How to Prepare a “U.S. Immigration Chronology”

1. Introduction

Are you interested in scheduling a consultation with our law firm? A “U.S. Immigration Chronology,” which is like a personal U.S. immigration history, can be a great way to share with our firm information about topics such as:

• Dates of U.S. entries and exits
• Prior visa applications at U.S. embassies and consulates abroad
• Prior petitions and applications filed with USCIS
• Immigration court history
• Prior encounters with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

In the process of preparing your chronology, you will be able to identify what documents to collect and share with our firm in advance of the consultation. A clear chronology can save you and our firm hours trying to understand your history. That way, a future immigration plan can be devised more quickly and precisely.

After you hire our law firm, we will keep your chronology up to date. Later, it can be very helpful to refresh your memory during an interview with U.S. immigration authorities.

2. Sample

3. What to Include in Your Chronology

A. Passports

• Tip: List your current passport(s), plus any previous passports used to apply for U.S. visas or to travel to the United States.

B. Entries and Exits

• Tips:
  • Entries to the U.S.: You may be able to download a history of arrivals and departures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), unless you are a lawful permanent resident (LPR).
    • Port of Entry: This is the place where you were inspected by CBP, such as an international airport (usually in the U.S., but sometimes abroad, such as Toronto or Dublin), land-border crossing, or seaport.
    • Primary inspection: Arriving travelers queue up for this initial inspection by a CBP officer, usually involving a brief review of identity, travel documents, and admissibility.
    • Secondary inspection: Additional inspection in a separate room.
  • Form I-94, Arrival Record: This is issued to each foreign national arriving in the U.S. who is not a lawful permanent resident. Download your most recent Form I-94 from the CBP website.
    • Class:
      • For a person admitted with a nonimmigrant visa, the class is based on the class listed in the visa (e.g., F1, J2, or L1).
      • For a person admitted under the Visa Waiver Program, their class is WB (waiver business) or WT (waiver tourism/pleasure)
      • For a person admitted with advance parole, their class is DA.

C. Applications for Nonimmigrant Visas

• Other common nonimmigrant visa application-related documents:
  • Supporting documents shown to the consular officer during the interview:
    • Form I‑20, Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Status (for admission in (F-1, F-2, M-1, or M-2 status)
    • Form DS-2019, Certificate of Eligibility for Exchange Visitor (J-1) Status (formerly known as Form IAP-66)
    • Resume
    • Invitation letter
    • Employment verification letter
    • Recent payslip (aka earnings statement)
    • Proof of assets
    • Proof of home ownership
    • Marriage certificate
    • School transcripts
    • U.S. tax return or transcripts
    • U.S. Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement
    • USCIS Form I-129S, Nonimmigrant Petition Based on Blanket L Petition (for intracompany transferee if no petition filed with USCIS)
  • Visa refusal notice

D. Applications for Immigrant Visas

E. Applications and Petitions Filed with USCIS

4. Writing Your Dialogue with an Immigration Officer

Include in your chronology each dialogue with an immigration officer, whether at the port of entry, during a consular appointment, during a USCIS interview, during an encounter with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, etc.

Write the dialogue to the best of your memory. Include in the dialogue:

• Each time you showed the officer a document.
• Each action by the officer. For example, that the officer left his desk to discuss something with a colleague; or that the officer spent a couple minutes looking at her computer screen.
• Whether the officer handed you a refusal notice or other notice.

Sample dialogue:

5. Providing Your Chronology and Immigration Documents to Our Firm

See Tips for Submitting Documents to Our Firm – Chodorow Law Offices.