I-512 & I-551

[theanh88 0]

Dear Alls,

I have an appointment for GC interview on August 31st, and I applied Advance Parole also. Unfortunately, I have to travel right after interview day ( same day ). Someone told me the USCIS is gonna take the AP back after that and stamp i-551 in my passport while GC is gonna sent to my house for couple weeks. Is it possible to travel after I will be approved ? Which document should I use for this case ? Thank you very much !!!

[medhead 1]

Sorry, I'm no help but I have a similar question:

My husband and I had our AOS interview yesterday in NYC. We were super prepared and had a whole binder full of documentation of our marriage. The interview went fine, on balance (he tripped my husband up with a couple of tough questions) and the agent seemed positive. He didn't ask for a single piece of evidence except for our passports, even though I offered additional evidence at several points. He took the I-94, however, at the end of the 15 minute interview, he told us the decision was pending and we'd hear in 30 days. We're supposed to travel to Jamaica to visit my husband's family on August 21st. Do we travel on the Advanced Parole if we havent' heard anything by then?

Also, does anyone have experience of not getting approved immediately at the NYC office in a case where the agent did not indicate that anything was missing from the application?

Dear Alls,

I have an appointment for GC interview on August 31st, and I applied Advance Parole also. Unfortunately, I have to travel right after interview day ( same day ). Someone told me the USCIS is gonna take the AP back after that and stamp i-551 in my passport while GC is gonna sent to my house for couple weeks. Is it possible to travel after I will be approved ? Which document should I use for this case ? Thank you very much !!!

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Traveling around the interview is always very tricky. If you are approved, then your AP is no longer valid. I suggest if you have travel plans, to bring proof of the travel plans and ask the IO for a I-551 stamp for travel at your interview, if you are approved. To the second post, yes, sometimes the IO needs to get a supervisor's approval or something before pushing the approval button. It doesn't sound like you need to worry. If you are not approved by the time of your trip, you can still use AP. If you are approved, you need the GC in hand to travel. Good luck.

[Little_My 464]

I have to disagree a bit with Harpa based on very recent personal experience. We had our interview in NYC on July 20th, and were not approved on the spot nor given the stamp. I traveled back to Finland the next day after the interview, and the day after that got an email telling me we were approved and card was in production. The GC arrived in my apartment in NYC while I was still in Finland. I returned using my AP, which was no problem whatsoever. Even though the GC has been approved while the beneficiary is abroad, AP can still be used to re-enter the country as long as it has not expired. In this case, the person is not technically admitted into the US but paroled into the US, which is also not a problem. I was told that as long as I travel internationally within 12 months from my entry, I do not need to take any additional course of action. If I do not travel, I will have to come back to deferred inspection with my GC so that they can change my status in their system from a parolee to a permanent resident. That's it.

However - my I-94 was not taken in the interview because I told the IO that I had to travel. If they took away your I-94, then you will have trouble leaving. You are supposed to surrender that at departure. In that case your only option probably is to wait for the approval notice, and as soon as it comes, go to an infopass appointment and ask for the I-551 stamp.

Medhead - we dd not get approved though nothing was missing from our file. For us the reason was that the IO had not had time to even open our file before we walked in, so she said she needs a couple of days to review it. Our interview was July 20th and approval notice came on the 22nd.

Edited August 10, 2011 by Little_My

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Little_ My - Your situation was different. You were approved while out of the country. You were not approved when you left on valid AP. I noted that if you are not approved by the time you leave for the trip, you can leave on AP.

You also don't need to surrender your I-94 to leave. I was advised by CBP to take the I-94 out of the passport when my husband used AP. We needed to show that piece of evidence at the interview, and according to them, since we had applied for AOS he was not leaving on the same method he entered on, so we didn't want a record that he did. The "loop" remained open, and was closed (or upgraded) when he was approved for GC and the IO took both the original and the AP I-94. The IO was pleased to have both. There were no issues leaving without a I-94, though I had prepared him a letter stating why just in case. No one cared.

It's good you had such a smooth POE. I have argued elsewhere on this board that if GC is approved while the person is abroad, they will still be let in (which is so obvious) while others have argued you would be stuck. Glad to know I was right.

[Little_My 464]

Sorry, my bad! I mistakenly thought you were under the impression that returning with an AP once GC has been issued is a problem no matter when the approval notice has been given. But yes, I can definitely attest to the fact that returning with an AP after a GC has been issue, if the beneficiary was abroad when the GC approval was given, is really not a problem at all. I also asked about it from the IO who paroled me in, and he told me that it happens all the time, and often the person entering did not even know that their GC had been issued, but at POE the IOs can see it from their computers and can give the good news. He said it is very common and that they parole in people who have had their GCs issued while abroad every day.

Good to know about the I-94 as well - though I will not have to fill that out anymore myself now that I have my GC in hand