Crossed Canadian Border by mistake - Implications on AOS/GC, Please Help!!!

[sriyakum]

Hi,

I recently visited Niagara Falls (US side) along with my spouse and happened to cross Canadian border by mistake since we blindly followed mapquest's printed directions. At Canadian border, the officer gave us a Rejection to Entry notice to Canada (reason mentioned - 'Wrong Turn') and asked us to turn back to the US. At US border, we submitted the Notice and the officer checked our Legal status (H-IB for both of us). He then said that we are supposed to carry our passports at all times in the US since we are on H-1B and let us get back into US. All of this happened a week before our AOS got filed.

Our question is - Will there be any bad implications of this experience on our AOS or in getting our GC approved?

Since we didn't carry our passports, nothing was stamped or written in them.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Sriya Kumar

[waitin_toolong]

No problems, but next time pay attention to signs, before you cross borders by road there if often a sign stating that.

[knowledgeable]

Border Crossing

FYI, you can get a Canadian multiple entry visitor visa on H1B and H4. They will give you the visa until the expiration of your H1B and H4 visas.

You're not the first person on H1B to make a wrong turn, this happens with a few if not most of the aliens in the country. As long you're honest and it was a sincere mistake, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

Make sure, you keep these documents with you forever, as they will be useful to you for your future processing.

Additionally, in future, whenever you're travelling near the United States borders, make sure you not only have your passports with you but other documents like last utility bill, original last bank statement etc. These will be helpful to you to show where you live and what you do.

Best wishes for your future endeavours in United States.

[sriyakum]

Thanks Waitin_toolong and Knowledgeable for your quick responses. We will be extra careful from now on and try not to get into similar situations. Will definitely check where we are going and carry our passports!

Regards,
Sriya Kumar

[david8]

mapquest

its been my experience that mapquest is frequently in error. perhaps you could use rand mcnally's service as an alternative as i've done.

[TrueBrit]

It can happen well inside the US too

Several years ago in October 1998, I relocated from Dallas to Los Angeles and packed my stuff into a U-Haul van. I was driving West along I-10 in Arizona late on a Saturday night and seemingly in the middle of nowhere I encountered a traffic backup between Las Cruces and Tucson. The interstate was reduced to one lane and when I got to the front of the line, lo and behold it was the Border Patrol checking documents.

I'd left my passport in CA as I wasn't planning on leaving the country on my drive from Texas to California, so I had a little explaining to do. I was only able to show my TX driver's license and explain that I was on my way from TX to CA and was an H1-B holder. Sure I could have ****d a Texas accent and pretended to be a US citizen however I decided to answer their 'are you a US citizen' question honestly.

As it was a few years before 9-11 the officer accepted my story and advised me that whenever I was within either 50 or 100 miles of the US Mexico or US/Canada border, I should carry my passport.

So be advised, you don't actually have to cross the border to run into difficulties with US Customs & Border Patrol, you just have to be within 50-100 miles of it and even Mapquest can't get that far wrong

Luckily I have a green card these days and it fits neatly in my wallet behind my driver's license.