Which Arrival Date do I enter for my spouse's “Date Arrived” on form I-130 Petition for Alien Relative?

Question

I'm a US citizen and marrying my Korean fiancee. We're working on immigrations forms and have a quick question about form I-130 'Petition for Alien Relative', Question number 14: (Question Marks in the Date Arrived field because it's the field we're unsure of.)

14: If your relative (My fiancee, soon to be spouse) is currently in the U.S., complete the following:

• He or she arrived as a: [ Student ]
• Arrival/Departure Record (I-94): [ The Number ]
• Date Arrived: [ ????-??-?? ]

This is confusing us because of a trip we made to Canada last year. During the trip, we crossed the land border at Niagara Falls when leaving and returning to the US.

However, when we look up her I-94 travel history (https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov), it notes a Departure for the date we entered Canada, but it doesn't show an Arrival for the date we returned to the US. Additionally, the "Point of Entry/Exit" is blank for that departure.

The DHS site has a footnote that makes us feel both more and less confused:

The following travel may not be reflected: land border arrivals/departures [. . .]

So we have one main question and one related question:

1. What do we enter in the 'Date Arrived' field?

   • The first date she entered the US?
   • The most recent date she entered the US from South Korea? (She's visited family back at home a few times)
   • The most recent date she entered the US from anywhere? (This would be from Canada) (We do know the date)

2. Do we need to make sure the return from Canada is properly recorded on her I-94?

Answer 1

We've gotten it all worked out now and I'll just post an answer to my own question, in case someone else needs to know in the future.

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1. The 'Date Arrived' field does need to be the most recent arrival into the US.
2. Yes, we needed to make sure her entry from Canada is properly recorded. We went to our airport's International Terminal and found the CBP office, where they discovered that there was a missing record. They updated the record, stamped her passport, and sent us happily on our way.
   • The entry was actually over a land border, but that didn't matter - going to the airport was fine.