US refugee travel document

[Injie 1]

Hi there,

my wife is a US permanent resident and her travel document is soon to expire. It’s so annoying they only last one year and then it takes a year to get a new one because, as usual, we pay for a service and yet it takes forever! Why is this? My wife was a refugee, an asylee. She is not free to return to her own country without persecution. She never had a passport there anyway, and would not have been able to get one. She’s been in America for six years and very much appreciates America giving her asylum and she loves this country, but I very much resent that half the time she is not free to leave, even for a holiday. That’s even more infuriating when you consider that it’ll be another few years until she can bring me to America as her husband. We may just go and live in England instead, and to hell with America (excuse my frustration), but it’ll be another year until she has a travel document to go to England. She’s stuck here, in the land of the “free”?

Anyway, we know of someone else in the same circumstances getting a two year travel document. All I can find online is “refugee travel documents last one year”. Yes, even though my wife is a green card holder, she’s still seen as a “refugee”. Maybe that’s why it takes one whole year to get a travel document renewed? Why are there not different travel documents for different circumstances? Why does a renewal take up to a year? A renewal for god's sake!

My wife has a lawyer, pro bono, who is kindly helping with this. But the lawyer says my wife is talking about a “re-entry permit” as those are valid for two years. But what is a re-entry permit? Is it used like a travel document? Can foreign visas be put inside? Please note, the lawyer earlier told us “You don’t need a travel document because you have a green card”. I think the lawyer never left America and doesn’t realise that, while a green card will get you back into America, it won’t get you into another country when you need a visa. Therfore I'm not confident about this re-entry permit idea, as I don’t want us to wait a year for a re-entry permit only to find we need a travel document.

Please can anyone give us some info about this?

[justashooter 430]

a refugee is being given a gift of status. they do not have a right to such status. they usually pay nothing for this gift, so should usually expect the minimum. this is something you need to learn about America. people who get here and live here for free don't have the right to demand a place at the front of the line. that place has already been bought and paid for.

even so, people entering via other legal process can have "trapped moments" when they wait for green cards, or to get corrected green cards, or to get...