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Me and a friend of mine who is a Green Card holder are planning a road trip from Seattle to Tijuana by car. To avoid a long queue we are planning to cross the Mexican border on foot and go back after a few hours, hence no FMM would be required from either of us and neither would Mexican immigration stamp our passports.

Here comes the catch - as a Green Card holder, my friend cannot stay out of the US for more than a few months at time. But given that the US land border doesn't have exit immigration and neither does Mexico have entry immigration at Tijuana, there would be absolutely no record of our absence from the country. And therefore my friend won't be able to prove how long he's been out of the country when crossing back to the US through the land bridge.

What documents does the US recommend having in this scenario to prove you haven't actually stayed abroad for a few years? Or is my friend unnecessarily concerned and no one would care about his absence at the land border crossing?

Note that this issue doesn't concern me as a regular visa holder as my I-94 would still be valid at re-entry and the US doesn't care about anything else at this point.

JonathanReez
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    Vancouver Canada? There would be record of entering the US from Vancouver – Midavalo Sep 18 '18 at 03:44
  • @Midavalo of course. But then you exit at Tijuana and have zero proof of when you actually did that. In theory you could even fly from Tijuana airport back to Vancouver and drive to Washington state, without any stamps from Mexico. – JonathanReez Sep 18 '18 at 03:48
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    I'm not sure I follow the question. You enter the US on say Oct 3 then reenter from Mexico on Oct 13, clearly you've only been out of the country no more than 10 days. Or am I missing your point? – Midavalo Sep 18 '18 at 03:59
  • @Midavalo given that you have zero passport stamps (and in fact no ones know you've left the US, short of facial recognition technologies spying at the border), how would you show you've been absent for 10 rather than 100 days? – JonathanReez Sep 18 '18 at 04:13
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    Except that the CBP will have record of you entering from Canada. So you'll only have been out of the US no longer than since the day you entered from Canada. – Midavalo Sep 18 '18 at 04:23
  • @Midavalo question is about exiting the US through Tijuana. You walk over the bridge, pop on a flight from Tijuana to Europe, stay there for a year, fly back and walk over the border again. Or you just pop in for a few hours, have a lunch and go back. No evidence in your passport whatsoever. – JonathanReez Sep 18 '18 at 04:29
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    @JonathanReez no, the question is about a road trip from Vancouver to Tijuana. If you want to change the question, do it, but don't assert in the comments that part of the question is to be ignored. – phoog Sep 18 '18 at 06:02
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    @phoog the question is about re-entry from Tijuana. Vancouver is only there for context. I've changed it to Seattle to avoid confusion. I will be traveling from Vancouver alone and pick up my friend in Washington state. – JonathanReez Sep 18 '18 at 06:22
  • "my I-94 would still be valid at re-entry" not necessarily. There's nothing that says they have to reuse your previous I-94 as a regular visa holder. If they're reusing it under automatic validation, though (a questionable premise, but one that seems to apply nonetheless), a similar question exists for you, however: how do they know you didn't stay in Mexico for longer than 30 days? – phoog Sep 19 '18 at 20:43
  • @phoog I've entered the US 15+ times this years from Canada and every single time they've used automatic revalidation (except the one time where my I-94 expired after 6 months of use). As for myself - they actually wouldn't know as well, but since my I-94 hasn't expired yet they won't care as I couldn't have overstayed in the US at that point, not even theoretically. – JonathanReez Sep 19 '18 at 20:54
  • The automatic revalidation regulation applies only to expired visas or cases where the nonimmigrant is entering under a different class from the issued visa (after a change of status in the US) . If you're reentering in the same class with a valid visa, it's not automatic revalidation, and I am unaware of a provision in the regulations or the law that permits the reuse of an I-94 under that circumstance. – phoog Sep 19 '18 at 21:04
  • @phoog I'm not 100% sure what's happening, but I do know that as long as my first I-94 was valid, I didn't have to pay the $6 fee or submit my fingerprints on subsequent visits. As soon as it expired I had to go to secondary inspection and re-apply for the I-94. Same applies to everyone I know here in Canada. – JonathanReez Sep 19 '18 at 21:06
  • I know that it works that way, I just have not seen any regulation governing it (except for 8 CFR 214.1(b), which applies only to F, J, M, and Q-2 visas). So it's actually impossible to know what conditions govern the reuse of the I-94. – phoog Sep 19 '18 at 21:11
  • @phoog even if the border officer doesn't want to reuse your I-94 (presuming the law doesn't provide for such an option), there's no reason for them to accuse you of an overstay. If you did stay in Mexico for longer than your I-94, there's indeed potential for trouble at the border: https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/93520/how-can-i-ensure-my-exit-from-the-us-by-land-is-recorded/93523#93523 – JonathanReez Sep 19 '18 at 22:46

1 Answers1

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The US doesn't recommend any particular document. The immigration officer may ask "how long have you been out of the US," and there's a 99% chance that they'll believe the answer "for a few hours" since you'll be entering by foot from Tijuana.

In the infinitesimally small probability that the immigration officer does not believe it, he or she will perhaps check the CBP database, which will show the last entry into the US (in this example, a few days earlier). This will satisfy the officer that the permanent resident has not been outside the US for a long time.

In the case where the permanent resident has been inside the US for several years, any receipts that might be floating around in pockets will do.

phoog
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