Re-entry to the US / unclaimed visa waiver form

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spiggy_topes

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I last visited the US about a year ago. After leaving LAX I found that nobody had claimed the green visa waiver form, which is still in my passport.

Is this likely to cause problems next time I enter the country? Or are their computer systems clever enough to cross-match departing passenger lists with passports?

Thanks for any advice/anecdotes...
 
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I last visited the US about a year ago. After leaving LAX I found that nobody had claimed the green visa waiver form, which is still in my passport.

Is this likely to cause problems next time I enter the country? Or are their computer systems clever enough to cross-match departing passenger lists with passports?

Thanks for any advice/anecdotes...

I had the same thing happen in 2006. No one took it out. I ripped it out and put it in the bin. In 2008 on my return trip to the USA. No problems encountered. Again in 2009 no problems.
 
Thank you all. I left on a scheduled Qantas flight, so it looks as if no further action is needed.
 
Thank you all. I left on a scheduled Qantas flight, so it looks as if no further action is needed.
The best way for assurance is to have a stamp for another country (not Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean Islands) subsequent to you USA entry stamp in your passport. This avoids having to tote an Airline BP around.

We had a situation after flying ORD-LHR when the green slips were removed, but somehow our departure from the USA failed to make it into DHS systems.

On my next entry to the USA I was queried but all was good when I pointed out the UKBA stamp from our LHR arrival.

This can be an issue coming back to Australia of course as they generally don't stamp an Oz passport. If you notice your I94W slip is still in your passport before you pass through Oz immigration, you can ask them to stamp it (your passport, not the green card).
 
This can be an issue coming back to Australia of course as they generally don't stamp an Oz passport. If you notice your I94W slip is still in your passport before you pass through Oz immigration, you can ask them to stamp it.


I would ask for the stamp in that case!
 
The best way for assurance is to have a stamp for another country (not Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean Islands) subsequent to you USA entry stamp in your passport. This avoids having to tote an Airline BP around.
This is one reason I always as Australian Immigration officers to stamp my Australian passport both inbound and outbound. It means I am carrying around the proof of where and when I have travelled.
 
This is one reason I always as Australian Immigration officers to stamp my Australian passport both inbound and outbound. It means I am carrying around the proof of where and when I have travelled.

I only ever did that when I required proof for AusTrade. I found it filled my passport to much :)
 
It's happened to me a few years ago and was pointed out to me by Immigration when I returned to the US more than a year later. I did send all the information to the Homeland Security address as indicated in another post, and had difficulty doing so - no passport stamp showing my return, I hadn't kept my boarding passes, and QF ff activity was too old to be still on the QF system. I did send as much documentary evidence as I could, and I've had no problems since. And it's fairly obvious to Immigration that something probably went wrong at their end when we are actually arriving in the country. If it happens next time (the green card still in the passport) I will definitely get my passport stamped on arrival, as has already been suggested.
 
If it happens next time (the green card still in the passport) I will definitely get my passport stamped on arrival, as has already been suggested.

Just get the Green form stamped. Save passport room!
 
I had the same thing happen in 2006. No one took it out. I ripped it out and put it in the bin. In 2008 on my return trip to the USA. No problems encountered. Again in 2009 no problems.

Well... I've had this come off the rails. Several years back I arrived on an early morning flight into LAX, feeling the usual level of wonderful. At Immigration, the arrivals agent got half way through the process, but then asked me if I would go to "secondary immigration" to sort out an irregularity. At Bradley, that's a room just off the carousel area.

In secondary immigration, an agent spent the next hour looking at my passport, looking at me, tapping at the terminal, moving back and forth to a printer, eating donuts (note: he didn't offer me any) and further tapping at a terminal. After a long while, the questions started:

  • did I remember leaving the US without surrendering the green bit
  • had I flown out of Miami without surrendering the green bit
  • where was passport number xx_xx (eventually determined to be my old passport)
  • did I have any way of getting that passport
  • etc.
This was pretty bizarre, because I certainly had exited from Miami - but some 8 years previously. Subsequently I had entered and exited the US a very large number of times from LAX, MIA, and many other ports on that same passport. But - no surprise - the now-expired passport was at home in Sydney. So I'm standing there wondering what could have happened to their systems to ping me years later, even though the old and new passports had been seen any number of times by US immigration without triggering any entry issues... until that day.

I should add that the MIA exit was pre-9/11; I was in the US during 9/11, and had gone in/out many times post 9/11. So much for heightened screening.

When it became clear that, for some reason the system had finally matched the green bit against my new passport, the agent was happy. We obviously couldn't do anything about finding the card, my old passport wasn't producable, and there was no reason to detain me further. He apologised for the delay, and it was all very friendly. I can't complain about anything except the time it took, and his failure to offer me a donut.

In a further bizarreness, all this happened many years AFTER I had been issued with a trial Portpass card, meaning that they had completely cleared me for rapid immigration and captured my iris, fingers and several other body parts as scannable ID.

As a parting statement, Agent Secondary apologised profusely for the process, and told me that this was likely to happen every time I came into the US from then on, because there was no way that he could override the flag.

That was maybe six years ago, and it's never happened again. Go figure.
 
Hi, This happened to me as well. You need to post the Green docket to an address somewhere in the States in the suburb of 'London'. (yes, London, US) If you log onto a US Visa Info site and do some searching you'll find the exact address with instructions.

You must do this or the next time you enter the States you'll have a problem because they'll claim they don't have sufficient record of your previous departure.

You also need to photocopy your passport info and include that in your letter, and, for you own sake, take a photocopy of the docket for your files.

Hope this helps.
 
You do not have to send it to London. This happened to my husband and I rang the US Consulate in Sydney (though it costs money to ask a question!) They told me to send the green part of the I94 to them, which I did with details of when and where he left the US. He has been back in since with no questions.
 
You do not have to send it to London. This happened to my husband and I rang the US Consulate in Sydney (though it costs money to ask a question!) They told me to send the green part of the I94 to them, which I did with details of when and where he left the US. He has been back in since with no questions.

It happens a lot - It happened to me as I departed from San Diego and they forgot to remove the I94W from my passport - Next time I went back the immigration guy said "oh - we have no record of you leaving the country, however its pretty obvious from your passport that you have been elsewhere". I had to send documentary evidence (phone records, credit card statements) to some address is the middle of nowhere...... and Ive never had a problem since.
 
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