Somebody told you that you lost an important document, and that replacing it costs money and takes months.
For most people, that is not true anymore, and you should know it before you hand anyone a payment.
The Short Answer
Most arrival records are electronic now, so for most people there is nothing to replace.
The document is called an I-94, and it is the record of when and how you entered the country. Customs and Border Protection issues most of them, not USCIS, and for the great majority of entries it exists as an electronic record rather than a piece of paper in a drawer.
A record that exists electronically is not lost. Paying to replace it does not produce anything you did not already have.
When Filing an Application Actually Applies
There is a form for replacing an arrival record, Form I-102, and it covers a narrow set of situations:
- Replacing a record that was lost, stolen, mutilated, or destroyed
- Getting an initial document for someone who was never issued one
- Correcting a record that USCIS itself created
Notice the pattern. USCIS issues or corrects arrival records only for the records USCIS created. Most people quoted a price for this do not fall into any of the three.
What Actually Matters Is What the Record Says
This is the part nobody selling you a filing is going to raise.
Pulling the record is the easy half. The half that decides things is what comes back, and there are only a few possible outcomes:
- It matches what you remember. Good, and now it is documentation you can use.
- It shows a date or a port that does not match your memory. That gap is worth understanding before it appears in a filing.
- Nothing comes back at all. Arrival records are created when a person is inspected at entry, which is what the regulation on issuance describes at 8 C.F.R. § 235.1(h), with the record itself defined at 8 C.F.R. § 1.4. A blank result can mean more than one thing, and some of those things change a case completely.
- And the record you are picturing is not the only file. What USCIS holds and what the immigration court holds are two separate records at two separate agencies. A person can have a court file they have never seen: the USCIS file and the immigration court file are two different records.
That last one is not a technical failure. It is usually the beginning of the real conversation, and it is a question about your entry history rather than about a form. How you entered is the fact that decides the shape of most cases in this office: how the record review works.
Before You Pay Anyone, Bring It Here
Send us the quote before you pay it or sign it.
We will look at what you were told, tell you whether the filing is one of the three situations above, and pull the question apart with you. It costs you nothing, and it takes minutes rather than months.
That offer is not a promotion. It is the fraud protection promise this firm already makes to its members, and on this particular question we are not gating it behind anything.
About the Money, Without Numbers
There are two separate fees in this area, and one of them cannot be waived.
We are not publishing either amount here, because fees change and a stale number on a law firm page is worse than no number. Confirm current amounts against the official government source before you or anyone else files anything.
What we will say plainly: a filing you did not need costs you both the fee and the months.
Why a Law Firm Publishes This
Because somebody is charging for it right now.
The people most likely to be sold an unnecessary filing are the ones who can least afford it, who do not read English comfortably, and who have already paid somebody once for something that did not work.
If your case is weak, you hear it from us first. If there is risk, you know before anything is filed. If there is a path, you get a plan built around it.
A firm that tells you not to pay for something is a firm you can believe later.
Have It Checked Before You Pay for Anything
If someone has quoted you a price to replace an arrival record, do not pay it today.
Bring the quote and whatever you were told. Ten minutes with someone who reads these every week is worth more than the filing you were about to buy.
Talk it through with a bilingual team member. Bring what you were told, what you were quoted, and anything you kept from when you entered.
Law Office of Gilda McDowell. Serving families across West Texas and eastern New Mexico.
This page explains how the arrival record process works. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Fees and procedures change. Confirm current requirements against the official government source before filing. Everything here was verified against the primary sources on August 28, 2026.