Provide all prior H and L approval notices, I-94 records and a reliable entry-and-departure chronology. Include earlier employers and status changes rather than limiting the file to the current company’s documents.
Resolve dates systematically
A petition’s end date is not always the same as the period recorded at admission. Identify missing records and explain any discrepancy with available supporting evidence. If claiming an exception based on residence abroad or intermittent work, document the actual pattern rather than just listing trips.
Counsel should apply the rules to the assembled history and explain the period that can be requested. Records also change after they are gathered, and a chronology that is never revisited quietly goes stale. Build the file so that a correction is easy to insert and visible once inserted: date-stamp each version, keep superseded copies rather than overwriting them, and note who supplied each item.
Hypothetical example: a modular housing manufacturer assembles a transferee’s entry-and-departure history, and a later request to the traveller’s own government records produces a departure date that contradicts the internal travel log. The right response is to document both sources, explain which is authoritative and why, and let counsel decide what the petition should state. Silently adopting the more convenient date leaves an unexplained discrepancy in a file that may be read years later.