heather123

Hi my husband are in Florida and we moved her 3 weeks ago on an L1 (L2) visa. We applied for our ssn numbers and I got mine (I'm on the L2 visa) but my husband just got a letter stating that we had to contact the department of homeland security as they could not verify his details which allows him to work? We have contacted homeland security and they have informed us that we have to schedule an appointment at there Orlando office so they can verify things!! Has anyone else experienced anything like this? And is this routine? Any advice/help would be much appreciated I'm just a little on fused and worried

MsElui

I would imagine it means that when they entered the pair of you on the system at the airport when you arrived, they made a mistake in his. Your was okay so they could match the Ssn request and process it. For some reason they ant match his so cant process the Ann request. I would therefore recommend that he goes to the homeland office and gets them to check the entry. Take passport, Ssn rejection letter etc.

heather123

Thanks for that. I read somewhere about an I-94 we do not have one of these is this correct?

heather123

Do you think this will cause a problem or do you think that the department of homeland security will be able to sort this out?

Noorah101

Correct, the paper I-94's are not handed out anymore at the POE. You can go online and print it out, though, if you need it. You'll have to google for the link.

Rene

Noorah101

It should be able to be sorted out, although maybe not by USCIS at the in-person appointment. You might have to go back to a CBP agent at a nearby airport. They will tell you what to do at your appointment.

Rene

heather123

That's great thanks I was a little curious how I got mine though as we supplied all the same documents

heather123

Tried to look online at it says that it's not found when I put the info in?? Strange eh!!

HartleyHare

While we're on the subject of I-94 and considering that you are newly arrived, please check the date of your I-94 stamped in your passport. This is the date that you have to leave US by, NOT the date on your visa.

yellowroom

According to my lawyer, it's whichever is earliest, which is usually the expiry date on the visa. I regularly arrive on my L1b and get my passport stamped for 3 years from date of entry not the date of visa expiry. Again, my lawyer says this is incorrect, but if the immigration official puts the later date in the system, this can cause problems if you give the correct visa date elsewhere. My SSN was held up for this reason.

HartleyHare

Yes, but I have also newly arrived and my visa expiry is 2018 and I-94 is 2015. I thought that if your visa expired, but I-94 was still valid you could remain in the US until your I-94 expired.

yellowroom

My company immigration lawyer said that if my I-94/passport stamp was given a "leave by" date earlier than the visa expiry then that was a potential problem - don't know exactly what, or how serious but was advised that if it happened I should contact them for advice.

It probably depends how often you're going to be entering and leaving the country - I do so every few months so I'm always getting a new stamp. Immigration officials are not consistent in how they allocate a "leave by" date when I enter the country, but its usually 3 years from date of entry for my L1B, ie beyond my 2014 visa expiry. I was assured that the 2014 visa expiry date was the one that counted when it came to USCIS, and it's the one that Virginia DMV used as the expiry on my driving license.

It would be an interesting hypothetical situation if I entered the country on Jan 1st 2014, was assigned a "leave by" date of Dec 31st 2016, and didn't leave the country until then. Would I still be "overstay" even if my visa expiry is in 2014?

Noorah101

No.

Rene

HartleyHare

From what I understand things have changed for L1 visas though. In 2012 the state department ceased to link the visa expiry date with the I-94 expiry date and have begun to issue visas with a longer expiry date. Our I-94 expires in May 2015 which is also when our petition expires. If we need to stay longer we would have to apply for an extension, but we do not need to apply for a new visa.There is some discussion about this in this thread: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...=801023&page=3

If you read from my post#36, there is confirmation that it is now possible to have a visa that extends beyond the I-94 date.

yellowroom

Thanks. I should probably pay more attention to the visa forum - I stopped reading it once mine was sorted out, but they do like buggering about with the rules.