Newfiech

Hello,

I am a Canadian citizen living and working in the US on an H1B visa. I
travelled home for the Holidays. I had no issues with immigration
during my re-entry, but I was informed by my employer that the
Department of Homeland Security has requested copies of my passport and
i-94. Should I be concerned? What is the typical reason for such
requests?

Thanks for your advice.

nettlebed

I'm sure that there are many, many possible reasons why the DHS might want information about you; too many to be guessed at here. Really the only thing to do is to wait and see what develops.

If, however, you *know* that you have done something that might draw the attention of the DHS (overstays, illegal entry, undeclared criminal record, or anything else like that where you know that things are not straightforward) you might want to seek out a good immigration attorney now.

You might even want to consult with one anyway, as they will probably be able to give you better advice than this forum...

Kevin Keane

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

newfiech wrote:

    > Hello,
    >
    > I am a Canadian citizen living and working in the US on an H1B visa. I
    > travelled home for the Holidays. I had no issues with immigration
    > during my re-entry, but I was informed by my employer that the
    > Department of Homeland Security has requested copies of my passport and
    > i-94. Should I be concerned? What is the typical reason for such
    > requests?

First of all, you may want to find out which agency within DHS it was. Maybe
it was USCIS, maybe it wasn't. It would be quite unusual, actually, for
USCIS to request these documents out of the blue. Maybe it was actually ICE
conducting a workplace investigation to make sure that all the employees
are authorized to work in the USA.

Or it could be another branch, maybe trying to find out if there are any
security-clearance or export control issues (certain technologies are
protected, and the employer might need permission to have a non-immigrant
work on certain projects).

For now, I wouldn't worry about it, just do what you are asked. It likely
has nothing to do with you personally.

- --
Please visit my FAQ at http://www.kkeane.com before asking a question here.
It may answer your question. Remember, I am strictly a layperson without
any legal training. I encourage the reader to seek competent legal counsel
rather than relying on usenet newsgroups.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFDvCf42STeoAchQDkRAvqCAJ0T6ejzVAX6IFxUugAqgA I4tzR1wwCgr6c4
KnfHNoGTqLooQ97cZwTgbFk=
=OIfW
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

crg

Did they request the same information for other foreign workers employed by the same company? If there was some fraud or irregularities with another employee, they may want to check you out as well to see if you have a similar problem.