visa waiver part 2 not taken on departure

[janice]

Hi,

Friends of mine visited the USA last year on the Visa Waiver Form, on their departure (Boston to Toronto, then on to England), the stub of the I94 form was not taken from them when leaving the USA. They only discovered it was still in their passports when they were travelling to Cyprus this year. What, if anything, should they do about this? Can they inform US immigration of this as they have read that it may cause problems if they want to return to the USA again? Any info would be gratefully received, Thanks.

[blott]

Your friends need to follow the instructions here relating to this in order to avoid any potential problems when they visit the USA again. http://london.usembassy.gov/dhs/cbp/i94.html

[andrewandcarole]

Jan

Blott is spot on - and your friends really do need to do it.

I have known it happen to a couple of people - and as long as they follow the procedure and return it your friends will be fine. Otherwise they are likely to be refused entry into the USA next time.

Carole

[mizzy]

can i just ask when you say stub

is this the green strip that they stapled into my passport or is this something else?

i still have green strips in my passport about 1" wide by 4" long are these what you're talking about because if so i still have these in my passport too[msnscared]

Mizzy

[steph_goodrum]

Mizzy if they are just the perforated strips then you are fine but if they have any information on then they should be returned as per instructions , as they are the socondary proof of you exitting the country. At least noe passports are swiped there is also further proof but prior they were the ONLY way to prove you hadn't overstayed a visa or waiver entry time.

[mizzy]

thanks Steph

i think they are just perforated strips but i cannot remember a passport being swiped, where is this usually done?, we checked our bags in at dtd

i will get my husband to get the passports out of our safe box to double check just in case

Mizzy

[Southsider]

This happened to us on one of our visits and we just left them in our Passports.
On our next visit, the immigration guy just took them out and stapled in the new ones, it did not cause any problems at all.

[blott]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Southsider
This happened to us on one of our visits and we just left them in our Passports.
On our next visit, the immigration guy just took them out and stapled in the new ones, it did not cause any problems at all.[/quote]This is not something I'd recommend as I think US Immigration are quite hot on this now that they have increased their security.

[steph_goodrum]

We foudn when we checked in at Downtonw Disney our form wasn't taken (obviously as we still had the rest of the day before our flight and therefore needed to keep it as proof if asked), we had to remember to hand them in at the gate before we boarded.

[andrewandcarole]

I'm with Blott on this - I wouldn't chance it! How awful to arrive at immigration and be put on the next plane home. OK - worst case scenario - but it could happen.
Then you would never be able to answer truthfully on the visa waiver form that you had never been refused entry to the USA........

Not worth the risk - get it sorted!

Carole