Travel to Ukraine while waiting for AOS

[TatieM 0]

Dear friends,

Please help me. Currently i am waiting for Employment authorization and the AOS. It seems that my AP is on the way to me. What documents should i have with me to travel to Ukraine and to come back to the States? Do i need to take the Marriage Certificate, copy of the NOA for I-485?

Those who travel, could you tell me what is the process like, what might be the difficulties. I don't know why but I am afraid to travel just with AP, still I want to see my parents and to support them now due to the difficult situation in Ukraine.

Thank you all in advance

Edited March 24, 2014 by TatieM

[baron555 934]

As you stated, you're going to go.

Edited March 24, 2014 by baron555

[Sveta & Ron 23]

last may sveta and I went for visit and when ready leave at kbp airport klm rep tried to say the ap was not for travel that she need visa I threatened call embassy and a supervisor called her rep and to the plane we went funny thing once we got ready board in Amsterdam the boarding rep tried same ####### and his super said everything is good was a pain in the toot but stand your grounds

[Katya_Joey 0]

We just traveled on the AP combo card in January the Boryspil. We brought obviously the AP combo card, Certified Marriage Certificate (becasue of married name on AP card and maiden name still on international passport) and the explanation from Homeland Security that comes with the AP card explaining what the card is and that is can be used for reentry. We made copies of the NOA, SSN, etc just because not wanting to lose the originals just in case they pretended to need more than recomended.
Here is the tricky part, before we left USA we called the Ukrainian Consulate in DC and they said we needed an Apostille Marriage Certificate and translation but still chanced it anyway because this would take up to 6 weeks to receive. The explanation piece that came with the AP card was the only thing besides the card itself that anyone really looked at. It was the ticket agent supervisor for Lufthansa at Boryspil that looked at it because the ticket agent was unfamiliar with the combo card. We did get asked by one of the security folks how much money we had and when we said we only had 600 hryvnia he laughed and said hryvnia was not real money, just Dollars or Euros were real money, we assumed he was fishing for a little something something. Boryspil is notorious for needing assistance understanding your documents .

Note you will be detained in USA when you arrive with AP, this is normal but a little inconvenient.

I hope this helps

[vbtwo 54]

All you need is the AP card and the marriage certificate if the name doesn't match to the one on the passport. You might have to explain to the ticket agent that the AP card allows you to enter the US if they're not familiar with it as they'll be searching for a visa in your passport. You will have to go to secondary when you enter the US with an AP card (like you did when coming in on K1 visa), but unless they really suspect that something's wrong, you shouldn't have any issues.

Edited March 26, 2014 by vbtwo

[TatieM 0]

Do i need to have a transit Shengen visa in case i need to change the plane in Europe? What documents should i take with me to come back to the States?

[Loving_girl 38]

Do i need to have a transit Shengen visa in case i need to change the plane in Europe? What documents should i take with me to come back to the States?

No Shengen or transit visa is needed if you are in transit zone of the airpot.