I551 question

[akpillar 0]

Hi All,

I was wondering after entering US and getting I551 stamp.

Do we need to wait for Green Card to be mailed to us?

Or we could just go back and re-enter USA based on I551 stamp?

Thanks in advance

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

You can come and go on the 1551 -CR1 stamp, until the GC is recv'd.

[March2010 2]

I wonder how this scenario will work out:

If you go back to your country and then try to come back to the US. The passport control people at your country or any country for that matter, will they know that this stamp allows you to enter the US?

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

  On 8/19/2010 at 5:17 PM, March2010 said:

I wonder how this scenario will work out:

If you go back to your country and then try to come back to the US. The passport control people at your country or any country for that matter, will they know that this stamp allows you to enter the US?

Yes, they know that the I551 stamp acts as a temp green card. This is nothing new to them.

[March2010 2]

  On 8/19/2010 at 5:42 PM, LIFE said:

Yes, they know that the I551 stamp acts as a temp green card. This is nothing new to them.

That's good.

I wouldn't trust them to know this in my country though.

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

  On 8/19/2010 at 5:44 PM, March2010 said:

That's good.

I wouldn't trust them to know this in my country though.

Oh, they know trust me

[HeatDeath 430]

  On 8/19/2010 at 5:44 PM, March2010 said:

That's good.

I wouldn't trust them to know this in my country though.

What the passport people in the foreign country know about the I-551 stamp shouldn't matter too much anyways.

I just returned from a week in Japan on business last month. It was my first trip out of the US since getting my GC. Japan's processes work like this:

When a Canadian citizen [who does not need a visa to enter Japan] arrives in Japan, their customas and immigration officer places a computer generated stamp in your passport that says "Landing Permission" and has an expiration date 90 days after you enter. They also staple a paper card you fill out, exactly analogous to an I-94, into your passport.

When I went to leave Japan, I checked into my flight on United Airline's website. Because I had a return ticket ending in the US, the website asked me what country I was a citizen of, and what country I was a resident of. When I answered "citizen of Canada" and "resident of the United States" the website asked me for my "Green Card Number" [which, it turns out, is your A#, NOT your "Card number" in the hologram on the back, BTW]. I assume, if I had checked in at the airport, the computer system would have lead the human airline rep through the same questions, requiring the same information.

At the airport, after you check your luggage at the check-in counter, you have to go through Japan Customs and Immigration to exit the country. This was a new experience for me, as neither Canada, the US, nor Great Britain [the only other countries I've been to] stamp you out of the country. At this counter they remove the I-94-like card from your passport, and stamp an ink stamp over the computer generated plastic stamp they glued in on entry, canceling it. They did not ask for, nor seem to care about my GC, or where I was going, or whether or not I had the necessary documentation to enter my country of destination. They only cared that I was leaving Japan.

So the airline representatives will need to know that an I-551 stamp is equivalent to a green card, so they can confirm (or cause the airline to incur significant from the US government) that you have the appropriate documentation to enter the US. The customs and immigration workers in the foreign country, on the other hand, don't need to know squat about American passport stamps. They just need to know their own.

I'm pretty sure the same dynamic is true in any foreign country that stamps people's passports on departure. And if they don't stamp your passport on departure, so much the better. They'll never even see your I-551 stamp in that case.