Post AOS Interview Confusion - In Limbo Because of AP

[NewYork0314 0]

My wife and I just returned from our interview adjusting her status from her J-1 (no 2 year requirement), in NYC. Here's the deal: She came into the country on a J-1, which expired October 2010. Just before it expired, she legally left the country and returned, no problems. Her I-94, upon returning, said that she was allowed to stay until the middle of October 2010 - the end of her original J-1. Then, while still in status, she extended her J-1 6 extra months, now with a valid J-1 until April 12th 2011. This extension was never stamped into her passport like the original J-1. In March 2011 we married and we filed for her AOS, which was received on April 18, 2011, more than 180 days after the I-94 says she was not to have been allowed in the country, even though her J-1 was still valid.

In case you're confused, she did not spend even 1 day illegally in the country before AOS. Then, July 2011 we left the country and returned. The woman at the interview said that because the original I-94 had been out of status for more than 6 months, and since the J-1 stamp in passport also was invalid over 6 months, that my wife may be denied?!? I don't understand this. Was she confused because of the extension? She had never been out of status. We were so confused, as was the interviewer. She said that she needed to talk to some other people before knowing officially the law.

Can anyone help? We are nervous!

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

How did you take a trip in July? On Advance Parole?

Edited August 11, 2011 by Harpa Timsah

[NewYork0314 0]

How did you take a trip in July? On Advance Parole?

Yes, sorry forgot that. She was approved for AP and was successfully paroled into the country two days ago. No problems whatsoever. We didn't think it was risky because she was never out of status.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Okay, so then the IO just needs to check the laws and make sure that your wife was actually approved for her extension and was eligible for said extension. If there is a problem with that, she would have a 3-year ban and shouldn't have been let back in with the AP. If there is no problem with that, then it is fine. You'll just have to let the IO do their work and make sure everything checks out. Sorry, it must be stressful. But if you know you did everything correctly, you shouldn't worry. Good luck.

[NewYork0314 0]

Okay, so then the IO just needs to check the laws and make sure that your wife was actually approved for her extension and was eligible for said extension. If there is a problem with that, she would have a 3-year ban and shouldn't have been let back in with the AP. If there is no problem with that, then it is fine. You'll just have to let the IO do their work and make sure everything checks out. Sorry, it must be stressful. But if you know you did everything correctly, you shouldn't worry. Good luck.

Thank you. The IO's last words were "I just have to check that one thing, but it should be fine." That was two seconds after she told us we could potentially be denied. She was so incredibly confused by the J-1 extension that we didn't know what to think. We were so blown away by it being a problem because we thought, if anywhere, we would have a problem at the border, which we didn't.

Additionally, we showed the IO our visa extension acceptance, which she lost in the pile of papers that she was holding for a few seconds. Without that paper, my wife will be denied. We are both anxious people naturally, but they didn't invoke confidence in us by the way they were handling everyone's papers. I asked if she could call me if there was a problem, to which she agreed, but again, I don't have much confidence in the system. I believe they are just too overloaded with work to look at the details of all our papers. Here's praying that I'm wrong...