Thinking of leaving....think again.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Also, FYI, when we went for this appointment with our son, Alla was very concerned he would not be able to return, she worries about such things maybe too much. The guy at the local office told her..."Don't worry, your son has entered the US legally, you have done everything right, we will NOT keep him from re-entering the USA" His tone and demeanor reassured Alla, and me. So maybe she can get a "sympathetic ear", I would suggest an infopass appointment ASAP, bring his receipt for AOS and biometrics letter which should be stamped that biometrics have been taken. Ask for a supervisor

[nicca 0]

Hello everyone, i just want to know if applying for AP would affect for your application of naturalization. What is this continous stay in the US for 2 years without breaks? I hope someboday can give some idea about this. Thank you and have a good day.

[payxibka 10,045]

Hello everyone, i just want to know if applying for AP would affect for your application of naturalization. What is this continous stay in the US for 2 years without breaks? I hope someboday can give some idea about this. Thank you and have a good day.

Not a good idea to Hijack a thread...

AP has nothing to do with naturalization

No such thing as a two year continuous stay requirement. The continuous stay requirement is no break of larger than 6 mos.

[payxibka 10,045]

The shame is that if she had gone to USCIS with an infopass she could get an emergency AP sent to her in Canada (at the consulate in Montreal) for her to pick up on the way back. We did this for our son who had to come here and then return in a few weeks for college, we made an infopass right after he arrived, the local office did the AP application and asked if we wanted it sent to our home or to Moscow. we said to send it to Moscow and they sent it here anyway. But he got it in just a few days. Had it been an emergency he could have left immediately after the infopass appointment.

The defining moment is that AP needed to be approved BEFORE departure... In your case it was approved at the local field office.

Also, FYI, when we went for this appointment with our son, Alla was very concerned he would not be able to return, she worries about such things maybe too much. The guy at the local office told her..."Don't worry, your son has entered the US legally, you have done everything right, we will NOT keep him from re-entering the USA" His tone and demeanor reassured Alla, and me. So maybe she can get a "sympathetic ear", I would suggest an infopass appointment ASAP, bring his receipt for AOS and biometrics letter which should be stamped that biometrics have been taken. Ask for a supervisor

You can always try, but these set of facts are quite different than your personal experience and the results are likely to be different

Edited January 14, 2010 by payxibka

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

The underlying, most basis problem here is that people come to the US and can't wait to leave again as soon as possible.

I haven't visited my former home country since January 1994, and it's a beautiful country, I have family there, and I can leave and return without any worries. Thus, it's not so much a legal problem but a psychological one.

My advise to any prospective immigrant: just wait with your move to the United States until you have your affairs at your home country in order and are ready to live in the US - a huge country with 50 States ---permanently. Hence the term LPR.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

The defining moment is that AP needed to be approved BEFORE departure... In your case it was approved at the local field office.

You can always try, but these set of facts are quite different than your personal experience and the results are likely to be different

True, but infopass is free.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

The underlying, most basis problem here is that people come to the US and can't wait to leave again as soon as possible.

I haven't visited my former home country since January 1994, and it's a beautiful country, I have family there, and I can leave and return without any worries. Thus, it's not so much a legal problem but a psychological one.

My advise to any prospective immigrant: just wait with your move to the United States until you have your affairs at your home country in order and are ready to live in the US - a huge country with 50 States ---permanently. Hence the term LPR.

Good advice Bob. Some have even suggested the requirement is some sort of dictatorial oppression inflicted on unsuspecting and free people. The CR-1 is always an option, if you come here with a K-1 plan on staying a few months before you leave again, or go the CR-1 route.

[payxibka 10,045]

True, but infopass is free.

How can the alien (who is currently stuck in Canada) go in and do a INFOPASS appointment?

[Wis-Can 0]

How can the alien (who is currently stuck in Canada) go in and do a INFOPASS appointment?

I haven't talked to her today,...but I was wondering the same thing?

[HeatDeath 430]

That's likely part of it, and understandable, even though it's ultimately her responsibility to know the single-entry-only rule. However, if she or you can produce the link to the message "on here" that said that re-entry is OK, maybe we can re-educate the misinformed purveyor of that information. If it was in an upper forum, it proves yet again how much awful and even perilous advice can be spewed there. Naturally, we don't & can't know that unless someone provides a link.

If people come here, post one question in one thread, get 3-4 answers, and take action based only on those answers, then quite frankly, they're doing it wrong. When I first came here and was trying to figure stuff out for our I-129, and later for my visa application, I didn't even bother posting my own questions. I would just read every single thread that Search could turn up for me of anything even vaguely related to my area of inquiry. That way you develop a real understanding, based on dozens of informed opinions, not just the two or three who were answering questions on that particular day.

That's why whenever I answer someone's question these days, I always try to state my full reasoning, and overanswer the particular question. I'm not so much thinking of the individual questioner (though they do seem to appreciate detailed responses), I'm thinking of everyone who will come after, search on terms related to that thread, and find that thread.

Because of the reading I'd done beforehand, there was never at any time any question in my mind that leaving during AOS without an AP document in your hand is a life-shatteringly BAD idea. That is the consensus opinion of this board, echoed across literally hundreds of threads by dozens of well informed posters. Even if we can find a dissenting thread somewhere in the archives, anyone who does even the slightest depth of research could not escape that conclusion.

[HeatDeath 430]

The underlying, most basis problem here is that people come to the US and can't wait to leave again as soon as possible.

I haven't visited my former home country since January 1994, and it's a beautiful country, I have family there, and I can leave and return without any worries. Thus, it's not so much a legal problem but a psychological one.

My advise to any prospective immigrant: just wait with your move to the United States until you have your affairs at your home country in order and are ready to live in the US - a huge country with 50 States ---permanently. Hence the term LPR.

I will admit that when my AP papers arrived I posted a happy comment to my facebook saying "<HeatDeath> is no longer being held prisoner by the U.S. Government! :)". It is an odd feeling, particularly for Canadians, when your freedom to travel is legally curtailed, and I suspect that for some it's a lot harder than it was for me. But Bob is correct here. People need to know, and be comfortable with the idea, that after they come here they will NOT, for ANY reason, be able to return for a period of at least several months, until they have an AP document in hand. When I came here I left a Grandmother who had had serious health problems earlier that year. When I said goodbye to her I knew there was a realistic possibility that I would never see her again, because I would simply not be able to respond to any sudden health crises that cropped up prior to my AOS. Praise God, nothing of the sort happened, and she's still as healthy as the day I left, and I now have my green card, so going home quickly is a real option. But I knew in my heart, when I left, that that was a possibility. And so should everybody.

[HeatDeath 430]

I haven't talked to her today,...but I was wondering the same thing?

I've never dealt with InfoPass, but I don't believe she can. Even if USCIS has the odd office or two in Canada, they are as unlikely to be within easy driving distance of Nova Scotia as the consulates are.

An option that comes to mind, though it's a huge long shot: If her original I-94 is still valid, she may be able, with the assistance of a congresscritter or senator, to get her visa revalidated. I've read vague rumor that such a thing has happened within the institutional memory of visajourney, though it was apparently quite exceptional and required political pressure at a high level.

[payxibka 10,045]

I've never dealt with InfoPass, but I don't believe she can. Even if USCIS has the odd office or two in Canada, they are as unlikely to be within easy driving distance of Nova Scotia as the consulates are.

An option that comes to mind, though it's a huge long shot: If her original I-94 is still valid, she may be able, with the assistance of a congresscritter or senator, to get her visa revalidated. I've read vague rumor that such a thing has happened within the institutional memory of visajourney, though it was apparently quite exceptional and required political pressure at a high level.

No USCIS foreign field offices in Canada.

Visa revalidation might have been an option if the original I-94 was still valid, but is not possible as they have already gotten married

Edited January 14, 2010 by payxibka

[HeatDeath 430]

No USCIS foreign field offices in Canada.

Visa revalidation might have been an option if the original I-94 was still valid, but is not possible as they have already gotten married

Yeah, I seem to recall reading that.

Wasn't there something in the news about them setting up a special 1 800 number for Canada though, because their US number wasn't accessible in Canada or somesuch? That might be an option.

The fact remains though, that USCIS isn't this person's immediate problem, CBP is. CBP will need some specific reason to let this person back in to the US. And that means either the AP document that may still be being adjudicated (a long shot, at best), or some kind of revalidated visa (a longer shot, very unlikely), or (most likely) a CR-1 spousal visa, many months and hundreds of dollars from now.

Not to even mention that, even if this person gets back in to the US through some combination of the first or second options, their AOS (assuming it is not already considered abandoned) will be significantly complicated by the multiple entries, and the required explanations thereof.

I wish we had better news.

Edited January 14, 2010 by HeatDeath

[HeatDeath 430]

Dang it, killed another thread