I94

We were talking last night about the above little pieces of documentation and specifically, what happens if you fly into the US, then travel into Canada and then back into the US. Does customs take the I94 from you when leaving the US or do they ask if you intend to re-enter the country? If they do take it, then isn't a it a bit of a rigmorole to fill out yet another one on re-entry?

I'm sure several of you must have done something like this [y]

[preiffer]

I do this a lot, and always keep the green stub for the time I'm in Canada - then just present it again with your customs card to US DHS when leaving Canada.

They SOMETIMES try and take it out of your passport when you check in for the US > Canada flight, but a quick "Please leave that, as I'm returning at the weekend" will ensure it's left in.


The only thing is - there's a "virtual limit" (and I honestly can't remember whether it's 7,10 or 30 days) that they recommend if you're going to be out of the US for more than that period of time, you hand it in and fill out a fresh one on your way back in.

Your I94 doesn't go to the customs people, it's for immigration purposes (it's the white one that's for customs) and you will have to fill one out for each entry into the US. So yes you give up the card to the gate agent when leaving the US to go to Canada. You'll then fill in another one on the way back in - although you'll actually clear immigration whilst still in Canada rather than when you get back to the US, so you fill your green and white cards in at check in. You will then give up this second I94 when you depart the US to come back to the UK.

[preiffer]

Hi jmf,

Sorry - I do this about 8-10 times a year, and I always keep the green stub. (In fact, I have done ever since the DHS guy told me it was a waste of time to keep filling them out if I'm returning shortly )


Providing you're returning within the time limit, you do not need to fill out a fresh card to re-enter.

Paul,

I've only ever done this when I've been in the US for a bit (usually about a week or so) and then in Canada for the same, so have always gone ahead and filled in two as it's never seemed that much of a hassle. However if I had to do that trip as many times as you I'd definitely be thinking differently

Jan

Mmmmm! The likely plan will be flying into the US and then getting an internal flight into Canada - and then another internal flight back into the US about 9 days later - it will definitely be no longer than that and may turn out to be only a week.

We've did USA/Canada in 2003 and only had to fill in the one I94.
Filled in for BOS, did some touring around Maine then drove to Quebec then Montreal, spent a week in Canada then drove back to USA.
Kept the original I94 until flight back to UK from BOS.

As a side issue, don't forget you can claim back your sales tax spent in Canada[y][y].
We did this at the border crossing, but I assume you can do this at the airport as well.

On our cruise (included a stop in Mexico) in February we effectively left the US when we boarded the ship in LA. We had to go through an immigration process in the Cruise Terminal which took our fingerprints and photo in a machine not too dissimilar to a passport photo kiosk you see in railway stations over here.

This resulted in us being given a piece of "encrypted" paper which we were told to hand in on our return.

When we got back to LA we tried to hand these papers in to immigration but the chap didn't want them or seem to know what they were. Needless to say I still have them.

The I94 Tear Offs were taken by the VS check in as usual when we flew out of LAX a few days later.

Hope this helps

Miopyk

[preiffer]

Myopyk - the machine you describe is one of the proof of departure kiosks. (US-VISIT machines) They're at all International airports now. The "encrypted" bit is actually a very complex barcode.

They're basically a fail-safe for you to keep hold of in case there's any doubt you left the country before, when trying to re-enter.

If you do a search for "US VISIT" on the site, you'll find a few threads about them.

Thank you everyone -think I'm clear now!

Tim - thanks for the re-claiming tax. I did this last time we were in Canada (Canada only!) and claimed at the airport, but it didn't seem worth the bother as we got very little back, by the time they seemed to take off this and that charge! Plus tip LOL. I think we may have been mislead there though, as we'd been told you could only claim for accommodation, and only yhen if it was over something like CAD$200. Have seen read (here, in fact) that redeipts need to be only over $50 and that you can lump all those together....