Coming Back into the United States

My experience entering the United States from Canada without H1B visa stamp

Let me start with my situation a little bit. I came to the US in 1998 with one-year student visa to study English language. I completed my English course, but I loved living in the US, so decided to pursue Bachelor’s degree. My F-1 visa got expired, but all I needed is a new I-20 to continue staying in the US as my original I-94 had expiration date D/S (duration of study). So, I got a new I-20 and stayed back here. Changed program/major and got another I-20. Changed college and got new I-20. Finished the degree and got new I-20 for OPT. Joined graduate school and got another new I-20. So I probably have more than 30 I-20s. In the beginning of year 2007, I got a job offer while I was doing second master’s degree. Applied for change of status (F1 to H1B) on the first week of April, and started working for my current company on Oct 1, 2007 while still completing my master’s degree which I finished in December 07.

I have never left the US since I came into this country in 1998 until I went to Canada as a PR on Nov 15, 2009. I never had any visa stamp in my passport other than the 1st one-year student visa. I am currently using my 3rd passport. This passport has only Canadian PR visa, nothing else.

We spent our last night in a hotel in Lethbridge, Alberta. Lethbridge is about 1 hour 20 minutes from Coutts, AB/ Sweet Grass, MT. We left hotel about 8:30AM and arrived to Sweet Grass port of entry (US port of entry) about 9:45AM. Approached to the gate and rolled the window down. The officer asked me where we are going. I said Utah. He asked why. I said I work and live in Utah. He asked me to see our passports. I handed him 4 passports (two of them were US passports). He started flipping through the passports of me and my wife. He did not see any visa and any stamp other than the Canadian PR visa and COPR document attached to them. Then he asked me what my status in the US. I said H1B and my wife is in H4 and I handed him both of our current I-94s. Then he asked me how long we were in Canada. I said 5 days. He asked when I came to the US. I said about 12 years ago. He asked me what visa I came in with. I said student visa. He asked me if I have the older passports with that visa stamp. I gave him the old passports of me and my wife. He scanned the older visas and I think he also scanned the kids US passports too. Then the officer chatted with another office for a few seconds and only thing I heard is that he said “I am aware of it”. I am not sure what he was aware of it. I had not shown my travel documents/advanced paroles until this time. The office came out of the booth with our passports and I-94s and asked me to drive slowly to the parking lot with his being close to my window. He showed me where to park. He asked me to turn off the engine and give him the car key. I asked me and my wife to come out of the car and also to pull the kids out as he said it is going to take a while and we need to talk. He then took us inside the building. He grabbed the folder that had all the documents including my old I-20s and Advanced Parole documents. When we got inside, a lady asked me to move forward to the counter and asked me to take off my coat. She also handed me a basket and asked me to drop my wallet, cell phone in it. She kept my coat, wallet and cell phone and asked me to sit down on a bench. The officer who came inside with us handed the passports, my document folder and the car key to another officer. Three officers gathered and started talking and going through every page of passports of me and my wife including the old ones. They also started flipping through the folder documents and saw our advanced parole documents. Then the two officers left and only one started going through the passports and documents. He then asked me to come forward and gave me kids US passports and the car key back. Then he pointed to the AP document and said, so you guys have these documents then. I said yes, but I wanted to use automatic visa revalidation (AVR) instead of AP as I had not been outside the US for more than 30 days and I was in Canada. He asked how long I was in Canada for. I said 5 days. He asked where I visited. I said Calgary, Edmonton, and Banff. He asked where we stayed. I said in a hotel. He asked me if we have the hotel receipt. Good thing my wife had it and we gave him that. After that he said, as you have the AP, you need to use it. He did not mention anything about AVR as I don’t think he knew what I was talking about. Then he said he is going to do the necessary paper works and let us go. He went in an office with all of the documents and came back in about 30 minutes. He asked me to come forward to give finger prints (all 10 fingers). He also took a photo. He did the same thing for my wife. I think we also had to sign something, but I do not remember. He also asked what I do in Utah. I told him the job title. He asked me when I was going to get my US GC. I said I have no idea. I told him that the US GC takes a long time and we cannot predict the time frame. He then said, looks like either you are doing the Canadian PR process or you have already completed it. I said yes we have Canadian PR. That was the reason we went to Canada. He looked at my old passport visa and said you have never left the country since you came in 1998. I said yes I have not left the country until we went to Canada a few days ago.
He printed new I-94s. He stamped the AP documents and kept one copy of it. He made a mistake when he wrote the dates in new I-94s and I told him the I-94’s expiration date should match with my H1B approval document. But he said, he does not know much about these kinds of things as they normally do not handle the cases like mine in that port of entry. He said all he can do is put the date matching with the date of AP document. He asked me to go to USCIS in Salt Lake Utah and talk to an officer there and make whatever changes needed. He gave me all of our documents back. The lady who took my coat, wallet and cell phone was nowhere to be found. Finally, she showed up and gave my stuff back. We left the office about 11AM. They made me feel like I was a criminal. Not a single person ever smiled at us. On the other hand, Canadian side was 20 times friendlier than the US side and they smiled at us all the time.