I94 extension at San Diego Ysidro US Mexico Border, Old passport expired, Renewed passport

USA Wiki
370

Experince:
On a wednesday morning me and my family flew from San jose to San diego and recahed there at 10am picke rental car and drove to “OTay Meesa " Land border.
Driving to Otay Mesa, Parking, Directions
I parked my car at Plaza Parking 2489 Roll Dr San Diego CA. The walk to the CBP office is about 2 mins from the parking lot. There is Buildign work going on but you could see the huge banner which says " DEpt of HOME LAND SECURITY LAND BORDER” and you will see a ton of mexicans come out of the road.
walked straight down Roll Dr and you pass the bridge where you can walk into Mexico on the right (DO NOT WALK INTO IT , ofcourse you will not just saying). Once you reach the end of this road, there is an office building, SENTRI office to the right (currently closed) and a passageway on the left leading to the CBP office. walked straight into the CBP office and you would see this huge hall which is exactly similar to the POE we see whn we come out of our internation flights , except that u enter from the exit side and still legally int he USA soil. It has baggage screening on the left
and there is a permits office with a blue sign on the right side once you enter the building and along pillar int he middle which says “Cashier” went there showed my $6 prepaidform and got a ticket , walked straight and waite in fron of the permit room. My luck it was lunh hour so had to wait there for 30 mins , but enjoyed watching people entering the counry , was trying to read their faces and saw 2 people deportand and understand hwo the CBP work.
Then an officer knocked from inside and asked me to enter, this room looks lke a DMV room. but it was just officer and me and he seems really nice and friendly.
Officer: HEllo what are you here for.
ME: Explained entire scenario without hidng anything, handed over my passport and husband i797 copy.
Officer: Thanks for explaining lets see how we can help you
Officer: Your husband here as well , can he come
ME: HE i in the parkign lot my kids are asleep so he is car.
Officer: Oh never mind just asked. he can stay with kids
Officer: SO how long until you want me to stamp the i94
ME: until my husabdn valid i797 date (June 2023)
Officer: ok , i amstamping yor i94 until June 2023. it should now get updated online
Can you put your right 4 finger for scannign , can you smile for camera.
Officer: can you share an address proof.
ME: shared almost expiring Drivers licence.
Offcier: grweat thank you.
ME: THank you , you are such an angel. (I said that cos hsi act saved me 8-10 month wait time)

All this while i was very nervous and anxious and preparing myself to walk to mexico in the sunny day and learnign few spanish words to ask them route if i ot lost but never expected this to happen in less than 12 mins.

Questions and Response:

  1. As of the Date i went to Border did i have valid visa
    YES, I had visa and i94 valid for next 15 days
  2. Did they ask you to walk into mexico border:
    NO
  3. IS it legal
    YES
  4. Did i geta new visa stamp
    NO, VISA is given by US Consolate , i cannot get that until i saty in mexico more than 30 days or go to my hoem country.
  5. DId i get my i94 extende
    YES
371

Thank you for the detailed information and your time. That helps me alot

372

Hi @prasadjjoshi,

That’s good to hear. But,vwhat about the departure record in travel history. In this case, there would be 2 arrival dates recorded…right??

375

Hi

did you get your 194 renewed?
Can you share your experience? when and where?

my daughter’s i94 expired due to passport expiration.
any latest info will be helpful

Thank you

376

Thank you coolkp07 , this was excellent. I decided to go with since my H4 visa was expired and my husband changed company in between, I was about to cross the border since the west office closed as per your post.

BUT I DECIDED TO CHECK FIRST WITH OTAY MESA CBP FIRST, that SAVES MY LIFE.
CBP officers in otay mesa sentry officers are very polite and THE BEST people I ever met. They explained me that if I cross the border , I cannot returned since my husband changed job after my I-94 expired. So we returned back without crossing border and waiting for new I797 approval for my H4 visa petition.

Lesson learned, NEVER CROSSED THE BORDER IF your I-94 Expired and your husband changed the JOB after expiry of your I94

1 Like
377

Hi Andand,

I am planning for my i94 extinction since my old passport getting expired soon to match with my new passport, It would be helpful if you have any contact details to check with CBP officers on my case before is travel.

378

Thanks for sharing experience. I am on H-1B and my I-94 was issued with limited validity as my passport was expiring at POE. We applied for AOS and shouldn’t leave country while case is still pending but need to extend I-94. This is a big relief to know that we can get it done being on US soil. I have these questions

  1. Does I-94 history show that you departed and reentered US
  2. Did they give you same I-94 number

If I am asked to cross border and do U-turn, can others who has border crossing experience answer same questions as well.

381

Thanks for sharing your experience. Appreciate if you answer these questions

How is I-94 travel history I94 - Official Website showing for you, is it like you departed and reentered US
Did you get new I-94 number

382

nope , its just like normal entry, just the date and the location(SYS), regarding the second question, yes i got new i94 number and also the new date (Admit Until Date).

383

Thanks @nirmaldreamz . I am not sure if it was intentional or not, your original post is deleted. If you don’t mind, I request you to post it back which will help many people on this forum.

384

@Siemens_Malvern Actually there are two different threads, that’s why i deleted second one but I will post it again in this thread too

Hello all,

Here is my experience with San Ysidro, my old passport got expired on 08/16/2020, and I have my visa till March 31, 2021. I was not aware of this i94 extension process,
I came to know recently only but it was already two months passed.

It will be a big post so whoever is looking for the fast answer, the answer is “yes” its success. People who have time can read the full experience below:

So First,I tried reaching LAX Deferred Inspection Office by email(because my last entry was LAX only) I94LAX@cbp.dhs.gov but they replied below:

“THIS IS NOT A CORRECTION. YOU WERE ADMITTED CORRECTLY UP TO THE VALIDITY OF THE PASSPORT PRESENTED.
REQUEST EXTENSION THROUGH USCIS OR LEAVE THE COUNTRY AND RETURN WITH A NEW PASSPORT AND A CURRENT VISA”

Requesting Extension through USCIS(using Form I539) wont work because I read like it will take 6 to 8 months, but I need updated i94 asap for my next extension, Also, I’m not sure whether
I can apply i94 extension after expiry. So the best option left for me is crossing the border. Luckily I’m in Torrance and the Tijuana border is just two hours from my home.

So I planned to drive on 10/17/2020 (Saturday), my only concern is , i-94 already expired so I was worried how will they treat this case. My only hope was one of the forum,
someone mentioned like his spouse h4 expired on November 2019 and later sometime only he updated the i94, Also , I called San Ysidro CBP office(619-662-2229) and explained my situation,
Officer said I have to reenter asap since its already out of status but he didn’t say anything like its illegal and your entry will be denied something like that.

So having all those stories in my mind, I started my drive on Saturday morning around 6.30 am, so I drove all the way to the “Las Americas Premium Outlets”

Outlets Address - 4211 Camino De La Plaza, San Diego, CA 92173

So I parked my car in the outlets mall and I started my navigation to “san ysidro land port of entry west pedestrian facility”

So we have two option here, San ysidro land port of entry west pedestrian facility and san ysidro land port of entry east pedestrian facility.

In one of the forum someone mentioned like without crossing border , he updated the i94 in the west port of entry, so I thought of give a shot here.

It’s just 3 mins walk from the outlets parking,I just crossed the signal and took right, end of the street ,I saw the office. There was one officer standing outside.

Before I ask anything he told me the Office is closed, then I told him I came for i94 extension, then he went inside and asked someone.
He came out and told me like, the officer who will do the i94 things wont work on Saturday, and he asked me to come Monday 6 am to 2 pm.

But I don’t want to do it again,because even they can ask me to cross border so I moved to East side office, this one you need to walk little bit, you have to cross the bridge. you can find it easily once you are there.

So i told the same thing to the one of the officer in the east side office, he asked me to cross the border and come back again, before entering into USA port of entry,
he told me like there will be a yellow building, where i have to do the extension.

So I crossed the border and just started to walk back to the USA port of entry, while going you can find the yellow building on your right side, you can see board like “Permits” in
that building.

I have to pay 6 $ fee there for the extension but there was no one in the counter, other officer called me who is next to the counter, i told the same thing again.
I gave my old and new passport and also my i797.He asked to sit in the chair opposite to his counter.

So here is the most tension phase comes:

He checked my i94 and he was not sure how to proceed further since i94 was already expired. He was discussing with other officers in front of me, I didn’t understand what they
were talking, All I heard was Aug 16 2020. So many things were running into my mind, I was thinking like:

What will happen to my car if they deny my entry? Will they tow away somewhere?
Where to go next? Can I fly to LAX and give another try?
How to convey this to my wife as she is staying alone in the home.
Worst case, I have to go back to India but I made my mindset for everything.
So after all these things, half an hour later, one more new officer came and he explained my case to him. But this time I heard clearly , new officer told him like, “this one is
just the old passport got expired and later he renewed the new one so this just needs to be updated in the on-line. I can do that” After I heard this, I became normal. So the new officer
called my name and he confirms me why I’m there(just for i94 extension), I said yes. He asked me to pay 6$ (you need exact change) in the counter.

They gave me one receipt and again i went back to his counter and said I paid it, so he asked me to lower the mask, he took one picture and asked me to place the four fingers
for biometrics. After that he asked which city I’m ahead to. I said my city name.Then, I just asked will it updated in on-line as well? he said “yes”.
That’s all.
All went well. I crossed the port of entry and drove back to my home.

Good luck for you as well. Hope this will help someone.

385

@nirmaldreamz I see I thought you accidentally deleted your post and thanks for the clarification.

another question, seems like you first went to PedWest and sounds like it is is open now except that they won’t do your permits on weekends. you could have crossed border at PedWest, any particular reason why you choose to go to PedEast to cross the border

386

@Siemens_Malvern no particular reason, I know the east side well, since I been there before, that’s all,

387

@nirmaldreamz I am sure you must have gone through Mexico immigration and customs. Could you add your experience on this front on Mexico side.

I am going tomorrow to extend my I-94 and I feel U-turn on PedWest side seems much safer after watching these pretty good videos.

Walking into Tijuana Mexico using the San Ysidro Crossing 2019 Walking into Tijuana Mexico using the San Ysidro Crossing 2019 - YouTube
Crossing into Tijuana Mexico By Foot Using PedWest 2019 Crossing into Tijuana Mexico By Foot Using PedWest 2019 - YouTube

388

@Anil_Gupta and other active members here, thank you so much for your great work which is helping thousands of people. I am crossing PedWest border this Saturday. Per your post Mexico immigration is not hit, but I see Mexico immigration in this video. Can you mark time on this video where I do U-turn before hitting Mexico immigration
PedWest walking into Mexico Crossing into Tijuana Mexico By Foot Using PedWest 2019 - YouTube

389

@Siemens_Malvern Nothing much, I just showed my h1b visa on the passport, officer asked the reason for travelling, I said i94 extension. She gave me immigration form and pen, I just filled that one and gave it to her, that’s all.

390

@Siemens_Malvern I don’t remember that day anyone crossing border on that west entry, be ready to go east side as well.

391

@kumar_pentakota San Ysidro CBP office - 619-662-2229

392

Hi Siemens, i will join you, i am also going tomorrow for my wife’s I-94 Extention

393

@Neeraj_Jain we are driving from Bayarea and will do it probably in the evening.