Border agent gave back all of my documents at POE. Problem?

[samack 79]

Hey everyone,

I had a very easy and successful POE in Maine at the beginning of August, we got married at the beginning of October, and now we're about to send in the AOS paperwork. I know it's standard for the border agent to keep the contents of the sealed envelope to forward the whole thing on to USCIS, but the one at my POE gave the whole thing back and waved us on our way. Is it a problem that I still have this? Since they don't, do I need to photocopy my medical results to send with the rest of the AOS documents, or should I send everything in that packet back to them? I was confused at the time but didn't think all that much of it because he seemed to know what he was doing, but now I'm a bit concerned about the fact that none of my paperwork was sent where it needed to go.

Thanks!

[NikLR 13,230]

Well that was odd. Did they stamp your visa? You may want to visit your nearest cbp.

[cdneh 3,112]

It has happened before, and you need to get that packet to them.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/273677-why-do-i-still-have-the-brown-sealed-envelope-immigration-should-have/

[samack 79]

Thanks for that link! I was searching yesterday but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for.

He stapled the I-94 to my passport, stamped it, and signed it, and the electronic version of the I-94 is in the system (I looked it up yesterday). What is a bit worrying, though, is that they opened the envelope at the POE before they gave it to me. One of the commenters on the thread that was linked to said that something similar happened to her but that the envelope hadn't been opened and USCIS was really glad that was the case. Looks like I'm going to have to do some calling and finger crossing.

[samack 79]

To anyone who might search for this in the future:

I just got off the phone with USCIS. The woman I spoke to said that this happens sometimes and wasn't at all as fazed by it as I was. She said to make a photocopy of the documents in the packet just in case, but to just include it all with the AOS documents when I mail them and to write a short letter explaining what happened. That's what I was hoping the solution would be but I was definitely expecting it to be a much bigger issue than it apparently is. I'm going to make an extra copy of my medical stuff to include with the actual AOS application, but it seems like this isn't a huge issue.