What to do with Old TN Visa ! Help ! Asap

J

JMAN83

New Member
Hello all I would like to thank everyone on this board for there assistance on getting my TN visa . Especially Rajiv
Question : I recently changed jobs in Feburary and I currently hold two TN visa
I had not traveled back to Canada until now. I am flying out to Canada tommorow
Company A is old job (where I no longer work) company B is new job where I currently work
Where and when do I hand over company A (tn visa) ? When I get to Canadian customs and border protection ? When I land in Toronto or do I hand over Comapny A tn visa when I come back to Us
Thank you so much
 
If the first TN I-94 was electronic rather than paper you don't really need to do anything. If it was a paper I-94 but the new I-94 was issued as part of an extension of stay on Form I-797 with the same I-94 number you should hang on to both.

If you have two TN I-94's, both issued in paper form and with completely different numbers, then you should surrender the old, no longer valid, card to the airline when you check in. If the airline won't take it or you have trouble surrendering it then you should follow the instructions at the following site for sending it back from Canada:

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/752/~/i-still-have-my-i-94
 
If you are still working in US under TN (or even another status), there is no need to submit the 1st TN to anyone. keep it for your records. Surrender of a TN I-94, whether issued on paper or a copy of the electronic issue, to the airline staff or Cdn official is only required if one no longer has a status in US (ie. is leaving US for good), and serves as proof of departure. Only in this case would it be advisable to submit the I-94 as CalGC outlines above. Otherwise just carry the current I-94.

And, please, this was not urgent.
 
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Albeit my experience was a number of years ago but my experience has been that if USCIS sees two I-94's in the passport they will ask if both are really still valid and--if not--take the old one upon re-entry anyways. At the same time it would be fair to say that they didn't really give me grief for not turning it in previously. When it comes to recordkeeping you should always have a copy of the I-94 besides just the one in your passport.
 
I didn't say leave both in passport. I said to file it with one's other immigration records -- as a souvenir if you wish.
 
And if you stay for decades and acquire 10-20 "souvenirs" (as some do) but then eventually DO leave for good (as some do) what do you turn in? Only the last one or all 20 at once?

I do agree with you that this situation isn't really urgent. I've never heard of people coming to serious harm over this issue.
 
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I find it very difficult to believe that that was the original intent with I-94's which were first introduced a long time before 9/11 and in a much lower tech era. In that era it was very much catch-as-catch-can as to whether two different I-94's for the same person would actually be matched up as belonging to the same person. If the person had 2 (or more) I-94's and only surrendered the last one, CBP, USCIS, and/or the legacy INS could easily have ended up thinking they hadn't left based on the earlier I-94 that was surrendered.

The whole point of an I-94 (albeit now increasingly obsolete since paper I-94's have been phased out at airports) was to match up an arrival record and a departure record bearing matching admission numbers. The technology didn't exist at least in the past to reliably match up a single departure record to multiple arrival records. However I can believe that these days, most of the time the technology will be up to this even when paper I-94's are still used.
 
Again, these situations apply only to those whose status which allows them to be legally in US ends with their departure from US, or ends/expires while outside US (which you correctly pointed out earlier would require mailing the I-94), not those whose basis for legal status has not ended.
 
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