Wife Goof up at the airport!!

[invest2bfree]

My wife had a trip abroad for close to 5 months 10 days.

Immigration officer asked her how long she was out and she had carelessly answered around 5-6 months.

The immigration officer stamped it as ARC - 6 months in her passport.

The problem is that we dont have a boarding pass. Only proof we have is when she landed in our native country she had her passport stamped.

Will that be suffiecient to say she did not exceed 6 month deadline.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GeorgeF]

That's true but...

I think the original poster meant that his wife doesn't have the departure record and therefore can't prove the total time spent abroad was in fact less than 6 months.
The stamps in her passport are good evidence. You can also get a ticket recepit (the last page of an airline ticket) which has the whole itinerary on it.
Also, if you purchased your ticket with your credit card some companies put the itinerary details on the statement (American Express, Diners Club)

I don't know what ARC- 6 month means but I suppose that indicates a LPR returning after a trip longer than 6 months. If that's the case I think you should take whatever evidence you have and go to the local INS office and get the stamp corrected!
I personally know a case when the person was admitted under different status than she was supposed to (VW). She didn't take care of it, and wasn't allowed to change a status. Now it's too late to do anything.
I also know from my lawyer that a officer at the local INS can re-admit a person under the correct status if there was a mistake at the border.

I'm not an expert in this area. But if I were you I would gather all evidence I could and get my admittance status corrected now. Trying to explain and prove the story later on at the n400 interview could be difficult. (Better safe than sorry kind of approach )

JoeF? Any ideas?

 

[Radni]

Hi,
I totally agree with views expressed here by JoeF.
My wife and son once were not stamped in the pssports upon their arrival as LPR at POE, also the boarding passes were misplaced. So , I followed up with my travel agent to get me letters from the Airline conforming that they travelled on that specific flight to USA under ticket no. ----. Yes we did preserve the spent ticket as a proof.
I got the required letter from the airline and keep it with the record of travel.
Yes, I agree with JoeF that BCIS officers some time do not stampt passport on arrival at POE. It happened twice with me.Once I even asked if he would rather stamp it , but he said it was not necessary and only GC is enough ( which he offcourse had scanned!).