traveling to another country with advance parole

[froyo 2]

So my wife and I are traveling to her home country (Philippines) for three weeks. She does not have her green card yet but she has the work authorization/travel authorization card. Are there any risks involved with this?

[moments12 8]

I won't say there's a huge risk. The risk involved is probably the ignorance of the staff at the check-in stations.

To prevent this, I would recommend taking American-based planes because they are usually trained with immigration procedures (but there's always anomalies). Anyway, I have travelled three times during my AOS period. Two out of three times, they ran smoothly. This is with Lufthansa @ Changi Airport Singapore and American Airlines @ Tocumen Airport Panama.

That one problem happened in Copenhagen Airport Denmark when I was flying British Airways. The check-in staff refused my EAD card because they have not seen it before. It was later cleared when their manager called USCIS to verify my information. The check-in staff said this was their first time handling EAD cases and asked for sample documents so they can train future staff. Anyway, these batch of staff are outsourced to the airport and not British Airways employees. When I transited in London, I was asked to produce the EAD card again during boarding by British Airways employees. They took my card and said "Oh, this card. Alright, you're good to go!".

The conclusion is make sure you carry the necessary papers with you just in case. I would bring along the EAD card, the letter accompanying the EAD card, NOA forms and marriage certificate. The other method to minimize this is probably to travel with an American-based airline. At Panama, the whole process was extremely smooth with AA employees.

When you return to the States, you need to line up to see an immigration officer regardless of which category you queue for (US Citizens, Visitors etc). Request for an I-94 form from the airport staff and fill it up. The immigration officer will process your passport, take your thumb prints and ask you to go to a waiting room. This is where your AOS status gets updated. If you don't head over to the waiting room, it means that you have abandoned your status.

That's about it! Good luck!