davidfromlondon

Hello all, its taken me a few months of heavy internet searching and so forth to really come to terms with and also gain an understanding of immigration and thankfully I have found this board that will hopefully assist me on this matter

Let me just tell you my situation:

I was a student in NYC; I started in jan00 and graduated this year. My i-20 said 15th of May as my completion date. I know you are allowed 60 days to leave the country and I left on the 7th of July.

However, I didn’t hand in my i-94 departure card, I slept straight through the flight got off and didn’t think anything of it. But I have my girlfriend in NY still who I dearly love and we want to get married so I was looking into all the procedure when I realized what I had done by not handing my departure card in

I found the address for Kentucky that you need to send a your i-94 to alongside varying information to prove that you are residing outside of the US. That’s all fine; I have since then obtained a work contract and also have about 20 pages of documents to back up proof I have left. i.e. my dads bank statement showing the plane ticket purchase, my baggage labels etc

But heres what happened. the day I went to get the copies done I applied for a bank loan and they needed my passport so naturally I handed it to them for photocopying - but my i-94 was in there without being stapled. Anyway I finished the application for the loan, did the copies and thought nothing of it until I was organizing the documents for sending to Kentucky. I think when i handed the passport to the lady the i-94 could have fallen out as it wasnt stapled. I def had it before i left my place

I had previously typed out a letter to send with the documents that stated the information I was to be sending to them and the first pointer I made was to have a photocopy of my i-94. I realized I don’t have it and I don’t have a copy, which means it must have gone before I left the bank. So i'm thinking it may be on the loan advisors desk but I can’t phone until tomorrow.

But say for example they don’t have it, what would be the situation. In my passport there is an 11 digit number that was taken down from the original i-94 when I first entered the US. That number was used on 2 other i-94's that I have received from leaving the country and going on holiday. I specifically remember the customs agents crossing out the number on the most recent departure cards and writing in underneath the number that was in my passport, from the first time I entered. I also have my i-20's from the two universities I studied at.

I would like to know if these people will still give me hassle or do you think my case is still plausible. I’m scared that until this is done I won’t even be able to apply for a fiancé visa so I desperately want to sort this out.

Could anyone please give me some advice?

Thanking you kindly

Dave

davidfromlondon

i phoned the bank this morning and my i94 was in the photocopier lol

such a relief

Michael E. Piston

When you were admitted to the U.S. you should have been admitted for
"Duration of Status" and therefore D/S should have been written on
your form I-94. Assuming that this is the case (and it would be quite
unusual and improper for it to be otherwise) you would never have been
"unlawfully present" at any time in the U.S. EVEN IF you failed to
leave at the proper time. Having never been unlawfully present in the
U.S. you are not subject to any bar on returning to the U.S. Thus even
if you are unable to establish that you left the U.S. in a timely
manner, that should be no obstacle to you obtaining a fiance visa.

However, it COULD BE a problem if you seek to enter the U.S. as a
visitor or apply for another visa which requires that you establish
that you do not intend to immigrate to the U.S. That is because when
determining whether you have the requisite "nonimmigrant intent" the
consulate is not bound only to consider unlawful presence, but can
look at your entire immigration history to determine whether you are a
person likely to comply with immigration laws in your next entry.

Fortunately, a fiance visa is not a nonimmigrant intent visa but an
immigrant visa. Therefore the consulate cannot deny you simply because
you have violated your status in the past. Rather, they must determine
that you were "unlawfully present" in the U.S. for over 180 days or
otherwise did something to make yourself "inadmissible" to the U.S.
(commit fraud, crimes of moral turpitude, etc) to deny a fiance visa.

So basically it really doesn't matter if you can't prove when you left
the U.S. after entering as a student, if you are applying for a fiance
or other immigrant visa. But it could be a big problem if you are
applying for entry as a visitor. But even then the problem could be
overcome if you have other evidence that you left the U.S. in a timely
manner.

Michael E. Piston
Attorney at Law
Michael E. Piston P.C.
4000 Livernois Ste 110
Troy, MI 48098
248/680-0600
Direct fax: 248/928-0340
Secondary fax: 248/680-0627

The statements in this message have not been confirmed by legal
research, and are not intended as legal advice nor to create an
attorney-client relationship.SEND ANY FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO
[email protected]. DO NOT POST FOLLOW-UPS TO THE NEWSGROUP.

gem03

could I just ask was it hard to get a F1 - I,m from the Uk and my hubby wants to study in the USA while he waits for paper work. How do you find it and what advice would you get to a beginner? THANK YOU