Immigration officer giving wrong information??

Ok, so I admit my husband and I should have looked into this before hand... but believe me we're paying for it now.

We got married last year and decided he was going to come to Canada... well I got pregnant and we decided that staying in the US will be a better option. I've had our baby and now we're ready to move there.

We went for a visit at the end of June and the borde patrol officer told me I was technically in-admissable but let me through anyways. He said that I should visit an immigration office to clear things up while I was there. So we made an infopass appointment and went....
The immigration officer said that when I come across the border next time to ask for an I-94 document and then once in the USA I can file for an adjustment of status... and handed us all the paperwork I would need to fill out.

So I come home and I've been doing some reading and I don't think that this is the way its supposed to go... my husband now arguing with me made another infopass appointment and a different officer told him the exact same thing...

I just want to get this done and having a 3 month old baby I don't want to be apart from him any more...

You can't apply for AOS from outside of the US, I think what USCIS were saying is you should enter as a visitor, get an I-94 then apply for AOS, which can cause problems because CBP are not supposed to let people in who have immigrant intent, which appears to be what CBP told you.

You don't actually need an I-94 to apply for AOS, not sure why they told you that.

Really it boils down to what CBP thinks when you try to enter and if you get in and apply for AOS, what USCIS thinks at the interview.

But legally what you're supposed to do is apply for an immigrant visa, your husband files an I-130 for you with the relevant paperwork like I-864 and after around six months you go to the interview in Montréal and get the visa.

Thats what I thought Steve.. thanks.

They were telling me to enter as a visitor... I don't understand why they would be telling me to do something that is considered illegal.

If I didn't want to be the one to stay home with our baby it was so much easier applying to stay in Canada. They gave my husband a 6 month visitor visa no problem and then said to come back after we applied and they would give him a year. All this misinformation with the US is driving me nuts!!

They were telling me to enter as a visitor... I don't understand why they would be telling me to do something that is considered illegal.

Because they're USCIS, not CBP. CBP make determinations as to whether to let you in, USCIS are just bureaucrats sat in an office somewhere who process various bits of paperwork. To make it even more confusing, consular officers use the FAM and work for the State Dept., and they can also interpret the law differently from USCIS and CBP.

Here is an article that illustrates the difference: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columb ... ocked.html

Clearly this guy had been renewing his status inside the US for years and his employer has been filing for renewals with USCIS. When CBP got to look at again though they weren't such a light touch.

The far more common example (not Canadians as they are exempt) is for visitors to the US. They go to the embassy, say quite clearly what they want to do in the US, get a B-1/2 visa, show up at a POE and CBP decides they don't have non-immigrant intent and deny them entry.

I've sat in secondary inspection for hours sometimes and a lot of the conversations are along the lines of:

"Well the guy at the embassy said it was okay if I did x." And the CBP guy goes: "Well, it also says in the paperwork we get to make the final determination and we aren't going to let you in to do x."

In your situation, if CBP are okay with letting you in to apply for AOS, then you can do what USCIS have told you to do, but CBP gets to make that determination, not USCIS. All they can do is tell you what paperwork to file after you enter.

Here it is:

1. IF we were super-extra-nice with sugar on top, we would issue you an I-94 and you could take that directly to the USCIS Office and file for an Adjustment. This is TRUE!

2. Like I said *IF. The likelyhood that we will give you an I-94 is slim to none. Sorry, but it is illegal to enter with the intent of immigrating without prior authorization.

Steven is right like usual. We at CBP enforce the laws, whereas USCIS sits in an office and stamps papers without a care.

You are also right. You should have filed paperwork before now.
Good luck.

If Canada was allowing your husband to stay while you process immigration paperwork for him, why didn't you all just stay in Canada?

Can't imagine why you'd have had the baby in the US either, given the cost of healthcare, it would have been a whole lot cheaper (and statistically safer!) to have it in Canada. Neither here nor there of course, just mumbling...

For marriage based immigration info to the US see http://www.visajourney.com

For marriage based immigration info to Canada see http://roadtocanada.com

It makes more sense if you're going to be living in the US to have your kids in the US. If you're in a non-immigrant category it means you don't have to worry about what the kids will be able to do when they grow up, and also if they're US citizens it means you can claim the child tax credit, which should make up for the money you spent on a decent hospital!

Have them in Canada and its easy enough to register their birth abroad at the US consulate

If you're in a non-immigrant category you can't do that. In fact you can't do it as an LPR either.

Thanks again for all the information everyone. I had my baby in Canada .. we decided to move to the US afterwards because there is more family support over there with my husband's family. My family isn't all that involved with eachother.

The plan was to report her birth abroad ... we were told my husband has to come back to Canada to do that since he is the US citizen. Hopefully he'll be allowed back in Canada to do so

IF we were super-extra-nice with sugar on top, we would issue you an I-94 and you could take that directly to the USCIS Office and file for an Adjustment. This is TRUE!

I found that amusing. Imagine the surprise I would have gotten had I not of started looking into these things, then went and asked the officer for an I-94 so I could do an AOS.