Steve2.0

After a recent stressful transit through Chicago airport, late arriving flight from the UK and very little time to get to my internal flight, I was stumped at immigration to be told by the officer that I needed to fill out additional information on the back of the I-94 form, the bit marked for government use only!
I was clearly in a rush and had the big orange ticket holder to prove it but he demanded I leave the booth and write out all my L1 visa details this along with waiting for a turn back at the booth ate quite significantly into the time I had to catch the connecting flight.

My question is what are others experience at various POE in the US when travelling on L1 /L2 visa's, the officer informed me that each POE has different policies.
As I'll soon be travelling into Boston and will need to fill out five I-94 forms it would be good to know what to expect.

Steve

PS I did catch the flight - just...

zerlesen

In the past when traveling on visas I have always (every time I remember, anyway) had the CBP person copy details like the visa number, name of employer, etc onto the back of the I-94 prior to stamping it. I've never been told to do it myself.

You could of course fill out two I-94s and ask which one they want. I'd expect to be yelled at for writing on the "government use only" bit of the form, but apparently your guy at Chicago would feel differently.

retzie

+1

I have never been asked to fill that in before, neither by the PoE officer, nor the 'wandering the aisles to save people from failed paperwork' helpers. If you really want to hedge, I'd go with the suggested dual I-94 approach (gives you something to do on the plane?), but it sounds like it was a severe case of 'power gone to head' to me...

What next: "You're an accountant? You'll need to look at my tax return before I let you in."

Steve2.0

Agree have no intention of ever filling in the back of the form off my own back, just interested to find out if it was an isolated case and whether to expect it any other POE.
Have travelled extensively throughout the US so know each immigration hall has their own set of foibles but only had my L1 visa for a short time - I know at Seattle the immigration officer was happy to fill out 3 forms without complaint with a smile and welcome at the end.

Steve

crg

I haven't heard of anyone being asked to complete it themselves, but I imagine the line may move faster if it was done in advance. Who knows? Perhaps you made it to the front of that guy's line faster because he sent some of people in front of you to write in their petition number.

You may want to put more time between connections.

Venabili

Well - this is weird. Sounds like a newbie officer or something like that.

Every time I had entered on any of my visas (a few B1/B2s followed by a L1B these days), the POE officer had been copying this data on the I-94... So I would not write anything in advance.

However I will echo whatever someone else already said - give yourself some more time. Occasionally the POE get a little bit crowded and I had had cases when I was waiting an hour before I can get to an officer (and if a fellow passenger decides to wave his ticket and ask to be allowed to go faster, I'd most likely say no if it is because the said passenger cannot plan...).

Steve2.0

I'd agree except just under 5 hours had at the time of booking seemed generous enough!
I also wasn't waving my ticket at other passengers... I had the standard bright orange priority pass that meant staff at the various queues would let me take a speeder path.
In fact at the immigration booths there were initially no queues, anyway the original question was to find out if others had had similar experiences but if it's more fun to question my ability to arrange international travel or my assumed appalling behaviour in airport queues then please carry on

Venabili

I did answer your other question as well Never happened to me and I had always entered on a visa... so there was always something to be written. I'd say to follow the instructions on the form - which clearly say not to write there.

Have a safe flight to Boston

PS: If you had 5 hours and things got wrong because of delays, it's a different story. We all had been in this situation I guess. But I had seen enough people booking with 80-90 minutes at the first airport... and then asking to be allowed to go first at the immigration line because they are in a hurry.

Steve_

They shouldn't, not in regards to L-1 processing, that is laid down by regulation and their procedure is in the field manual.

If you have a crap experience with CBP, ask for a comment card. You'd be amazed the effect that has on them. As soon as they start spouting something that sounds like nonsense, ask them to provide a comment card, they're required to give you one if you ask. Also you have a right under their procedures to ask to speak to the on-duty supervisor.