Entered w/BCC-dont have I-94

[AWarr101 0]

Hello, I am currently married to a Mexican national. She is currently in the country illegally.

My wife is currently 26. When she was high school age, she was able to enter and exit the country legally through a Border Crossing Card (BCC). Her border crossing card was only good for entrance through Texas. She was to stay in the surrounding area. She entered the country one time and her family decided to stay. Through the reading I have done over the web, I have discovered that she can apply for papers through marriage without having to return to Mexico because she entered the country legally. The question I have is this:

I have an I-94 from when she entered the country in 1998. However, she had returned to Mexico on multiple occasions after. He last entrance into the US was in 2001. She entered legally using her BCC, but I cant find her most recent I-94.

My wife states that she only received an I-94 when she traveled outside her boarder crossing area. She visited California in 1998 and received an I-94. When she entered for her last and final time, she was never issued an I-94 because she never reported leaving her permissible area. Would this be correct?

How big of a problem is it if she either does not have an I-94 or if it just got lost? Either way, she entered the country legally, we just cant find her I-94.

Thank you for all your help!

[canadian_wife 1,802]

How do you prove she entered legally without the I94?

I don't know the answer to this question, I hope someone knows the answer.

If it was never issued, then simply the fact she had a BCC at the time she entered should be sufficient - but I am not the CO deciding your case

Good luck

[AWarr101 0]

Well, we have high school and college transcripts that show that she has been in school here consistently.

Do you think that would suffice? She does have a Border Crossing Card....

I dont know. All of this is so incredibly stressful for me

[Harsh_77 716]

Well, we have high school and college transcripts that show that she has been in school here consistently.

Do you think that would suffice? She does have a Border Crossing Card....

I dont know. All of this is so incredibly stressful for me

Her school transcript do not prove she entered country legally nor does jut the BCC card.

you need some kinda record which shows when she entered.

Normally I-94 would do the same, I am not sure if you can request entry exit record of the BCC card holder, maybe that might work if they provide you that.

[canadian_wife 1,802]

No, high school transcripts do not show she entered legally. Trust me, I'm a teacher and a lot of my students are in the county illegally.

It is up to you to prove she entered the country legally. Have you made an infopass apt. to see what they suggest?

Good luck

[Waiting_In_SC 27]

I'm also married to a Mexican national, and your wife is correct. With the BCC, the general rules are that they A)have to stay withing a 75 mile radius of where they crossed the border, and B)they can stay in the country for up to 30 days. If they are not planning to go farther away than 75 miles or stay for longer than 30 days, then no I-94 is necessary.

I don't know how you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she's here legally, however, the USCIS representatives should know the above rules regarding the BCC, and I'd think that your documentation of her living in the US should at least be a bit of proof that she came in legally, then just stayed (illegally). I'd also guess that her BCC was scanned or swiped the last time she entered legally, and there should be proof of that when they do their background investigation on her.

I'd collect as much proof as I could that she had a life here over the entire period of time she's been here, whether she was overstaying or not. That, combined with the record her her legal entrance into the US years ago, may be enough to convince the folks at USCIS that she was admitted legally, and just overstayed.

You may want to seriously consider finding a good immigration attorney and discussing this situation with them. In most cases that are very straight-forward, I personally think attorneys are a waste of money, but it sounds to me like you have a real issue that may warrant spending a couple hundred dollars on just to be sure.

[AWarr101 0]

You may want to seriously consider finding a good immigration attorney and discussing this situation with them. In most cases that are very straight-forward, I personally think attorneys are a waste of money, but it sounds to me like you have a real issue that may warrant spending a couple hundred dollars on just to be sure.

Hello Waiting_In_SC,

I completely agree with you. Attorneys are a complete waste of money. I feel quite competent that I can complete this paperwork. I think it just takes time and research. And my goodness, the Internet makes everything 100 times easier...especially when I can receive information from these forums! However, for specific questions like mine, I do think a consultation is extremely beneficial. With that being said, I have an appointment with an Attorney on Wednesday!

I am glad you have reaffirmed what my wife had said: that I-94s are not issued until traveling outside the approved area within the US. My wife said she last entered in October 2001....and her Border Crossing Card didn't expire until a number of years after. After her last entrance on 10/2001, she immediately enrolled in high school. Then after high school, she immediately enrolled in college. She currently is in college still. So, we do have transcripts to back up her presence here. I just don't know if immigration will accept them because they are not "official" federal documents.

[Waiting_In_SC 27]

Hello Waiting_In_SC,

I completely agree with you. Attorneys are a complete waste of money. I feel quite competent that I can complete this paperwork. I think it just takes time and research. And my goodness, the Internet makes everything 100 times easier...especially when I can receive information from these forums! However, for specific questions like mine, I do think a consultation is extremely beneficial. With that being said, I have an appointment with an Attorney on Wednesday!

I am glad you have reaffirmed what my wife had said: that I-94s are not issued until traveling outside the approved area within the US. My wife said she last entered in October 2001....and her Border Crossing Card didn't expire until a number of years after. After her last entrance on 10/2001, she immediately enrolled in high school. Then after high school, she immediately enrolled in college. She currently is in college still. So, we do have transcripts to back up her presence here. I just don't know if immigration will accept them because they are not "official" federal documents.

Well, I'll tell you this; my wife and I did every bit of our paperwork. Time will tell if we get RFEs or have issues, but I feel pretty confident that we did a good job. That having been said, we did pay a good immigration attorney for an hour of his time before starting all of the paperwork just to ask questions and ensure that we had every angle covered. We told him up front that we didn't intend to retain him for this process, but that it was worth the cost of an hour of his time to ask our list of questions.

I have to tell you that we got some very good information from him; things that we may have missed otherwise. For us, it was well worth it.

Good luck. I hope you get good news from the attorney you speak with.

[Harsh_77 716]

Hello Waiting_In_SC,

I completely agree with you. Attorneys are a complete waste of money. I feel quite competent that I can complete this paperwork. I think it just takes time and research. And my goodness, the Internet makes everything 100 times easier...especially when I can receive information from these forums! However, for specific questions like mine, I do think a consultation is extremely beneficial. With that being said, I have an appointment with an Attorney on Wednesday!

I am glad you have reaffirmed what my wife had said: that I-94s are not issued until traveling outside the approved area within the US. My wife said she last entered in October 2001....and her Border Crossing Card didn't expire until a number of years after. After her last entrance on 10/2001, she immediately enrolled in high school. Then after high school, she immediately enrolled in college. She currently is in college still. So, we do have transcripts to back up her presence here. I just don't know if immigration will accept them because they are not "official" federal documents.

No immigration would not accpet the transcript, as I have told you and CW told you same transcript do not prove you entered country legally or with inspection.

If you take your wife's case she is normally only supposed to be in country for 30 days, if she was enrolled in school means she is in country for longer than 30 days.

What was her status in school and college?

[AWarr101 0]

No immigration would not accpet the transcript, as I have told you and CW told you same transcript do not prove you entered country legally or with inspection.

If you take your wife's case she is normally only supposed to be in country for 30 days, if she was enrolled in school means she is in country for longer than 30 days.

What was her status in school and college?

My wife is still currently a full time student at a local university. She has been continuously enrolled in school since she first entered the country legally.

The fact that she overstayed in the country for longer than 30 days is irrelevant because yes, she is here illegally. The important part is showing that she entered in 2001 and just overstayed when her visa which expired in 2009. If she came here legally and just overstayed, then the marriage process will be easy and the 10 year ban will not be imposed.

Where I struggle is this: Since she was not issued an I-94 since she just has a Border Crossing Card, how do I prove that she has stayed in the county and hasn't left? This is where the continuous high school and university transcripts come in. My wife entered in 2001 and her visa did not expire until 2009. I have transcripts, and I can have letters of support that demonstrate that she has been here since 2001. In effect, I can piece together her life. The problem: these documents are not official government documents.

You see, she has been here since 2001...she has people to testify, she has university transcripts, we have pictures... everything! We have all this stuff that dates in between 2001 to present. Isn't it common sense? She has all these things in her life that occurred here WAY, WAY, WAY before her visa expired in 2009...Is there a common sense factor in all of this even if she doesn't have an I-94?

Edited June 13, 2012 by AWarr101

[Waiting_In_SC 27]

My wife is still currently a full time student at a local university. She has been continuously enrolled in school since she first entered the country legally.

The fact that she overstayed in the country for longer than 30 days is irrelevant because yes, she is here illegally. The important part is showing that she entered in 2001 and just overstayed when her visa which expired in 2009. If she came here legally and just overstayed, then the marriage process will be easy and the 10 year ban will not be imposed.

Where I struggle is this: Since she was not issued an I-94 since she just has a Border Crossing Card, how do I prove that she has stayed in the county and hasn't left? This is where the continuous high school and university transcripts come in. My wife entered in 2001 and her visa did not expire until 2009. I have transcripts, and I can have letters of support that demonstrate that she has been here since 2001. In effect, I can piece together her life. The problem: these documents are not official government documents.

You see, she has been here since 2001...she has people to testify, she has university transcripts, we have pictures... everything! We have all this stuff that dates in between 2001 to present. Isn't it common sense? She has all these things in her life that occurred here WAY, WAY, WAY before her visa expired in 2009...Is there a common sense factor in all of this even if she doesn't have an I-94?

To be honest with you, AWarr, your case isn't really all that different from anyone else's case when someone overstays. Take my wife, for instance. She crossed the border in October, 2011 when we were going on a trip to Phoenix. She was issued an I-94, since Phoenix is outside of her 75 mile radius limit. Her I-94 is a multiple entry document, so she entered the US again later on the same I-94. It was on this second trip that we got married.

She overstayed her I-94 (her visa doesn't expire until 2021) by a few days, as it expired on April 29. We got married on April 15, then submitted our package to USCIS on May 11. We can't prove that she hasn't gone back and forth illegally since the last time she was admitted legally into the country back in February. How could we possibly prove that?

In my opinion, there really isn't much difference between my wife and yours. Yes, we're talking about a couple of months for mine and several years for yours, but all AOS petitioners have the same issue; there is a chance they came into the country illegally after having been admitted legally at some point.

My guy feeling is that you're not going to get a ton of pushback on this particular issue since there (hopefully) should be a record of her crossing the border legally in 2001. You can't possibly be expected to prove where your wife was at every moment of her life since 2001.

The 10 year overstay may be a sticky situation, because even though her visa didn't expire until 2009, she was out of status once 30 days elapsed after she crossed back in 2001, unless BCCs had different rules back then. Then again, it may not be an issue at all, since I understand that overstays of any duration are typically forgiven after a marriage to a USC.

Good luck. Make sure you update us after talking to an attorney.

[Krikit 1,163]

I don't know how helpful the attached link will be due to your circumstances but I guess it's worth at least a look. Canadians are generally not issued I-94's, either, so they enter "N/A - Canadian Citizen" or something to that effect. In other words, you could just enter something such as "N/A - BCC Holder" and provide a copy of it as proof of legal entry.

I am going to move your thread from General Immigration over to Adjustment of Status From Work, Student, & Tourist Visas. You will probably find quite a few people over there under somewhat similar circumstances. Good luck, and welcome to VJ.

https://help.cbp.gov...1/kw/i-94/sno/1

Edited June 13, 2012 by Krikit

[Waiting_In_SC 27]

I don't know how helpful the attached link will be due to your circumstances but I guess it's worth at least a look. Canadians are generally not issued I-94's, either, so they enter "N/A - Canadian Citizen" or something to that effect. In other words, you could just enter something such as "N/A - BCC Holder" and provide a copy of it as proof of legal entry.

I am going to move your thread from General Immigration over to Adjustment of Status From Work, Student, & Tourist Visas. You will probably find quite a few people over there under somewhat similar circumstances. Good luck, and welcome to VJ.

https://help.cbp.gov...1/kw/i-94/sno/1

I think Krikit has hit on the answer here. If your wife was admitted into the US legally, and you can prove it, then I think you're good to go. It's just unrealistic for you to have to prove that she's never crossed back to Mexico and re-entered the US illegally since then. You couldn't possibly do it, just like a Canadian without an I-94 can't, nor can anyone else with or without an I-94.

[AWarr101 0]

Hello everyone,

I first want to thank everyone for the information you have provided me. In my moment of anxiety, you guys were able to provide me with some quick answers.

Yesterday, my wife and I visited an immigration attorney to discuss the I-94 dilemma. Since we have an older I-94, we are able to use the Alien Registration Number on all the immigration forms. The attorney advised us that not having a current I-94 was not that big of a deal. Reason being is that sometimes they dont issue I-94s to people with border crossing cards. Secondly, we told the attorney that my wife entered in the beginning of October. We had my wife's high school transcripts that clearly state that she enrolled in high school mid-October. The attorney said it really shouldn't be a problem. So, I want to again thank everyone for their help and support. The days leading up to the attorney visit were filled with anxiety and stress. You guys were able to help keep me calm. THANK YOU!

On another note, I was quite surprised at all the supporting documentation that she wanted me to submit and bring to the interview. Love notes while we were still dating, pictures of my family with her, wedding invitations, engagement pictures, the works....I was quite surprised with the amount of supporting documentation needed. I was also stunned to hear that sometimes the Officer ask questions that may be inappropriate during the interview. The attorney didn't get into specific details, but it left my mind to wander