On H1B (I140 approved) - Questioned at POE about Canadian PR

[Laconic]

Thank you for reading my post.

 

My employer applied for my US permanent residency and the I140 has been approved (priority date Feb 2011). In the meantime, my wife and I applied for and obtained Canadian permanent residency. We completed our landing formalities and became Canadian PR holders in July 2014. We have entered and exited US multiple times after obtaining Canadian PR without any issues. However, we were questioned by the CBP officer about our ‘intentions’ during our latest entry into the US. The CBP officer claimed that US regulations do not permit someone with a green card to have permanent residency in other country. When I mentioned that I do not have a green card, he said that the regulations do not permit someone with a green card application to have application(s) in other country(ies) and  that ‘people are dying to get into this country’. He said that we were in violation of US regulations, but he would let us into the country. He said he was going to put a note into the system and that ‘they will be checking on you when you enter the country again’.

 

I believe the CBP officer was wrong on the subject. However, I am more concerned about the note that he purportedly entered into the system.

 

Should I take an appointment (infopass?) at the local CBP field office to discuss/resolve this issue?

 

I may have to hire a lawyer to get this straightened out, but wanted to get some input from this forum.

 

 

Thanks again.

[jairichi]

In my opinion what CBP officer said is wrong. Check with an attorney.

[JoeF]

Once you get your GC, you would have to give up Canadian Permanent Residency. That is well-known.

The US GC requires you to live in the US, and having Permanent Residency somewhere else puts that in doubt.

 

The other stuff, about "not having applications somewhere else" is BS. It seems to me the officer was trying to save face after you pointed out that you don't have the GC yet.

[Laconic]

Jairichi, JoeF;

 

Thank you both for your replies. What the CBP officer said did not make a lot of sense; however, I did not want to argue too much; it would have been similar to arguing with a cop at a traffic stop. He should have not allowed us entry or at least sent us for secondary inspection if he felt that we were violating any rules.

 

Do you think an Infopass appointment will help clear this up?

 

Thanks again.

[JoeF]

I don't think you need or can do anything.

An Infopass appointment won't help any.

I doubt that the officer put anything in the system.

In any case, there nowadays always is a big banner at the POEs, saying that they are professionals. This stuff wasn't professional. Some officers are more or less openly anti-immigrant. I've encountered some of these antis back when I was on H1. As soon as you have a GC, their attitude changes...

If this kind of stuff happens next time, you can ask for the badge number, and later file a complaint on the CBP website. It is certainly not worth arguing with them at the border.