Soft landed @ Peace arch Blaine WA. Used AVR and got new I 94

Just wanted to share my soft landing experience. It wasn’t a breeze in my case like some other folks on the forum mentioned; it was a mild hurricane.

Canada side was easy: Only compliant is that the officer handling our PR took almost 1 hour to finish all the paperwork. Don’t know why it took so long. We went inside the building and sat there while he worked on the papers. But no problem faced here. Everything went smooth.

Returning to US with valid 797 but expired visas: The first officer at the checkpost scanned our passports, looked at our 797s and couldn’t figure out what to do. He sent us to Secondary Inspection. Then another officer came and looked at our 797s and made a comment that we don’t qualify for AVR which got us scared. After sometime, the officer came back and asked us to enter the building for picture, finger prints and new I94. After that we returned back to the US.

Takeaway: Returning to the US using AVR is not smooth as many officers aren’t aware of how it works and who qualifies. So be prepared with all the historical documentation. Don’t be scared, just be prepared. AVR works.

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Thank you for sharing your experience, @shwitzu . Congrats on officially becoming a Candian PR! :slight_smile: Also, glad you were able to complete your return using AVR.

We’re planning on using AVR when we do our landing early next month via Peace Arch. For context, I’m on an H-1B visa with a valid stamping and my spouse has an approved I-797 for H-4 and an expired F-1 student visa on the passport. With respect to historical documentation, do you have any guidance/suggestions to leverage AVR?

@shwitzu : Thanks for the updates. can you please let me know whether you have approved I-140 OR job/status change? Just trying to understand why they initially said that you don’t qualify. Thanks !

any prior approval notices etc. In our case we both had the same employers and new I797s. So we showed the previous I797s.

that comment was made off the cuff without looking at the system data. When you park at secondary inspection, an officer would come and speak to you. It was then when the remark was made. But then the officer took our passports, 797s and went back to the building to check or get advice. No discussion about I-140 occurred.

Got it. So do you have approved I-140 too? I have and wondering whether that would cause any issues. Thanks !!!