U.S. Port of Entry issue - Sharing my experience

I would like to post my recent experience at the port of entry while getting back into the US. I recently traveled to India on a 3 week vacation, during which I also got my H1B stamped. I had absolutely no problems (no 221G) with getting my visa stamped. That part when smoothly.

At the port of entry (Boston), I was asked a few simple questions:
1. Why are you in the US?
2. What is your role in the company?
3. Do you work directly for the employer or is there a client? (I work for the employer, there is no client in my case)
4. Where is your company located?

It is this last question that is the subject of this post. To give a complete answer to the question, I said the company is headquartered in XXX, California, and my office is located in YYY, Massachusetts. The officer caught on to this and asked me, who gave me permission to work in MA. I said I have the offer letter with me from the company, which clearly states that my place of work is MA. He said he does not care about any company offer letter and wanted to know if I/the company obtained permission from the government for me to work at MA. I said I am not aware of any such permission requested or received. I also showed him my I-797, which also simply lists the company's headquarters (California) address in the 'Petitioner' line. He then called another officer and asked him to escort me to the "Secondary".

The "secondary", a small office beside the baggage carousel place (if you are aware of Boston Logan Terminal E) was a gloomy place. Even though, through friends and some online forums I have heard of people being deported at the port of entry back to their own countries, I walked into the office quietly confident that I have nothing to worry about as mine was a straight forward case. While I was waiting, a young guy sitting next to me asked me why I was there. I explained. When asked the same question, he answered he was a student on F1 visa, but forgot to bring his I-20 with him and said "Man, this place is scary". Meanwhile, an officer was grilling another person on a green card, who forgot to bring their green card document with them. There was another middle age woman who had completely broken down and was pouring down tears like rain. She was being deported back to her country, though I didn't know for what reason. The situation of these people weighed heavily in my mind and at the same time introspecting my own situation. The top most thing on my mind was "Damn, my body can't withstand another 22 hour travel". I was exhausted. I was soon called on by the officer.

The officer asked me questions similar to the officer in the primary. He asked me for proof that I am allowed by the government to work in MA. I didn't know what proof to show and was simply replying to the officer's questions and contemplating my options. He asked me how long I planned to stay in MA. I told him frankly that I have 2 more years left on my H1B visa and I planned to stay in MA for that period. He was quite blunt when he said I didn't have permission to stay in MA for even one more second. He said the company must have filed an LCA with the government, which seeks permission for me to work from MA. Once he said LCA, I at least knew where to look (because little did I know before that LCA contains that information). Since I was going for my visa stamping, I had luckily taken the whole set of documents, including the LCA. In all the 6 times I have traveled outside the US in the last 3 years on H1B, this was the first time I happened to carry an LCA (as the company usually retains this document and hands it over only on request). The officer perused my LCA and saw that the company had sought permission for me to work in MA. The officer finally stamped my passport with permission to enter and told me, "if you did not have this document for proof, you were going to go back to India today".

For those of you on a visa and traveling internationally, I recommend that you guys carry all the documents you can. You never know what will come handy.