CPB Screw Up Almost Cost Us a Vacation

[Neonred 3,564]

We currently have friends visiting us from Russia and had planned a cruise out of Miami for all of us to enjoy. We picked our friends up at the Miami airport Jan 17th, and last week headed over to the cruise port to board our cruise ship. Our friends have 3 year multi entry visas which are in their expired passports as they got new passports in February last year. This is not an issue. One thing they wanted to see before we would be allowed to board the ship was the most recent entry date stamp. There seemed to be some issue, and they asked us when our friends had arrived to the US. Told them Jan 17th. They guy says I see a stamp for Jan 17th(in the new passport), but the year is 2014! I looked and he was correct. Then I pointed out that the new passport was not issued until Feb 2014. They still needed more info. A supervisor was called, but they still needed proof. Ugh. CPB at Miami airport had NOT changed the year on their stamp and it looked like it was going to cost us a cruise.

The agent and the supervisor left with the passports, and I was trying to pull up some info on my smart phone about their electronic I-94, but we did not have the passports to enter all the info. They returned and asked for copies of the airline tickets. I told the agent, "who goes on a cruise with copies of the airline tickets they arrived n?" Fortunately our friend believed he had some info in an email about the airline ticket. It took several minutes, but he found the e-copy of the ticket. The supervisor asked for the ticket info to be e-mailed to his address. Supervisor then left, and about 30 min later returned and said we were clear to continue our boarding process. Apparently he went to discuss the problem with CBP at the port.

Made it on the ship and had a great time. Returned just today. No issues on return, and no stamps or new I-94 issued upon reentry from the cruise.