I-94 dates confusion

[h1bengg]

Thank you so much for the info.

My company lawyer finally replied on this issue and suggested me to go to the deferred inspection Window of USCIS at the airport and they will take care of the issue.

http://www.cbp.gov/contact/deferred-inspection/overview-deferred-inspection

I will go there very soon and update you accordingly.

Thanks again

[shervin143]

Well, you can certainly try that. That may or mya not work depending on the officer. Keep the thread updated.

Thank you so much for the info.

My company lawyer finally replied on this issue and suggested me to go to the deferred inspection Window of USCIS at the airport and they will take care of the issue.

http://www.cbp.gov/contact/deferred-inspection/overview-deferred-inspection

I will go there very soon and update you accordingly.

Thanks again

[h1bengg]

Went to the deferred inspection Window at the airport and the I94 expiration dates were taken care of.

Thanks.

[srk9]

I spent a harrowing two days after finding out over the weekend that my I-94 had expired, and that I might have to leave the country to get my passport stamped. I wanted to share my experience in the hope it will help others.

- I have the H1 stamp of employer A, and the 797 of employer B.
- Left the country a few times, but didn't get a new stamp. My lawyer told me this was fine as long as I presented my new 797. I also didn't know to check my I-94 each time I entered the country, or even how important it was.
- Found out a few days ago that my I-94 had an expiry date of the old 797. The I-94 had expired 2 months ago.

I live in the Bay area, so after a bit of googling (which said to go to either the airport/POE CBP or deferred inspections), went to SFO CBP office. The agent there told me they don't handle these types of cases, and directed me to the Deferred Inspections office, located here - 630 Sansome Street, Room 1185 San Francisco, CA 94111-2280.

The Sansome St. location had a line - and said "By Appointments only", but I didn't have one. I told the security agent that I needed to go to the deferred inspections office. He didn't ask for an appointment letter (others in the line were showing him theirs, perhaps for different kinds of reasons - one had a citizenship test). However, the deferred inspections office didn't seem like it needed an appointment.

I went early in the morning at around 8.30am, and there was just one other person waiting inside the office. An agent asked me to approach. I told him that I have the 797 of employer B, but my I-94 showed a date matching my old 797. He asked me if I'd presented the new 797 to the agent at the POE, and I said yes. He also asked me if I'd left the country since the last stamp (which was before the I-94 had expired), and I said no. He asked me if I had a printout of the last I-94, and I gave this to him. He held on to my 797, passport, the I-94 stapled to my 797 (which I'd neglected to surrender when I'd exited - I didn't even know it existed), and asked me to take a seat. After about 5-7 mins, another agent told me that the I-94 had been extended. Sure enough, I went online and retrieved the online I-94, and they'd given me an additional week after the expiry of the new 797. I heaved a huge sigh of relief! All the agents were extremely helpful and the entire thing took about 15 mins.

Takeaways:
- When leaving the country, try to get a stamp of the new employer. I spoke to a lawyer after this ordeal, and she said that as long as an old stamp is still valid when entering the country and the new 797 is presented, the agent at the POE should match the date on the I-94 to the new 797. However, it doesn't seem like the agents at the airport are familiar with this rule - leading to the issue of expiry dates being given based on the old 797 (I have three international stamps on my passport after changing jobs, two of the three match the date on the old 797, one of them matches the new one).
- Be courteous the agents: This one's a given, but I overheard some conversation between the agents discussing a phone call one of them had received. He kept saying "these people keep quoting their lawyer = "my lawyer said this, my lawyer said that - as though trying to shift blame on us"". Don't mention the lawyers too much - the agents know they're doing, and will help you if they can.
- Check the I-94 each time you enter the country, and make sure you get discrepancies corrected as soon as possible.

Hope this helps!