Just called Customs asking for i94 number and got interrogated, now what?

[ATPEACE 43]

Stop giving bad advice! Nobody has overstayed and no adjustment of status has been filed for, the OP and his wife were just naive about the immigration process with wanting to do something thoughtful for their nephews/nieces and got stopped in their tracks when trying to get an I94 number from CBP for whatever form they were trying to fill out. Now they have been corrected and know the correct process if they wish to follow it.

Jason, do you know what phone system the US government uses, I do, do you know what system is used at the any and all US government immigration office, I do, therefore please stop telling me about advise. All phone calls are recorded, all calls are documented. When you have evidence that I don't know what I am stating than please report back to me, and I will send to YOU my 35 years resume of history working with the US government . I have probably dealt with more legal cases within the US government than you have had the opportunity to read or discussed.

[aaron2020 11,651]

I don't think anything has been red flagged, the petition for her brother is completely separate and above board, the OP's wife incorrectly thought they could somehow adjust the children so they could stay but have not even got to the stage of applying yet as they were trying to get an I-94 number from CBP so they could submit the application. I doubt the CBP officer went in and added any sort of red flag, he was likely just having a bad day and was grumpy on the phone.

In order to do what the OP & his wife want to do then the children need to return to Peru so they can try to get a private school to accept them and provide an I20, which I am guessing won't be easy if it is even possible.

So the Customs and Border Patrol officer will ignore his duties when he has credible information about someone's intent to immigrate contrary to US laws and he has their passport numbers? He's not going to enter the information in a government database? Edited March 24, 2014 by aaron2020

[aaron2020 11,651]

Stop giving bad advice! Nobody has overstayed and no adjustment of status has been filed for, the OP and his wife were just naive about the immigration process with wanting to do something thoughtful for their nephews/nieces and got stopped in their tracks when trying to get an I94 number from CBP for whatever form they were trying to fill out. Now they have been corrected and know the correct process if they wish to follow it.

Hilarious. You give bad advice and then attack others when they give the correct advice.

[PallasAthena 101]

Hi Maju, It was an innocent mistake and I don't see how this should ruin anything.

I know of a good, experienced lawyer in the NYC area. He will give a free consultation over the phone and answer your questions: http://www.avvo.com/attorneys/07102-nj-raymond-duva-1597417.html

[aussie_jason 195]

This isn't a bragging competition, no need to make it one.

Lets get back to the facts for a moment and consider what the worst case scenario would be:

CBP receives a call from a USC wanting an I-94 number for a relative, for some reason that leads to the USC explaining why they want the I-94 number and the CBP officer gets irate as they can't legally do what they wish to do, the conversation goes nowhere as a result and then the CBP officer puts a note in the files for each of the quoted passport numbers.

Nobody has overstayed, nobody is out of status and nobody has filed for anything that they can't legally file for. Even when CBP have put a "Can not adjust" in people's passports there have been cases of their AOS still being approved so I can't see how the OP and his wife being naive and asking for I-94 numbers will be the huge red flag all of you are making it out to be.

[JohnR! 5,495]

Hi, My wife's brother and his family are here on a tourist visa, my brother in law is going back to Peru soon, his wife and kids just came on February so they will stay longer.

My wife wanted to get the change of status for her brother's kids (2) so they could be students and go to school for one school year.

The thing is that my wife has already petitioned her brother for the residence which will take a long time, so he's in the process and we got a case number. That's why he is going back to Peru to maintin his status legal.

His i94 is not showing on the customs and border website, but his wife and kids are. So, since the form for the change of status requests an i94 for the process, we called customs deferred inspection lists (which was recommended if the i94 number was missing), but the officer who answered asked all kinds of questions, and practically interrogated my wife on the phone and accused her of trying to do anything possible to keep her brother in the US. She explained that her brother wants to go back to Peru with his wife and my wife and I wanted the kids to have the chance to experience a new culture, learn the language and have a nice experience in the US we offered to put them in school but wanted to get the change of status to do everything legally. The officer kept insisting that this looked terrible for the government and that he gets paid to stop people like the brother and his family from entering the country, that if he would have known of our intentions he would have denied the entry of all of them, he asked for my brother in law's passport number and one of the child's passport number, we gave them to him, my wife was answering all his questions very politely but he turned rude and insisting that they were trying to do something wrong, actually accusing us of trying to do something illegal to what she replied that she did not understand because we were calling precisely because we wanted to do everything by law.

At the end he wanted to ask more personal questions and get more information to what we refused and he said thank you and good bye.

It all seemed like he was attacking us for asking for the i94 number which is not on the website.

Why????

It seems some are more interested in judging you and your family than actually commenting on your question.

1 - As to the why of the questioning over the phone it is anyone's guess. Nobody can tell you for sure the reason, but you should not worry for even if your brother information has been flagged, he has nothing to fear if he has not done anything wrong. As long as he respects the exit date given to him by the CBP upon arrival there is no reason for him to worry.

2 - As for the kids, as someone else pointed out, you will not be able to get them a F visa if they were planing to attend public school because these schools do not issue the I-20 form which is required as the basis for all student visas. If you were to find a private school that would issue the necessary document you would be able to change their visas from tourist to student.

I hope this helps clear the confusion.

Good luck!

[ATPEACE 43]

It's people like Jason who makes those of us who have years of experience and knowledge to shy away from assisting others when they could possible be headed for a disaster. I will keep all knowledge to myself and only share it with those who are willing to pay.

Good luck and I have left VJ forever.

[Maju 3]

Sorry to go on about this, but just to clarify things.

Obviously the petition for kids will not be filed now with the information provided here.

As for the petition filed for brother-in-law ,that was legally? He will return to Peru before tourist visa expires. So nothing illegal was committed? But that would not have stopped the officer from flagging him? I guess there no way of finding that out?

[Asia 2,499]

As for the petition filed for brother-in-law ,that was legally? He will return to Peru before tourist visa expires. So nothing illegal was committed? But that would not have stopped the officer from flagging him? I guess there no way of finding that out?

Yes, your wife as the USC has a right to petition her brother and his family.

As long as your brother-in-law (and his whole family) returns to Peru before their I-94 expire, they have nothing to worry about.

You can't find out if their passports have been flagged, but nothing illegal was committed so far, so that has to be enough for now.

Edited March 24, 2014 by Asia

[MacUK 983]

Maju, you're right, nothing illegal has happened at the moment.

BUT.....

You must remember that the tourist visas your family hold only allow them to apply for permission to enter the US. It doesn't give them a right to enter.

Much the same as when they applied for the visas, if they come to visit you in the future then they can be refused entry if a CBP officer at POE 'suspects' them of trying to enter in order to adjust status.

That is their job.

By making that phone call you have shown that you have 'intent' to adjust their status even if at the moment you haven't done it.

I'm not an expert but I can imagine that the person at the other end of the phone call might have added a note to your families travel records that they have shown intent to immigrate so they may be looked at more closely if they visit again.

A naive mistake yes, but there's people all over the world who regret making the naive mistake of thinking that the USAs immigration rules are 'flexible'

[JohnR! 5,495]

Sorry to go on about this, but just to clarify things.

Obviously the petition for kids will not be filed now with the information provided here.

As for the petition filed for brother-in-law ,that was legally? He will return to Peru before tourist visa expires. So nothing illegal was committed? But that would not have stopped the officer from flagging him? I guess there no way of finding that out?

As a USC you have the right to petition for a sibling. There is nothing illegal in your petitioning for him, nor is there anything suspicious or shady about his visiting you as a tourist. Nothing illegal was done and there was no harm is calling the USCIS and asking.

You did nothing wrong and neither did your brother.

I also don't see why the officer would have flagged him but in the event he was 'flagged' the only thing the office might have added to his file was the exchange you had with him. In the future, your brother may be questioned as to what that was all about and he should answer truthfully. He was here. He has family here and at some point it was discussed whether it was possible for his kids to attend school for a year, in the US. The very fact nothing illegal was done speaks to your intentions.

[Caryh 5,206]

We may be jumping the gun, and there was no attempt to ask to adjust status, but to actually change the status to that of a different nonimmigrant visa, or extend status of the current visa. Entering with the intent to adjust status on a visitors visa, is not legal, applying to change the visa type or extend it would be allowed. If the officer on the phone thought you were discussing adjust status to legal since the whole family is here, that would raise red flags and lead to the rapid deterioration in the discussion on the phone. Looking for his I-94 would make it seem like adjusting his status was the intent. Which form did you actually tell them you needed the I-94 for?

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

As someone with experience of traveling to the US while a family petition was in progress... And things like me getting called into the embassy when we applied for (B1) visas for my kids because their computers had picked up I was a beneficiary ...I can guarantee that although nothing illegal was done, there is a flag on this family's file, and all the connections to potential beneficiaries have been made.

Unfortunately it would also seem to me that the flag will put question marks over intent on future visits. If I was a CBP officer, ya know, you come in on a visit now you wanna keep the kids in school for a year? You didn't know it before they visited? If it was a spur of the moment decision wouldn't it make sense to send them home, get the right visa then have them here for a full school year rather than some arbitrary start point... Nothing illegal but when there is a petition outstanding and questions get raised, so do flags...

I would go so far as to say... This may well be the brother's last visit until the visa gets approved.

[Maju 3]

Thank you everybody for your answers.

Thank you Caryh, you are correct, what we were asking for was for the I-539 to change nonimigrant status for niece+nephew from visitor to student, and not adjustment of status. I saw the instructions and forms on USCIS and they request the I-94 number which is why we called CBP because my brother in law's i-94 is not showing in the system.

They did not have any intention to stay with a tourist visa and go to school. My wife, once the kids were here, offered her brother to put the kids in our daughter's catholic school for only one year.

What i want to clarify is that what we asked was only for the kids, not for brother and wife, they will go back to their country as scheduled. If the change of status cannot be done, then the kids will return as scheduled as well. There is no intent to go against the law; as many of you said, we are just not well informed and do not know what the correct procedures are.

[Maju 3]

Hi Maju, It was an innocent mistake and I don't see how this should ruin anything.

I know of a good, experienced lawyer in the NYC area. He will give a free consultation over the phone and answer your questions: http://www.avvo.com/attorneys/07102-nj-raymond-duva-1597417.html

Thank you for the lawyer info Sofiaisabella!