Traveling within USA after 90 days

[JimVaPhuong 4,865]

The first one mentions a passport with an expired I 94.

I have certainly seen at least one case on one of these forums from somebody who this happened to.

That was after he noticed he could rub the ink off of the first passenger's passport. The TDC is trained to spot fake identification, and that's primarily what they're looking for. They're not checking each passenger for valid immigration status.

There are a variety of ways you can have lawful presence and it wouldn't be obvious from inspecting your passport. For example, my wife's passport no longer has an I-94 in it, the stamp on the visa has expired, and there's no I-551 stamp in it. However, her green card has been approved, and she's got the welcome letter. She's lawfully present, but her passport would seem to indicate otherwise. If we were traveling domestically I wouldn't expect the TDC to flip through her passport and examine her visa unless the passport looked otherwise suspicious to him. In that case, I doubt he'd understand what the welcome letter meant, and we'd probably miss our flight while waiting for a CBP or ICE officer to come over from the international terminal to inspect her documents.

The point is that anyone who chooses to travel domestically while they're out of status is taking a risk that they'll be subjected to more scrutiny and their immigration status will be discovered, but that risk becomes a virtual certainty if there's anything at all suspicious about your documents.

[Boiler 48,079]

The other passenger's visa had expired.

Not the one with the iffy ink.

Like I say I have seen at least one post where this has happened. Maybe more.

[JimVaPhuong 4,865]

Not the one with the iffy ink.

Like I say I have seen at least one post where this has happened. Maybe more.

Yeah, I get that, but I also get the impression from the description that they didn't discover the expired visa until after they'd discovered the first passenger's fake passport. I think it was the extra scrutiny after they discovered the first fake passport that led them to discover the second passenger's expired visa.