Traveling on Extension Letter?

[mtldesai809 34]

Hi guys, I called USCIS for infopass appointment on 12/01/2021 and today I called again to get update because I haven't received from call them. USCIS told me that we  have send 24 month extension letter in yesterday (12/15/2021). so my question is how long does it take to get letter and what to do with the infopass appointment. My 18 month extension letter will expired on 01/03/2021 so the 24 month letter expire from 01/03/2021 or my green card expiration date. My local office in Newark,NJ.

[hannahraeroxs 55]

Hello,

 

my husband and I want to visit his home (England) next Christmas. If he doesn’t have his renewal green card in time, Can we use his extension letter as proof for when he travels? 
 

thank you, 

 

hannah  

[Lemonslice 4,796]

27 minutes ago, hannahraeroxs said:

Hello,

 

my husband and I want to visit his home (England) next Christmas. If he doesn’t have his renewal green card in time, Can we use his extension letter as proof for when he travels? 
 

thank you, 

 

hannah  

Yes, that is exactly why you get a letter.  He should travel with the original of the letter (I strongly suggest keeping a scanned copy somewhere though), and his expired green card.  I went to England during my ROC, no problem.  

[Vpanda85 45]

Here's my experience with travelling with the extension letter:

• I was sent to secondary inspection to "verify my documentation" because of the letter. The officer told me that I will have to do that every time I enter the US because "it is very easy to create fraudulent documents". 
• Global Entry wouldn't work for me - when I used my passport, the kiosk told me I should use my permanent residence card. When I used my card, it told me it's expired. Prior to the trip, I update the expiration date (on the Global Entry / TTPS website) with the extended date. 
• I had no issues with the airline (Delta) while traveling from the Dominican Republic. They asked me to show it in 4 different places and each person wanted to examine every single detail. 

Your experience may vary depending on which airport you clear immigration. 

[Locito 85]

 

On 1/6/2022 at 5:53 AM, Vpanda85 said:

 

• I was sent to secondary inspection to "verify my documentation" because of the letter. The officer told me that I will have to do that every time I enter the US because "it is very easy to create fraudulent documents". […] 

Your experience may vary depending on which airport you clear immigration. 

 

Sorry you had to go through such a hassle. Must be by the discretion of the CBP officer that you were sent to secondary.
 

When we came back to the US last July, I showed my extension letter together the old expired GC at EWR (Newark), and had zero issues. Was not sent to secondary either. Although I came to the CBP booth together with my US citizen wife—if that had anything to do with it.

 

The officer did want to see ALL of the pages of my extension letter, however, even though the important parts are on the first page. He also asked for my country of birth, since that is different from the passport I entered the US with.

Edited January 14, 2022 by Locito

[Vpanda85 45]

53 minutes ago, Locito said:

 

 

Sorry you had to go through such a hassle. Must be by the discretion of the CBP officer that you were sent to secondary.
 

When we came back to the US last July, I showed my extension letter together the old expired GC at EWR (Newark), and had zero issues. Was not sent to secondary either. Although I came to the CBP booth together with my US citizen wife—if that had anything to do with it.

 

The officer did want to see ALL of the pages of my extension letter, however, even though the important parts are on the first page. He also asked for my country of birth, since that is different from the passport I entered the US with.

It wasn't that big of a hassle and we didn't have to wait too long. I was with my US citizen spouse and we went up to the counter at the same time. It might also be a one time thing - first time travelling with the green card, first time travelling with the extension letter and first time with a new passport. 

 

I have a few more international trips coming up - I'll report back on any updates. I'm disappointed that I don't get to use the Global Entry machines. Oh well! 

[doggieandsam 765]

On 1/6/2022 at 8:53 AM, Vpanda85 said:

• Global Entry wouldn't work for me - when I used my passport, the kiosk told me I should use my permanent residence card. When I used my card, it told me it's expired. Prior to the trip, I update the expiration date (on the Global Entry / TTPS website) with the extended date. 

I had this exact same issue. I used my passport at the kiosk instead and that worked.

[pompeilife 15]

I have travelled with extension letter with expired green card no problem for more than a year. 

[Mike E 11,739]

My wife’s experience using her extension letter so far in 2022

 

January 

Port: San Pedro, California 

Method travel: cruise ship

Carrier: Royal Caribbean 

Destination: Mexico 

Departure experience: 

 

We presented her green card (which was going to expire the day the ship arrived in Mexico) and extension letter.  The check in clerk ignored her extension letter. The clerk kept scanning her  green card and typing away and then said: “your green card expires before you return to the USA”.  We pointed at the extension letter.  He had no clue what that was.  He summoned help.  They were equally clueless. 
 

We were moved to a separate check in desk for “special” situations.    No less than 5 carrier employees were confounded by the extension letter. The 6th one managed to complete our check in. 

 

Port of entry experience:
 

Ensenada, Mexico

 

Arrival

 

 As is normally the case with cruise ship travel,  no immigration  officer awaited us as we left the ship.  
 

Departure 

 

As is normally the case with cruise ship travel,  no immigration  

officer awaited as as we boarded the ship. 
 

Note that at foreign cruise stops my wife willfully and unapologetically does not carry her green card.  Her green card goes into the State room safe as soon as we arrive and stays there until we check out.  5Do not misconstrue this as advice to break USA law regarding the requirement of green card holders to always have their green cards with them.)
 

Thus if at a cruise port she were challenged for her green card, I’d have to go get it for her.  I do carry my passport card all the time.  
 

Return experience:

 

The CBP officer just glanced at her green card and waved us through. He didn’t ask for her extension letter.  Perhaps he didn’t notice the green card expired the day before.  
 

February:

 

 

Port: San Francisco International, California 

Method travel: commercial aircraft

Carrier: JetBlue  

Destination: Mexico 

Departure experience: 

 

We presented her expired green card  and extension letter.  The check in clerk had no clue. Her co-worker,  knew exactly what it was and indeed had traveled with a relative to the Philippines and back with such a letter.  However  his concern was whether the Mexican government would  accept  her extension letter. The clerk called her station manager who asked for photos of the letter and green card to be texted to him. We permitted.  The manager approved the check in.  
 

At the gate we were required to do a document check.  And we got a similar process accept this time the concern was whether the USA would admit my wife using the extension letter. I told them we’d been through this already a check in and the USA would admit us even if I had to walk us out of Tijuana into California.   That was acceptable.  
 

 

Port of entry experience:
 

Arrival

 

Cancun Airport.  
 

The immigration officer was competent and processed my wife’s passport, green card, and extension letter without comment.  
 

Departure

 

Suffice to say, this horrible experience documented in 

 regarding the incompetence of airline employees of Spirit and American Airlines with regard to I-551s that aren’t in a green card form factor was my biggest fear during this trip and it certainly it tempered the joy of the vacation and meeting up with my uncle who was staying at the same resort. So this is how it went down …

Check in at Jet Blue: the clerk knew exactly what an extension letter was and quickly checked us in. Utterly anticlimactic 

 

Mexico or at least Cancun doesn’t have formal immigration exit controls. There is an I-94-like strip of paper you get when you arrive at  Cancun airport that you are supposed to safeguard. This paper was stapled to our boarding pass and collected by the JetBlue gate clerk as we boarded by tearing our boarding passes in half.  Naturally we’ve yet to receive credit for the return flight in our American AAdvantage accounts.  
 

Return experience:

 

At San Francisco International we didn’t bother with the kiosks as we didn’t expect her green card to be accepted and there is no machine readable code on an extension letter.  The CBP officer looked at her green card and extension letter, stamped her passport, and wouldn’t collect out customs card. We made a verbal declaration of what we brought. We collected our bags and no one collected our customs card. No secondary.  
 

 Conclusions

 

1. The web abounds with urban legends that insist Mexico doesn’t accept extension letters and there are reports that Mexican consulates misinform travelers of the same.     While I think that  might have been true 5 years ago, it is not true today.  
 

2. Carriers  are where one will continue to have the most difficulty traveling with extension letters.  Get to the airport early, hope for the best, and arm yourself with this one page document from CBP that directs  airlines to board LPRs with valid extension letters on flights back to the USA: https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2021-Dec/Reminder- LPR Boarding 20210305.pdf

 

“Airlines should not be determining admissibility of a travel outside the parameters of the document requirements.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Reed1812 127]

Entered Dallas Fort Worth yesterday from London with expired GC and 24month extension letter.

 

Absolutely no problems, customs were a breeze and took all of 2 minutes.

[Mike E 11,739]

11 minutes ago, Reed1812 said:

Entered Dallas Fort Worth yesterday from London with expired GC and 24month extension letter.

 

Absolutely no problems, customs were a breeze and took all of 2 minutes.

What about the airline check in process in London?

 

Did you use a kiosk at DFW? If so, gc or passport?

[Mike E 11,739]

On 10/1/2021 at 4:01 PM, catnap said:

Hi all, 

 

The original link seems to be broken. Is there a new link?

 

Thanks!

 

On 9/6/2021 at 4:25 PM, tomgreen_84 said:

The link appears to be broken. Is there an updated one? 

Do you mean this:

 

https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2021-Dec/Reminder- LPR Boarding 20210305.pdf
 

 

[catnap 15]

1 minute ago, Mike E said:

 

Do you mean this:

 

https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2021-Dec/Reminder- LPR Boarding 20210305.pdf
 

 

Yes, thank you! I can view it now. Much appreciated.

[Reed1812 127]

10 minutes ago, Mike E said:

What about the airline check in process in London?

 

Did you use a kiosk at DFW? If so, gc or passport?

Hello Mike.

 

The check in process at London was very smooth. I had to explain to the staff the letter was an extension (she did not seem to understand what it was at first) but I got checked in quickly.

 

All the kiosks at DFW were out of service so I did not have the chance to use one. 

 

[Locito 85]

On 2/20/2022 at 10:02 AM, Mike E said:

My wife’s experience using her extension letter so far in 2022

 

January 

Port: San Pedro, California 

Method travel: cruise ship

Carrier: Royal Caribbean 

Destination: Mexico 

Departure experience: 

 

We presented her green card (which was going to expire the day the ship arrived in Mexico) and extension letter.  The check in clerk ignored her extension letter. The clerk kept scanning her  green card and typing away and then said: “your green card expires before you return to the USA”.  We pointed at the extension letter.  He had no clue what that was.  He summoned help.  They were equally clueless. 
 

We were moved to a separate check in desk for “special” situations.    No less than 5 carrier employees were confounded by the extension letter. The 6th one managed to complete our check in.

Wow, just wow! Looks like they really didn’t have their procedures worked out. I know in San Pedro there used to be two different subcontractors on cruise days, not sure if it is the same today. I believe one handled Princess, Celebrity, and possibly Royal Caribbean (at the time no RCL ship had a home port in CA). The other one was there for Norwegian. Carnival ships leave from Long Beach 99% of the time.

 

When I worked at a cruise terminal before Covid (part-time, minimum wage), and among other things I was assigned to check for proof of citizenship documents, we did not really get any training how to deal with more complicated documents such as the extension letter. You would basically check in a few passengers together with another minimum wage employee, and after that you were all alone.

 

But since the cruise lines (like airlines) face steep fines the if they let a passenger travel without proper documentation, the supervisors were really adamant that if you were not sure of the documentation, just get a shift leader who will help you. If the shift leader had any additional questions (which seldom was the case), they could call for their supervisor, who in turn could call for the passengers services manager. But if the manager had to come out, you’d most likely be facing denial of boarding. All of those people, though, are/were working for a subcontractor, and not the actual cruise line.

 

Edit: At least back then you wouldn’t see a CBP agent until you arrived back into the US from the “closed loop” cruise.

Edited February 21, 2022 by Locito