I-751 Approved While Traveling Abroad

[Diana_Greg 0]

First, I hope everyone on this forum is doing well and doing their best to cope with the long processing times for the I-751. I was hoping someone might be able to provide some insight (or just calm our nerves) regarding a new issue that has just cropped up for us. My wife filed her I-751 paperwork on June 4th of last year to the VSC. On March 20th she traveled home to Mexico (as she has done numerous times while the I-751 is pending) with her expired green card and one year extension letter and will be returning to the United States tomorrow. Yesterday in the mail we received notification that her 10 year green card was approved as of March 29th, which is fantastic news, except at the bottom of the notification is a paragraph stating that "You should not travel outside the United States before receiving your new card, as you may have difficulty entering the United States" vada vada vada, plus a notice that if you should have to travel abroad while waiting for your new card you should make an appointment with USCIS to get your passport stamped. We never got her passport stamped because to us (as lurkers on this forum) there is still two months until we hit the one-year point since filing and there was really no reason to get her passport stamped at this point.

So, any ideas or thoughts on what issues, if any, my wife may experience while trying to enter back into the United States tomorrow? Valid passport, expired green card, but one year extension letter that should technically be good until June 4, 2016. Her new card was approved while she was already abroad, which is both unexpected and something completely out of our control. To me it seems like complete nonsense that she would have any issues re-entering the country, but you truly never know with this process.

Thanks in advance for any insight or help. Really just trying to calm our nerves at this point.

[NikLR 13,232]

She'll be fine. It's the same line they put on every card. It's meant for people who are doing AOS.

[Ortolan 381]

Honestly don't think she's going to have a problem at all. Congratulations on her 10-year card!

[Hypnos 6,578]

I doubt she will have any issues.

[Mike Greene 1]

She has nothing to worry about. Congratulations on the ten year card. Her expired GC and extension letter is sufficient to re-enter the United States because the extension letter is still valid.

[Diana_Greg 0]

Thanks everyone for your quick responses. Definitely eased our nerves.

[Mimi98 3]

On 4/3/2016 at 5:09 PM, Diana_Greg said:

First, I hope everyone on this forum is doing well and doing their best to cope with the long processing times for the I-751. I was hoping someone might be able to provide some insight (or just calm our nerves) regarding a new issue that has just cropped up for us. My wife filed her I-751 paperwork on June 4th of last year to the VSC. On March 20th she traveled home to Mexico (as she has done numerous times while the I-751 is pending) with her expired green card and one year extension letter and will be returning to the United States tomorrow. Yesterday in the mail we received notification that her 10 year green card was approved as of March 29th, which is fantastic news, except at the bottom of the notification is a paragraph stating that "You should not travel outside the United States before receiving your new card, as you may have difficulty entering the United States" vada vada vada, plus a notice that if you should have to travel abroad while waiting for your new card you should make an appointment with USCIS to get your passport stamped. We never got her passport stamped because to us (as lurkers on this forum) there is still two months until we hit the one-year point since filing and there was really no reason to get her passport stamped at this point.

So, any ideas or thoughts on what issues, if any, my wife may experience while trying to enter back into the United States tomorrow? Valid passport, expired green card, but one year extension letter that should technically be good until June 4, 2016. Her new card was approved while she was already abroad, which is both unexpected and something completely out of our control. To me it seems like complete nonsense that she would have any issues re-entering the country, but you truly never know with this process.

Thanks in advance for any insight or help. Really just trying to calm our nerves at this point.

I know it’s a very old post. But just curious, did your wife face any issues returning?