Presence status not initially sent to user upon login?

Hi,

Suppose that user B is on user A''s roster list.  User B sets their status to "Away".  If user A is online, user A will receive a presence packet with the updated status.  However, if user A is offline, and comes online later, the initial presence packet sent to user A contains only the "from" attribute, and thus does not convey that user B is "away".  Is this a bug, or proper protocol?

Thanks,

Aman