Usa resident forgot to turn in the I-94 form when left the country.?

Question

Hello,

I am a US resident who forgot to turn in the I-94 when i left the country. Now everytime i come back to the usa, us customs stops me to check my status even though i am a legal usa resident. How do i stop that from happening?

Ps; i have called the us customs already but the customer service people takes forever to answer and when they did answer the guy was not helpful at all. He did not even tell me which form to file.

Any advice would be very appreciated.

Answer 1

maybe they're worried about something else. these days, security issues cause folks more problems than I-94 problems. If you have the same name as someone considered problematic, that's one problem. Or, maybe they're intrigued with your travel patterns, hard to say. but, something got their interest. It's easy to get on such a list, and extremely difficult to get off one.

Answer 2

You are paying for a very big and very hard to correct mistake!  Don't deal with "customer dis-service" on the phone.  Take your paperwork, especially proof of your residence status, and the offending I-94 you forgot to turn in, and go in person to the nearest immigration office and stick it out until you work it out.  Major pain, but the wheels of that grossly overloaded bureaucracy are creaking badly under the strain.

Answer 3

First off, if you are  lawful permanent resident of the United States, you don't need to fill out an I-94 form.  If you have temporary resident status in the form of a work visa, then you would be required to complete the I-94 form and inspections may check on your status.

Anybody entering the U.S. at a port of entry is subject to inspection, be they citizens or tourists.  There are many reasons why you are getting stopped.  You may have an interesting name that is similar to someone they looking for.  You may travel allot to places that are of interest to the government.  The fact that you are stopped and questioned does not make you guilty of anything.  Yes, it can be unnerving.  But if you have your papers in order, it's just an inconvenience for you.

Forget about getting any answer for why you keep getting stopped.  They will not tell you the reason.

Answer 4

There is a strong chance that he have been mandatorily sent in for further questions. An officer can be suspended or fired if he/she fails to refer certain persons to secondary for further questioning. Recently, CBP came out with a directive designed to handle situations like yours.

The next time that you travel, you may benefit from the new directive. If the first officer you speak to is unable to release you on the spot, politely ask for a supervisor and explain the problem to him/her. The officers do not enjoy referring people to secondary only to find out that everyone's time was wasted.

If they can fix the problem, they will.

Answer 5

I think it's the opposite of what they worried about. You are supposed to stay in US at least 10 months a year. I think they are afraid you left the country too long, but don't want to tell them. What you should do is to show them your periodic pay checks, so that they know you are always in the country.