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Immigration officer stamped my parent's passport for 2 months of stay but the official and online I94 record shows as 6 months? The exit stamp on the passport says Oct 1 2019 while the online I94 record says admit until Jan 27th, 2020. Their ticketed return date is Oct 7 2019.

What should I follow? My parents are visiting the USA and are on a vacation.

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  • Did the immigration officer ask them about their length of stay? Did he say that he only allows them to stay until Oct 01? – mdd Aug 19 '19 at 21:07
  • No such discussion happened. My parents told him that they plan to leave after 2 months or so and not sure why he stamped an exit date of Oct 1st. I have never experienced this kind of an issue. And why does the I94 website shows that my parents are admitted for complete 6 months? Can anyone answer this? What happens if my parent follow what shows up on the I94 website and leave on October 7th and not on October 1st? – Adnan Aug 19 '19 at 21:10
  • @Adnan The B1 admission class is for business visitors. What did they tell the immigration officer about the purpose of their visit? – mdd Aug 20 '19 at 2:18
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    In addition to the advice you'll get about the immediate issue, I recommend that in future when answering the question about how long you will stay, being precise about it. The vague answer "two months or so" probably confused the officer, while stating the planned departure date likely would have avoided the problem. Also, you need to check your entry stamp immediately when they hand back your passport, before you leave the booth. – Michael Hampton Aug 20 '19 at 2:46
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    I remember having an identical situation where the "admitted until" dates on the passport stamp and the I-94 didn't match. Our company's immigration attorney said that the date in the I-94 takes precedence and that I could safely ignore the stamp, but it's been a while so I can't provide an exact quote from our exchange. The answer suggesting to visit a Deferred Inspection site seems like a safer option though, to be honest, especially since it's a short-term B1/B2 visa. – undercat applauds Monica Aug 20 '19 at 7:31
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There's clearly an error here and your parents need to resolve it or they risk being treated as overstayers if they don't leave by 1st October.

They can take their passports to the nearest CBP point of entry or Deferred Inspection site and get the records corrected. I would expect that a reasonable officer would extend the passport date beyond 7th October, but there is a possibility that they'll stick to the 1st October date and update the online records to match.

Find a Port of Entry

List of Deferred Inspection sites

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    The previous question concerns a second entry, so it's not analogous to this case. Furthermore, the answer provides no basis for concluding that a date stamped in a passport generally takes precedence over the date in the I-94 database for the purpose of determining the end of a visitor's period of admission. The answer simply says that the passport in that case has the correct date. – phoog Aug 19 '19 at 23:12
  • Will it be okay if they just stay until Oct 7th and depart as per their scheduled ticket. They can always show the I94 record printout if they are questioned while leaving on Oct 7th. Or should I change the ticket (which is very expensive now) to Oct 1st or before? – Adnan Aug 19 '19 at 23:36
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    @Adnan they won't be questioned while leaving. – phoog Aug 19 '19 at 23:49
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    I guess than I will just let it be. The ticket rescheduling is going to cost almost $600 to me. The nearest deferred inspection site is about 300 miles away from where I live. I am so confused! And if anything happens, we can show the printed I94 record and take it from there. What would you suggest? – Adnan Aug 19 '19 at 23:51
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    @phoog I disagree with your assessment but I've deleted the reference to the other question anyway. The risk, albeit small, remains, and even if the online record is sufficient, it could take a while to resolve that, – user90371 Aug 20 '19 at 0:00

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