First visit to the UK after AOS with spouse

[prenouveau 46]

Hi all, my husband (British) and I (American) have tickets to visit family in the UK for a week in November. Husband has his green card. This is the first time back to the UK since he came over on K1 a year and a half ago. We have a return, stay is for a week over Thanksgiving holidays. I plan to bring a letter from work saying I'm expected back in a week, our latest car payment statement, a statement from our joint bank accounts - would you all recommend anything else? We don't have a lease as we live in a house owned by my parents.

 

The other complication is that after hubby received his green card, we got a call from the officer who approved our application, telling us that he accidentally put the wrong category on the card, and that we needed to file for a replacement card due to "USCIS admin error." We did file the I-90, this was back in July. We applied online and they only required a scan of the card so husband still has the original, but I'm unsure whether it's valid anymore, so we have an infopass appointment to make sure we don't need a stamp in his passport as well. Our I-90 app is still pending, we were told it could take up to 9 months to receive the replacement card. On top of this, his passport has his old name (we both  hyphenated our names hen we got married) so the green card has the hyphenated name, and we're bringing along our marriage certificate to show the name change. 

 

I feel more anxious about all this the closer to the trip gets - am I being unreasonable? 

[Redheadguy03 505]

You need to get verification that your card is legitimate. Because traveling with one that's incorrect or not valid is way too risky. 

[prenouveau 46]

4 minutes ago, Redheadguy03 said:

You need to get verification that your card is legitimate. Because traveling with one that's incorrect or not valid is way too risky. 

I agree, that's why we're going to the infopass appointment on Friday. We were going to ask if they might expedite the I-90 so that we can have the new card before we travel, since it was USCIS error and we've already been waiting 4 months. Not holding out hope, but I figured it was worth a shot.

[Dutchster 1,107]

The green card is printed with the wrong category. You already applied for a replacement card. Therefore, don't leave the country with a default green card. 

[prenouveau 46]

3 minutes ago, Dutchster said:

The green card is printed with the wrong category. You already applied for a replacement card. Therefore, don't leave the country with a default green card. 

Yes, my hope is that they will stamp his passport for us at the infopass appointment, as though it were a lost card. Would you still advise not traveling until we get the new card? I have considered rescheduling altogether...

[Wuozopo 4,293]

I would ask them (USCIS or CBP) the simple question "is the card valid?" Did you ever ask what the deal was about the "code". What code did you get? What is that code valid for? Did you get 10 years instead of 2 by mistake? 

 

You don't need the green card until your return so it doesn't affect your UK entry. As far as entering the U.K., my wife took nothing as the American spouse to prove she isn't planning to stay in the UK. Nobody has bothered to ask for anything except what's the purpose of your visit and how long are you staying on each of our trips. 

[prenouveau 46]

22 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

I would ask them (USCIS or CBP) the simple question "is the card valid?" Did you ever ask what the deal was about the "code". What code did you get? What is that code valid for? Did you get 10 years instead of 2 by mistake? 

 

You don't need the green card until your return so it doesn't affect your UK entry. As far as entering the U.K., my wife took nothing as the American spouse to prove she isn't planning to stay in the UK. Nobody has bothered to ask for anything except what's the purpose of your visit and how long are you staying on each of our trips. 

The code he got is CR-6, "Spouse of a U.S. citizen - conditional" should be CF-1 "Alien whose record of admission is created upon the conclusion of a valid marriage contract after entering as a fiance or fiancee of a U.S. citizen - conditional."

 

Thanks for letting me know about your wife entering the UK, that's reassuring.

[Wuozopo 4,293]

1 hour ago, prenouveau said:

 

Thanks for letting me know about your wife entering the UK, that's reassuring.

Forgot to say, we go through the UK passport line together at Heathrow. You don't have to separate and go through the visitor line by yourself. 👍

[prenouveau 46]

Thought I'd post an update in case it will help anyone in future - we went to the Infopass appointment and they let us keep the green card that we filed the I-90 for, and put an I-551 stamp in my husband's passport. We also brought along the letters from USCIS confirming the I-90 was filed. At the UK border, I was not asked anything, my husband said I was his wife and we were visiting family for a week, and that was it. On our return, at Logan airport, they had my husband scan his green card at the machines and it worked, even though we have the pending I-90. Then when we went up to the agent, he looked at the stamp and said that was fine and he didn't need to see the green card, complimented us on "looking young" (haha) and let us through. So I worried way too much about it, but I'm glad we were prepared.

[bcking 3,157]

On 11/28/2017 at 12:53 PM, prenouveau said:

Thought I'd post an update in case it will help anyone in future - we went to the Infopass appointment and they let us keep the green card that we filed the I-90 for, and put an I-551 stamp in my husband's passport. We also brought along the letters from USCIS confirming the I-90 was filed. At the UK border, I was not asked anything, my husband said I was his wife and we were visiting family for a week, and that was it. On our return, at Logan airport, they had my husband scan his green card at the machines and it worked, even though we have the pending I-90. Then when we went up to the agent, he looked at the stamp and said that was fine and he didn't need to see the green card, complimented us on "looking young" (haha) and let us through. So I worried way too much about it, but I'm glad we were prepared.

Thanks for the update! Glad it worked out.

 

I was going to also add that I have never had any issues visiting the UK. When we were dating, when we were engaged, and since we've been married. They've asked me, at most, 2 or 3 questions. The longest Q/A's were when they were just honestly curious by my answers (When you ask "Where did you meet your SO?" and the answer is "Thailand" when you are entering the UK and your spouse is English, it usually makes them want to ask more). The same cannot be said, at all, for my wife's experience entering the US but that's not the topic here. The UK is very friendly, in my experience, with us visiting.

 

The only other suggestion for the future I'll add is -

 

If you qualify, you should consider becoming a Registered Traveler. You have to visit the UK a certain number of times in a time period, but once you do you can always renew it. It allows you to travel through the automated passport machines, so you talk to no one. It makes it very quick. I've done that for the past ~1 1/2 - 2 years now.