WANTED: Experience Traveling with AP status

[Charles C 0]

There is a very active thread here with a warning about traveling on AP if you have waited more than 180 days to get AOS from your K-1. Please see the thread in this link for more background.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/417510-warning-for-aos-filers-who-also-file-for-ap/

I am interested in hearing about actual experiences people have had traveling with AOS. The other thread has plenty of debate about the rules, regs, and interpretations therein. However I am interested in people that have actually gone abroad and back with AP before getting your green card. Did you have any problems on re-entry? Do you know if your papers were scrutinized or just checked and passed through? If you were originally in the US on a K-1, did you get all your AOS stuff done in 90 days?

There are many written laws that might cause trouble but generally are ignored unless there is a bigger problem (think about the speed limit... not everyone is arrested). Although the rules might state you can not use AP if you have stayed too long on your K-1... is this enforced? It seems if you have AP and everything is in order, it might not be strictly enforced. But I want to hear about people with actual EXPERIENCE traveling on AP.

Disclaimer: My wife is waiting for her AP, EAD, and AOS. We married soon after arriving in the US but only recently sent in AOS. She is desperate to go home for a visit for her ailing mother, but I need to avoid bigger problems on re-entry. So I have a very personal interest in this and hope to hear from people with direct experience. The other thread is long on opinion and interpretation... let's try to focus this conversation on experience! Thanks.

Carlos

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

If you sent in your AOS papers before 180 days passed after the I-94 date, then she can use AP.

My husband used AP and had no overstay. Everyone gets taken to secondary, he was asked how he got the AP document, and they stamped him in.

(I just noticed that your I-94 expired sometime in June 2012 and you didn't file AOS until Feb 2013, so she can't use AP. The document will have a big warning on it about that, but you will get approved anyway.)

Edited March 6, 2013 by Harpa Timsah