3

I currently living in Canada and I came back after a short visit (3 days) last night from USA. I came through Windsor and I forgot to hand over my I94 to the Canadian officials.

I am currently on work permit here and I'll be visiting us again during Christmas break ... I wanted to know what will happen if I try to re-enter. The i94 expires in May 2017 so I'll be re-enter in before it's expiry and I'll be traveling through air through Pearson airport in Toronto.

I looked at a few of the websites/forums and they said it might take a month or two to update even if I mail them back. But, ill be re-entering again by that time so I am.not sure if I should mail them.

What should I do now ?

Improve this question
1
  • 2
    Keep hold of it, show it the next time you enter. You aren't the first to forget it. Most likely they won't worry about it.
    – Calchas
    Nov 21, 2016 at 12:34

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

Absolutely nothing is going to happen. I can't even count how many times I forgot to return my I-94 before leaving and re-entering a few weeks / months later. I was a Canadian permanent resident at the time (but the US border guard was never particularly interested in my PR card). Noone gave a hoot.

Improve this answer
0
3

I'll go slightly further and suggest that not returning the I-94 is in fact normal, and is exactly what frequent users of the land border would be expected to do. If you were to cross the land border again with the still-valid I-94 your new entry would be treated as a continuation of your previous stay and you'd be waved through without having to go inside to fill out and pay for a new piece of paper. For, say, a once-a-month (or week) land border crosser keeping the I-94 is a significant benefit both to the traveller and to the CBP since they needn't bother processing new paper on each and every entry. While the policy of treating subsequent reentries from Canada/Mexico as continuations of a previously granted stay is usually argued here to be a defense against visa runs I suspect the more important reason for the policy is to optimize land border traffic (where 80% of the entries by foreigners may occur).

You are supposed to return the I-94 before travel outside of North America, or before it expires. If you live near an airport with US preclearance the CBSA office there may accept the form. I don't know what happens when you fly to the US in possession of the form, which is kind of out of place there, but I imagine the CBP officer would just pull it himself if he's giving you a new stay.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .