i-94 immigration form

To answer your immediate concern, no, neither IRS nor the SSA will report your friend to immigration service. Both agencies get billions of dollars every year as taxes from unauthorized workers, and they don't have the knowledge of who's authorized or who is making an honest mistake (people misstype their SSNs all the time). On top of it, many if not the majority of immigrants do not inform SSA when their immigration status changes to that of a permanent resident or citizen (or any other status that allows employment), so these agencies truly would not know much beyond whether someone spelled their name/SSN correctly.Now let's address your friend's status. First of all, misrepresentation on the I-9. Had she checked the 'US citizen' box, she would most likely be totally screwed (i.e. permanent inadmissibility to the US without the possibility of a waiver, even if she marries a US citizen), but if she claimed to be a permanent resident, it would be much harder for the USCIS to ban her just for that. However, it is much safer for someone working without authorization to work as a contractor, not an employee. W-9 does not require you to disclose your immigration status, and this way both the contractor and the employer are safe. I know people who have worked for years as contractors without authorization, and have been able to get permanent residence (but only through marriage to a citizen).Second, there is an important distinction in the immigration code that your friend needs to understand, which may save her behind, after all. While her employment is unauthorized and she is out of status, it does not necessarily mean she is illegally present - yet. And there is a world of difference between being out of status and being illegally present. Once she is illegally present for 180 days, the 3 year admissibility bar kicks in, and she will be unable to legalize her status (unless, again, it's a marriage to USC). The date she needs to look at comes either from her work visa approval or the stamp she got when she last entered the country, whichever happened later. If that date has not passed or passed less than 180 days ago, she can still get a new work visa, but she will have to leave the country and come back (most likely will have to go to the consulate). It is called date on I-94, and she should definitely talk to an immigration lawyer about it.Third, yes, she needs to file her taxes. Being employed unauthorized does not mean you don't have to file a return. In fact, the IRS treats unauthorized workers the same way it treats legal immigrants - in the eyes of IRS they are all 'resident aliens'. In fact, not filing a return may present problems later if she ever gets to apply for citizenship.P.S. If you thought the US immigration system is punitive, then you need to know that your friend is one the few lucky ones who get to come to the US legally, a privilege not offered to the vast majority of would be immigrants. In other words, others have it worse.

When I was sixteen my mother and father discovered that I had been having sex with my also sixteen-year-old boyfriend. Both my parents had had children when they were sixteen to other partners and panicked. I was grounded, forced to take a pregnancy test in front of them, and ignored when I said we had been practising safe sex for almost a year by then. They argued between themselves how to best deal with my crime. My father said that I should be made to break up with my boyfriend and practise abstinence. My mother on the other hand, knew that wouldn't happen and argued I go on The Pill. It was then decided I was to have the Mirena Coil inserted as I suffer migraines and cannot take The Pill.My mother insisted my boyfriend accompany me to my first appointment for this coil and she came along too. Once everything was in place for me to have the procedure the following week I announced I did not want him to be there for the insertion, deciding that it would be much too uncomfortable for us both.When the day of the appointment came around my mother picked me up from school to go to the hospital. I was a senior and a prefect and couldn’t fail to notice the obvious shame in having my birth control inserted while wearing my Catholic school uniform consisting of my prefect blazer, blouse and skirt. By the time we were seen I was dying for the whole thing to be over. I felt like I had the word “SLUT” beaming above my head for everyone in the sexual health clinic to see.The nurse laid me down on the bed with my feet in the stirrups and inserted the speculum, a tool which is used to open everything up, and looked massive and daunting. As tense as I was I barely felt anything and thought “maybe this wouldn’t be so bad”. Then the nurse shattered my relief by announcing that I was too tall and she’d have to get the extra-large speculum to reach far enough. She came back into the room with something that could only be described as a torture device more closely resembling a leg sized claw than a legal medical instrument. I definitely felt that one going in.As I lay there thoroughly mortified the nurse began trying to calm me by chatting while she carried out my pre-procedure internal checks. She asked about school and what I wanted to be when I grew up. As she continued to poke around she suddenly became excited and asked if I would mind her assistant coming to watch this procedure. Unsure what was happening I watched her run off and come straight back with a small woman who happily peered up my skirt with her. The nurse then exclaimed excitedly:“You have the most perfect uterus I have ever seen! It is textbook! I don’t imagine you’ll have any issues getting pregnant if you wanted to! Wow! Look at that!”**EDIT**For everyone saying I'm wrong because the nurse could only see my cervix I am just relaying what she said, I don't know how factual it was or if it's true. At sixteen I didn't challenge her!Also the procedure to do this is as follows “Before you have an IUS fitted, you will have an internal examination to determine the size and position of your womb. The IUS is inserted through the cervix and into the womb.” It is entirely plausible she said this after examining the size and position of my womb? I said she had been “poking around” so most likely her statement was in response to inspecting my womb.AND ID JUST LIKE TO SAY THANK YOU FOR THE 2K UPVOTES!!!

This is a great question. First, for most (European) travelers, only basic English is usually needed to get through Customs. Does someone in 2015 who is fluent in French and German really not know any basic English? (I have to assume this person is elderly.)If they aren't traveling with anyone who knows any English and can help, then translation services can be provided. Depending on the airport in question, this may be quite a wait. At JFK or Newark, probably not such a huge wait. If arriving at another airport where most arrivals are from Asia, the wait could be longer. I am only guessing, but I would think the need for French and German translation services at, say, LAX is fairly low on the scale. Most travelers requiring language assistance don't come from Europe.If traveling alone, I would recommend befriending a bilingual seatmate or a flight attendant to ask for advice and assistance. As Tom Lewis says, learning a few phrases in English ("My name is..." "I am staying for ... days") would help. Most in-flight magazines have immigration forms translated into various languages, and using that translation as a guide could help. You could even tear that page out of the magazine and show the English version to the agent with your answers from the foreign-language version as a communicative guide.

Years ago I worked at document management company.  There is cool software that can automate aspects of hand-written forms.  We had an airport as a customer - they scanned plenty and (as I said before) this was several years ago...On your airport customs forms, the "boxes" that you 'need' to write on - are basically invisible to the scanner - but are used because then us humans will tend to write neater and clearer which make sit easier to recognize with a computer.  Any characters with less than X% accuracy based on a recognition engine are flagged and shown as an image zoomed into the particular character so a human operator can then say "that is an "A".   This way, you can rapidly go through most forms and output it to say - an SQL database, complete with link to original image of the form you filled in.If you see "black boxes" at three corners of the document - it is likely set up for scanning (they help to identify and orient the page digitally).  If there is a unique barcode on the document somewhere I would theorize there is an even higher likelihood of it being scanned - the document is of enough value to be printed individually which costs more, which means it is likely going to be used on the capture side.   (I've noticed in the past in Bahamas and some other Caribbean islands they use these sorts of capture mechanisms, but they have far fewer people entering than the US does everyday)The real answer is: it depends.  Depending on each country and its policies and procedures.  Generally I would be surprised if they scanned and held onto the paper.   In the US, they proably file those for a set period of time then destroy them, perhaps mining them for some data about travellers. In the end,  I suspect the "paper-to-data capture" likelihood of customs forms ranges somewhere on a spectrum like this:Third world Customs Guy has paper to show he did his job, paper gets thrown out at end of shift. ------  We keep all the papers! everything is scanned as you pass by customs and unique barcodes identify which flight/gate/area the form was handed out at, so we co-ordinate with cameras in the airport and have captured your image.  We also know exactly how much vodka you brought into the country. :)

In general, it is possible to change status from H-4 to F-1 provided that you have the appropriate (I-20) documentation from the school you intend to attend.Note that H-4 is a dual intent visa, but F-1 is not, as a result, you may be denied the change of status if USCIS concludes that you have immigrant intent.Note also that change of status only applies while you are in the United States. If you are not in the United States and have a currently valid H-4 visa, but wish to obtain an F-1 visa, you must simply apply for an (entirely new) F-1 visa. While you can reuse some of the documentary evidence you collected for the H-4 visa for the F-1 application, it will be a new application.

You now see an extension of a principle tenet of US law applied to immigration: You are presumed innocent until proven guilty. In this case, the US assumes you will leave when your visa expires. Unless you are picked up for some other reason (like breaking the law somewhere) and found to be overstaying your visa, the US assumes you are honest. Most times, you will get away with it unless you cause trouble somewhere. Merely overstaying your visa is not something so serious that anyone will track you down to confirm that you have left.This sort of thing applies to ALL law enforcement in the USA. Robbers and thieves get away with their crime about 90% of the time. But such people tend to keep doing bad things and eventually get caught and convicted. 10% conviction rate is enough to deter most such crimes. People break the law by all the time by speeding, and might only be caught once every few years. The conviction rate is probably a fraction of a percent. At the other end of the spectrum, more serious crimes are pursued more rigorously.. we don’t want murderers running loose.

You can change your status. In order to do that, You need to submit an application to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for a change of status. This option allows you to change your nonimmigrant status while remaining in the U.S. With this, you may gain a new status but you will not receive a new visa, visas are only issued outside the U.S.To change your status, you will need the following:Your I-94 card which lists you departures and arrival dates, along with the expiration date for your stayApply to an academic course of study at a college/university, once accepted, the school will issue an I-20 formUse the SEVIS ID number located on the top right corner of I-20, to fill out you SEVIS I-901 form and pay the required fee.Write a letter explaining why you want to change your status from B1 to F1.Fill out a form I-539 to change your nonimmigrant status from B1 to F1. Pay the filing fee.