Travel between conditial green card and removing conditions

[LuckyDucky 0]

Hello everyone,

My wife's grandmother, with whom she is very close, does not have much time left and my wife desperately wants to go back to be with her. I really hope this won't be the end for her, but I am worried that it is.

Unfortunately, my wife's conditional green card expires this month. We have submitted our paperwork to remove conditions. We received a letter stating that her green card has been extended 1 year. We also had our biometrics taken. We have not been contacted for an interview, but a look online says our case is still under review so I assume we still may be called in.

However, the travel agent had advised my wife that she shouldn't go because she may be denied entry back at the airport because they will not accept the extention, even though the letter specifically states she can travel.

Does anyone have any experience with this? What options does she have?

Thank you for reading and for your experience.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Travel agent is wrong. Your wife can travel.

[Krikit 1,165]

Yup, I reentered the US quite a few times with the extension letter. That's what it's there for. No worries.

[YOUTOO 2]

I have done it several times already without any problems with the exception of the fact that they always

send me to secondary. but no problems. As a matter I am outside the country now traveling. So, don't worry.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

They still have travel agents?

[Matt and Sarah 0]

Agreed, travel agent is wrong, just make sure you have both the expired card and extension letter in hand. In fact, make a few extra copies for safe keeping and take one copy with you as a back-up.

We've done it as well, no problems going to the UK and back.

[v333k 59]

Just keep in mind that there is a biometrics that takes place, and your wife needs to be there for it. Also, if called for an interview, she needs to be there (I guess it goes without saying).

If you do receive a biometrics appointment, she can try for an early walk-in prior to the scheduled date and get done with it... then there will be a period of waiting before you hear again from USCIS which at that time she can be out of the country.

Everyone else is correct - that travel agent needs to find a new career (probably selling watermelons or something) since the information is very wrong!

Edited November 5, 2010 by v333k

[LuckyDucky 0]

Thank you everyone for their help! I really appreciate the assurances. We will make a few copies and I will retain a scanned image of it as well.

[Brian&Mel 0]

Thank you everyone for their help! I really appreciate the assurances. We will make a few copies and I will retain a scanned image of it as well.

You can also make an Infopass appointment with your local USCIS office and get your wife's passport stamp with the extention date!

And since you are done with biometrics, you do not have to worry about that. It might takes a few months before you will hear back from them.

Edited November 6, 2010 by Brian&Mel

[SerenityNOW 11]

I read this thread, and several others, so when my husband left for a business trip in Canada, he brought the original of the extension letter with his passport and green card, with back up copies. Just like everyone says.

So get this - at the San Francisco airport they almost didn't let him *leave* (according to him, I don't know how adamant they were since I wasn't there...) because he didn't have the STAMP in his PASSPORT. They said he wouldn't be able to come back... Annoying! He's on the flight home now so we'll see if they give him a hard time or not. Hope they don't send him back to Canada, haha.

I'm just very surprised by this. San Francisco *International* Airport! Not like they ever see any immigrants coming through there or anything.

How is it possible they don't think the official letter from USCIS is enough? (And isn't he somehow "in the system" as having another year of LPR status if they look it up on their computer?)

Anyway, no point for this except to relay experience. It never ceases to amaze me how there seems to be no consistency whatsoever with the immigration folks.

[psho 0]

I read this thread, and several others, so when my husband left for a business trip in Canada, he brought the original of the extension letter with his passport and green card, with back up copies. Just like everyone says.

So get this - at the San Francisco airport they almost didn't let him *leave* (according to him, I don't know how adamant they were since I wasn't there...) because he didn't have the STAMP in his PASSPORT. They said he wouldn't be able to come back... Annoying! He's on the flight home now so we'll see if they give him a hard time or not. Hope they don't send him back to Canada, haha.

I'm just very surprised by this. San Francisco *International* Airport! Not like they ever see any immigrants coming through there or anything.

How is it possible they don't think the official letter from USCIS is enough? (And isn't he somehow "in the system" as having another year of LPR status if they look it up on their computer?)

Anyway, no point for this except to relay experience. It never ceases to amaze me how there seems to be no consistency whatsoever with the immigration folks.

That's interesting. My husband is in the UK right now (he left on November 3). He flew Virgin Atlantic from SFO -- he didn't have any difficulty, but we did notice that the person checking him in didn't ask to see his green card, as they usually do. The clerk did check with a supervisor -- not sure if this is because he didn't check in online or what. (He has his green card and his letter of extension with him.) Who was it who almost didn't let him leave? The airline personnel?

He flies back the day before Thanksgiving -- if he gets any guff at all, I'll report back.

[SerenityNOW 11]

Update now that my husband is home:

This might be an issue specific to people from countries that would normally require visas for where they are going. In our case, Canada requires a visa from Bulgarians. Because he has a green card, he is given the same opportunity as Americans to come and go out of Canada without a visa. As long as he has a valid green card.

Apparently the people at Air Canada told him he couldn't fly without the stamp in his passport. So he went running (with all his bags, since they wouldn't check them of course) "one mile away" according to him to Customs. He waited for a while, then had to actually argue with them over what the letter meant and when they finally saw his point that he has a valid green card until Oct 2011, they said they didn't have the stamp there. So he goes tearing back to the check-in desk, tells them what the customs guys told him... they don't believe him so they call over to customs (um, couldn't they have done that in the first place?) and finally agree to let him get on the plane.

In Canada, finally, it was actually not a problem. They saw an expired green card, the looked at the letter and it was fine. Yay, Canadians!

I guess in conclusion, the only disturbing part of this story is that the actual American customs people didn't know about the letter extension and had to be convinced of its validity.

SO - if you are from a country that would normally require a visa to visit where you are going, AND you are in the ROC processing limbo, you might want to go ahead and get the stamp in your passport to avoid difficulties. We will before my husband goes back.

Oh, wait - he just told me he HAS a stamp now, from returning today. It looks the same as his previous ones (his first one with "CR-1 19OCT2010" written in, and another one from last summer that just has "LPR" written in) but this one has something like "ARC" . WTH? Is this the magical stamp he needs? What is ARC?

[psho 0]

Update now that my husband is home:

This might be an issue specific to people from countries that would normally require visas for where they are going. In our case, Canada requires a visa from Bulgarians. Because he has a green card, he is given the same opportunity as Americans to come and go out of Canada without a visa. As long as he has a valid green card.

Apparently the people at Air Canada told him he couldn't fly without the stamp in his passport. So he went running (with all his bags, since they wouldn't check them of course) "one mile away" according to him to Customs. He waited for a while, then had to actually argue with them over what the letter meant and when they finally saw his point that he has a valid green card until Oct 2011, they said they didn't have the stamp there. So he goes tearing back to the check-in desk, tells them what the customs guys told him... they don't believe him so they call over to customs (um, couldn't they have done that in the first place?) and finally agree to let him get on the plane.

In Canada, finally, it was actually not a problem. They saw an expired green card, the looked at the letter and it was fine. Yay, Canadians!

I guess in conclusion, the only disturbing part of this story is that the actual American customs people didn't know about the letter extension and had to be convinced of its validity.

SO - if you are from a country that would normally require a visa to visit where you are going, AND you are in the ROC processing limbo, you might want to go ahead and get the stamp in your passport to avoid difficulties. We will before my husband goes back.

Oh, wait - he just told me he HAS a stamp now, from returning today. It looks the same as his previous ones (his first one with "CR-1 19OCT2010" written in, and another one from last summer that just has "LPR" written in) but this one has something like "ARC" . WTH? Is this the magical stamp he needs? What is ARC?

Glad your husband got home!

Could the ARC stamp be Alien Registration Card? (This apparently was an older term for the green card.) I googled ARC + visa and got lots of results about Taiwan (where you require an Alien Registration Certificate), and this result on Wikipedia about Alien Registration Cards:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_States%29

It's a mystery!

[HeatDeath 430]

I'm not in RoC limbo yet, but I got an ARC stamp too.

My two-year GC was issued in December 2009. In July 2010, I went to Japan for a week with work - my first trip out of the US since entering on my K-1. Canadians don;t need a visa to enter Japan for up to 90 days for work purposes, btw.

When I reentered the US, at San Francisco International airport. the Immigration officer, who was very friendly, looked at my GC and Canadian passport, remarked a little on the K-1 visa imprint, said "good luck, welcome back", and basically waved me through. He stamped my passport with the normal entry stamp, with, as you said, "ARC" written on the little line.

I'm pretty sure it means "Alien Registration Card" and just records the reason you were admissible. The reason we, as PRs are admissible, is because we have GCs, which they still call ARCs because they have to use well-defined codes, which were defined before any of us were born.

[SerenityNOW 11]

A belated thanks for the info! I haven't checked in here for a while. Alien Registration Card, that makes sense...

I am hoping that he won't have to go through this again as he has several more trips to Canada in the next months. I can just imagine a situation when the plane wasn't delayed (which is the only reason he got on the flight to Toronto) and having to explain to all these different people every time that the letter is enough. So I was thinking we should get him the mysterious 551 stamp. I googled it and it seems like USCIS doesn't like to give it out any more, so I don't know if it's worth making and going to an appointment for this supposedly unnecessary stamp that he might or might not be able to obtain. Probably I am going to do nothing about it and hope for the best but if anyone has experience with this stamp recently, please share