After 12 hours on the road, 20 minutes in Canada (well, Quebec), and a night in a really crappy hotel room, we are back home, with freshly minted I-94s.

In the immigration office, they were hesitant to hand us the I-94s because we still have valid H1-Bs. I had to insist that they give us them to support our Advanced Parole renewal. This is way too complicated (and expensive) and I just want my Green Cards…now.

So, a tip for all you travellers out there: Regardless of your status, and the insistence that you don’t need I-94s, never let them take them away, and try to get the border agents to issue them for EVERY crossing. I know it’s a pain in the ass, but it’s more of a pain in the ass to have to go back and get them.

On July 20, the family crossed over the border back into the US after attending Samantha’s grandmother’s funeral in Toronto. It had been a great weekend, a chance to get reacquainted with Samantha’s extended family and introduce the boys to some of these folks.

We crossed the border at the Peace Bridge, and got an Immigration officer who obviously did not know what she was doing.

To describe our current status: We are in the US on EADs with Advanced Parole documents which allow us to travel in and out of the country. The sheer complexity of our status (which is not an unusual one) perplexed this Immigration officer, and she processed us under our old status (H1-B/H4) and then did not issue us I-94s!

For the American readers among you, an I-94 is a little slip of paper stating when and where you last entered the US. Every person in an Immigration process (and many foreign nationals) are required to get either the white form (Immigrant) or the green form (visitor).

We are now in the process of renewing our AP documents and EADs, and one of the items they need is a copy of our most recent I-94s, which this Immigration official at Peace Bridge kindly removed from our passports without issuing new ones.

So, tomorrow, we have to drive up to the Derby Border Crossing in Vermont (the closest to our home) and get new ones issued so that we can renew our APs and EADs.

The main gripe I have with this is that the US Immigration service appears to be hideously inconsistent in when and where they enforce their own rules. As well, with the AP, it is now harder to get into the US than it was with the H1-B.

To sum up, this process frustrates me, and it is no wonder that between this sort of confusion and hearing that Green Card applicants can get thrown in jail and ignored until they die that makes me wonder if it is all worthwhile.

For those of you with Green Cards: Is it all worthwhile?