Hey all,

When my wife was in the U.S. for a month last summer she was not asked to return her i94w and didnt understand it was important.

She is coming to chicago next week with her CR1. Anything she should be concerned about? The Embassy of course had her passport for over a month during the DCF process and never mentioned anything about it.

She has plenty of stamps in her passport showing that she left well before her visa waiver would have run out such as entry into denmark and 3 month visa on arrival from when we were working in Kenya. Surely this is more than enough evidence if someone stresses on her. No?

You can remove and discard the I-94w card, and also a person entering the USA on an immigrant visa like CR-1 does not have to fill out another I-94 for the POE. Only NON-Immigrants need I-94.

Thanks. But the fact that her departure was not officially recorded will not be a problem? I have read in several places that it could be a problem if this is the case.

For example, here is a section from the us embassy website in sweden. I have seen the text in other places as well.

Q. I just returned from the United States and discovered that I did not turn in my I-94W Departure Record (usually a green form stapled inside the passport) before departure. What should I do?



A. If you returned home with your Department of Homeland Security (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)) departure record Form I-94 (white) or Form I-94W (green) in your passport, it means that your departure was not recorded properly. It is your responsibility to correct this record. You must provide the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) sufficient information so we can record your timely departure from the United States. This will close out your earlier record of arrival to this country.



If you do not validate a timely departure from the United States, or if you cannot reasonably prove otherwise when you next apply for admission to the United States, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) may conclude you remained in the United States beyond your authorized stay. If this happens, the next time you apply to enter the United States, your visa may be subject to cancellation or you may be returned immediately to your foreign point of origin.
http://www.usemb.se/consulate/n7.html

it indicates that you need to send in evidence proving that you left before your visa expires. Obviously if she is coming next week there is not time to send anything in. Just hoping and assuming that her passport stamps will suffice.

If departure was not timely reported, the consulate would not have issued the CR-1 visa. Again I would not worry about this.

That definately seems reasonable. Thanks for your input.