New passport - help?

[correct 0]

Hi, I have a few questions which I hope I will get an answer here:

I have a conditional greencard and I travelled home to europe for the first time in many years. My passport was checked, it did not get stamped in any airport. Tomorrow I am going to renew my passport and they will probably keep the old one, which has my I94 stapled to it. My questions are, since I haven't been travelling in such a long time, if I give the old passport to get the new one, what is my proof, besides my greencard, that I was in USA? You know what I mean.. And also, how do I prove when coming back to USA that I left since I never got any stamps on my pass? Thank you very much!

[Inky 1,111]

can you request the passport back?

I would guess your tickets are proof you flew there and are going back? or an itinerary with your name on it. Also you can photo copy your old passport pages and keep them as documentation.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

If you were a visitor to the US then you would have wanted to surrender the I-94 when you left the US in order to have your exit properly recorded. Since you're a permanent resident it doesn't really mean anything anymore.

They should have recorded your exit when you left the US, even if they didn't stamp your passport. I'm honestly not sure if they record your green card number, your passport number, or both. I also don't know if it will cause any problems if you return with a passport that has a different number than the one you left with.

Will your passport expire before you return to the US? If not, maybe you might consider waiting to renew your passport until after you come back to the US, just to avoid any potential problems. Most countries will allow their citizens to renew their passports through their embassies and consulates in the US.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

Crazy enough, you don't tell us what European country you are from, so it's a shot in the dark.

First of all, you need a valid passport to enter a plane from Europe to the US. If they give you a new passport, I'm sure it's valid, so that's all you need. The I-94 is for visitors; since you are a resident it's now as valuable to you as used toilet paper. Seriously. Take it out and put it in your file labeled "USCIS." If you don't have such a file start one NOW.

Second, in many European countries they allow you to keep the old passport as a souvenir which will come handy at the N-400 stage where they'd like to see them. What they usually do is cut off one of the corners, all of them, which invalidates the passport before it expires naturally, then give it back to you. If they don't do it, you need to make photocopies of all the pages for your USCIS file!

USCIS scans your Green Card. They don't care about your passport. How do you prove when you left the US of A? By showing them your tickets and bording passes, all of which have to go into the USCIS file once you're back.

Do you understand the importance of the USCIS file? You'll need to feed it until you become a US citizen, and even afterward you need to keep it in a safe place until you die.

[Harsh_77 718]

Don’t know what country you are applying from, but in India they cut the corner of your old passport and return it back with your new passport, so you will have both old and new passport.

Even on ne passport they mention what the number of your old passport.

Which clearly show that you had a passport and what was the number.