Originally Posted by
abcedaria
If you get back to your home, and you still have it, and you need to re-enter soon, I was always told that the embassy/consulate can take care of it with a minimum of fuss.
You misunderstand.
If you need to re-enter soon (within the typical 90-day validity), there is no issue. The I-94W allows multiple entries.
What I was getting at is that there cases where you wouldn't want the green I-94W taken off you when departing the US. As an example: there's a fee for doing a new visa waiver entry when crossing by land or sea. Having a valid I-94W on entry means the fee isn't payable.