Traveling on Extension Letter?

[demortis1968 21]

 The link to the page.....the page is gone.

[mskidw 12]

21 hours ago, demortis1968 said:

 The link to the page.....the page is gone.

There is a PDF file link on the right hand side of the web page. I assumed that was the one. 

[mskidw 12]

My conditional green card expired in September 2018 and I received my 18-month extension letter after I filed I-751 application. I am planning on traveling aboard for two weeks in September 2019.

 

I plan on bringing my expired conditional green card, 18-month extension letter, unexpired passport, and marriage certificate. 

 

1. Will these documents be sufficient enough to come back to US without issues?  

2. A lot of information on the Internet saying to get a stamp on the passport even though having an extension letter. But my local USCIS, Detroit, is one of the testing local office that eliminated online Infopass appointment and one can only schedule Infopass appointment by calling customer service. I called customer service several times before and they all told me that I could only schedule an appointment for the stamp one month prior to the expiration of the extension letter. So I do NOT think the stamp on my passport is a must to come back to US in my case. Am I understanding this correctly?

 

Thank you!

[dilip 187]

5 minutes ago, mskidw said:

My conditional green card expired in September 2018 and I received my 18-month extension letter after I filed I-751 application. I am planning on traveling aboard for two weeks in September 2019.

 

I plan on bringing my expired conditional green card, 18-month extension letter, unexpired passport, and marriage certificate. 

 

1. Will these documents be sufficient enough to come back to US without issues?  

2. A lot of information on the Internet saying to get a stamp on the passport even though having an extension letter. But my local USCIS, Detroit, is one of the testing local office that eliminated online Infopass appointment and one can only schedule Infopass appointment by calling customer service. I called customer service several times before and they all told me that I could only schedule an appointment for the stamp one month prior to the expiration of the extension letter. So I do NOT think the stamp on my passport is a must to come back to US in my case. Am I understanding this correctly?

 

Thank you!

If you have original water marked 18 months extension letter and expired GC, you will be fine.  Sometimes, overseas ticket agents might not be familiar with extension letter, but their supervisors or someone in the airlines will be aware of extension letter and you will be fine.  To get in US would not be any issue.  Just bypass the automatic customs form printing machine, fill paper customs form and join GC/ citizen line.

[mskidw 12]

4 minutes ago, dilip said:

If you have original water marked 18 months extension letter and expired GC, you will be fine.  Sometimes, overseas ticket agents might not be familiar with extension letter, but their supervisors or someone in the airlines will be aware of extension letter and you will be fine.  To get in US would not be any issue.  Just bypass the automatic customs form printing machine, fill paper customs form and join GC/ citizen line.

Hi! Thank you for your response!

 

When you mentioned water marked, did you mean the statue of liberty image on the background of those two pages?

 

I will only be going back to my home country for two weeks. I remember they didn't check anything when I went back there in 2017. I have concerns about coming back to the US though.. 

 

And Do I need the stamp?

 

Thank you!

[jaclynxf 2]

I just came back to new York yesterday from China. I only brought expired green card and the extension letter. The custom officer only need these two. Only thing need to know is that let the people who control the line to use the anto print machine know your situation, they will directly send you to a line. The reason is the expired green card wont work on the auto print machine. So you just need skip this step. The people who work there gonna directly send you the line to wait to see the custom officer right away.

 

The whole process is very easy. I was worried so much before. The officer knew what to do. Expired green card, extension letter and your passport is what you need.

[mskidw 12]

1 minute ago, jaclynxf said:

I just came back to new York yesterday from China. I only brought expired green card and the extension letter. The custom officer only need these two. Only thing need to know is that let the people who control the line to use the anto print machine know your situation, they will directly send you to a line. The reason is the expired green card wont work on the auto print machine. So you just need skip this step. The people who work there gonna directly send you the line to wait to see the custom officer right away.

 

The whole process is very easy. I was worried so much before. The officer knew what to do. Expired green card, extension letter and your passport is what you need.

Thank you for sharing the information! 

 

You didn't have a I-551 stamp on your passport, right?

[theanswerisdance 144]

1 hour ago, mskidw said:

My conditional green card expired in September 2018 and I received my 18-month extension letter after I filed I-751 application. I am planning on traveling aboard for two weeks in September 2019.

 

I plan on bringing my expired conditional green card, 18-month extension letter, unexpired passport, and marriage certificate. 

 

1. Will these documents be sufficient enough to come back to US without issues?  

2. A lot of information on the Internet saying to get a stamp on the passport even though having an extension letter. But my local USCIS, Detroit, is one of the testing local office that eliminated online Infopass appointment and one can only schedule Infopass appointment by calling customer service. I called customer service several times before and they all told me that I could only schedule an appointment for the stamp one month prior to the expiration of the extension letter. So I do NOT think the stamp on my passport is a must to come back to US in my case. Am I understanding this correctly?

 

Thank you!

The stamp’s only given when your extension letter is nearing expiration, like you said, within 30 days of the expiration date of the letter. If you made an InfoPass appointment to get a stamp with 6 months left on your extension letter (assuming that your letter expires in Feb or March 2020 as you filed in Sept 2018) they wouldn’t give you the stamp, because the expired GC plus extension letter serve the exact same purpose as the stamp does. When your extension letter is nearing expiration, if you haven’t received your new green card by that point, you’d take your expired 2-year GC and your nearly-expired extension letter to your InfoPass appointment and they’d actually keep your expired GC in exchange for giving you the stamp (or they’re supposed to, anyway, though some people have managed to Lee their cards). But you’ll only ever travel on one or the other — expired GC + letter, or else the stamp — but not both.

[mskidw 12]

7 minutes ago, theanswerisdance said:

The stamp’s only given when your extension letter is nearing expiration, like you said, within 30 days of the expiration date of the letter. If you made an InfoPass appointment to get a stamp with 6 months left on your extension letter (assuming that your letter expires in Feb or March 2020 as you filed in Sept 2018) they wouldn’t give you the stamp, because the expired GC plus extension letter serve the exact same purpose as the stamp does. When your extension letter is nearing expiration, if you haven’t received your new green card by that point, you’d take your expired 2-year GC and your nearly-expired extension letter to your InfoPass appointment and they’d actually keep your expired GC in exchange for giving you the stamp (or they’re supposed to, anyway, though some people have managed to Lee their cards). But you’ll only ever travel on one or the other — expired GC + letter, or else the stamp — but not both.

Hi, thank you for the detailed explanation! 

 

At the end of what you said, you meant, I will be traveling with either expired GC+letter or the stamp. So the stamp would serve as expired GC+letter. 

 

Would infopass also take away the letter along with the expired GC?

 

Thank you!

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

On 2/28/2019 at 7:26 PM, kazero17 said:

My GC will expire on may2019, can i travel on August2019 out of USA using this extension letter?

thanks for replaying to my post.

Yes, once you file for ROC you will get the extension letter and be able to fly with it. 

[theanswerisdance 144]

54 minutes ago, mskidw said:

Hi, thank you for the detailed explanation! 

 

At the end of what you said, you meant, I will be traveling with either expired GC+letter or the stamp. So the stamp would serve as expired GC+letter. 

 

Would infopass also take away the letter along with the expired GC?

 

Thank you!

Typically you just keep the letter for your records, but it’s useless for travel on its own once you’ve surrendered the expired GC. Also, as with everything else, USCIS is incredibly inconsistent from office to office and even from officer to officer within the same office as to whether they’ll keep take your GC from you when you get the stamp. Some do, some don’t, assume that they will but they might not. Regardless, once you have the stamp you don’t need to carry anything else but your passport with the stamp to enter back into the country.

[mskidw 12]

21 minutes ago, theanswerisdance said:

Typically you just keep the letter for your records, but it’s useless for travel on its own once you’ve surrendered the expired GC. Also, as with everything else, USCIS is incredibly inconsistent from office to office and even from officer to officer within the same office as to whether they’ll keep take your GC from you when you get the stamp. Some do, some don’t, assume that they will but they might not. Regardless, once you have the stamp you don’t need to carry anything else but your passport with the stamp to enter back into the country.

I see.. Thank you for the detailed explanation!!

[jaclynxf 2]

3 hours ago, mskidw said:

Thank you for sharing the information! 

 

You didn't have a I-551 stamp on your passport, right?

I didn't. My extension expires in June 2019. Don't need the stamp as long as you come back before it expire.

[mskidw 12]

1 minute ago, jaclynxf said:

I didn't. My extension expires in June 2019. Don't need the stamp as long as you come back before it expire.

Awesome, thank you!

[dilip 187]

3 hours ago, mskidw said:

Hi! Thank you for your response!

 

When you mentioned water marked, did you mean the statue of liberty image on the background of those two pages?

 

I will only be going back to my home country for two weeks. I remember they didn't check anything when I went back there in 2017. I have concerns about coming back to the US though.. 

 

And Do I need the stamp?

 

Thank you!

Yes Status of liberty image.  Coming back to US and go through US immigration would not be any issue.  I  used extension letter several time.