took RTD, and it was as good as Passport. No one asked me any other document. My route was from Seattle to Newyork; from Newyork to Ethaopia via Italy. and from Etho to Kenya. and on my way back I took the same route. No need of I-94 and surrendering it; however, I don't really know about short term travels like going to Canada which need Greencard.

The only people who I am aware of who need to surrender their I-94 are people who are issued a short term I-94 and their I-94 expired and need to go back to their countries. these individuals need to surrender their I-94. Also, if you want to abandon your status you can surrender your I-94.

Note: My purpose here is not to discredit a point or prove one. Just to learn. So please don't be offended...

Your last question: Again Greencard is not a travel document. I don't even think you would need to take it with you if you have a travel document. The law says you should have your greencard with you at all times, but I have seen many people who travelled and left their greencard at home and no question was asked.

Again I have a problem with understanding th confusion here between travel document and other status documents...
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I never mentioned the words "travel document" in my posts. You misread my posts. I never said "you need GC to travel". Where did I even imply that? Of course if you have RTD or RP, that would be fine as well. So I do not understand your confusion in your last paragraph when I made no such implication. I only said in regards to GC that when one has GC they do NOT even fill out an I-94 anymore at the time of arrival. So now I am confused how you can be that confused about what I said in your last paragraph. All those things you asked I made no implication towards them.

I never said I-94 was a travel document. Where did I even remotely imply that you can "travel with" I-94???? If one surrenders something at the departure, that does not make it a "travel document" because you are not travelling with them; not even getting on the plane with them ; so it is your misinterpration , but it is NOT what I said or implied. Let me clarify myself: I said "arrival-departure" document. And as an asylee, you can do whatever you want. Like I said for an asylee it is not a big deal to not surrender them, so your post saying "but I travelled here and there and it was fine" is not disproving what I said because I never said it would be a problem if you did not surrender (show me where I did. I think you misread my posts); worrst case scenario they may ask them as an RFE, so it is not a big deal. I thought I was clear on the "not big deal" part. I am giving opinions here and asked what others did, but it was NOT a "all of you should have surrendered your I-94's orelse you will be burned for it!!" . I made it cleeeeeaaaar from my first post that it was NOT that important either way. *sigh*
 
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ledona_19 said:
boarding passes? what extacly do you mean?...sorry for my ignorance on this matter :rolleyes:
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I mean boarding passes. That was off-topic advise to you in that post. It was NOT related to this topic, so do not get confused. You are a GC holder, so I suggrsted you hold onto your boarding passes, just in case (if you read JoeF's post in the thread made by Cl-Asylee, you can see that the boarding passes came in handy during his citizenship interview). It is not a "must" thing.....Ledona, you are fine; don't worry. Just grab your NP (if it is still valid) and GC and travel.
 
Sorry, folks. If I knew this thread would create confusion, I would not have made it. I already had said in myy first post here that it was not an important question because "it does not matter much either way", which in itself means "hey, you surrendered your I-94 at departure?that is OK" and 'hey, you did not surrender your I-94 at departure? that is OK". I also did not say I-94 was a travel document nor did I imply that, period.
 
clotty, just for your info. i have NEVER surrendered my I-94. i have accumulated sevral of them as a result (which by the way is not recommended.) but i still held my original one from the grant of assylum. i figured that one had a date of my grant of status, all the others only had a date of when i entered the us last.
 
Thanks anaraka. I only have my last one in my hand (I surrendered all the other ones as I departed each time) but I won't surrender this last one because as a GC-holder we are done with this I-94 business. I will keep it as a souvenir, hah ha.
 
Brother clotty: when you learn something new that you are supposed to do but you have not been doing it some times it causes surprise or confusion. This could be because I was ignorant about it. As an asylee I have never thought I was supposed to surrender I-94 at the departure point. And at the beginning of you post this is what you said: “Until now I always gave my I-94 (as one ought to) at the check-in desk before departure…”,. So here who are the people at the check-in desk. The people I saw at the check-in desk were airline agents. I have never encountered IO at the check-in counter. All they asked me was my travel document; once I produced refugee travel document, they asked me whether I was greencard holder or other document. I told them that I had I-194, but I not in my possession at that time. The agent said to me that was fine. Even if had it I would have shown him as a prove of status, but I wouldn’t have handed my I-94 to him and leave.

On the way back here is where you meet real IO. They know what they are doing, and they don’t need I-94. They just stamp new I-94 on your travel document. This confirms your readmission into the country, but it does not have your original date of grant asylum.

So please don’t be offended. We are learning from each. I don’t really mean clotty to challenge you, but I want to know because I was ignorant about this…..

Here is my question. When departing from any airport (I don’t know about ports when traveling by sea) do people regardless of status go through IO procedures? My personal experience is that people we encounter at the check-in point are airline agents. Do we have to surrender our I-94s to airline agents, and if we do where do they take it to…? Or is there an immigration check-in desk that individuals go and surrender their I-94? If there is one and I was supposed to surrender I-94, then I have been in big trouble. And learning that check-in desk after 8 years is so embarrassing and scary for me now………………..

By the way clotty: I have run your name “clotty” on the ms word. It doesn’t have a meaning for it and but it knows it; what does clotty mean?
 
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