Am I at risk of getting denied re-entry to the US with Advance Parole?

[0310 10]

My wife and I would like to visit my family in Mexico for Christmas and New Year.

 

I’m a Mexican citizen. Last entry on February 2016 with an expired TN visa, but valid i-94 (expires in 2018).

 

I have never been arrested or stayed past an i-94 admit until date. My wife is a USC and we married in early 2017. I filed for family-based AOS in June and received my EAD/AP combo card last month. Case is ready to be scheduled for an interview since August 1st, 2017 per the USCIS website.

 

Below are my concerns. I checked with an immigration lawyer and she said that I should not have any problems coming back with my EAD/AP card, that I can consider this card a temporary “green card”, but I also want to know what you think.

 

In February 2012, I got a job in the US and came here on a TN visa. I’m still with the same employer and I renewed my visa in January 2013, 2014 and 2015 at the US consulate in Mexico. My last visa (2015) got me an i-94 valid for 3 years (until 2018) and that’s why I didn’t renew my visa in 2016 or 2017.

 

In January 2015, I received a “1099-Misc” tax form for the year 2014 because I sold a few hundred collectible items that I had bought here in the US through online websites (huge mistake). Collecting was my main hobby, then I realized that I had too many of these items (500+) and that it would not be easy to take them with me through Mexican customs if for whatever reason I had to move back to Mexico, so I sold a lot of them in 2014. In early 2015 I sold some of these items too, but I did not receive a tax form for that year. I took a big hit in the tax return because I did not find all the purchase receipts of the items I sold, and ended up paying taxes to the IRS for profit that I didn’t make. I also paid taxes for the items I sold in the year 2015 even though I did not receive a tax form. For the 2015 tax return (in 2016) I calculated the amount manually.

 

A couple of weeks after getting the 1099-Misc tax form (in 2015) I learned that I was not allowed to receive income from any sources other than my work visa employer as it counts as unauthorized employment. I also learned that once you do this, you fall “out of status”. I don’t think anybody knew I was out of status back then, but when I realized this, I went to Mexico for a week in May 2015 and re-entered the US to be back in status and never sold anything again. I never accrued more than 180 continuous days out of status because I was never more than 180 continuous days in the US in 2014, so I don’t think I am subject to a 3-year bar.

 

Is this correct? Can I be denied  re-entry to the US with AP because of these events?

 

Regarding a few odd things with my last two entries into the US. When I renewed my work visa in January 2015, I got an i-94 valid for 3 years (admit until January 2018), this was my last visa. When I went to Mexico in May 2015 for a week to fix my status, I came back and the CBP officer at the airport updated my i-94 admit until date to December 2015. A few days later I went to a CBP office for deferred inspection and they updated my i-94 admit until date back to January 2018.

 

I did not leave the US again until February 2016. My visa expired in December 2015, but my i-94 was still valid for almost another 2 years, so I went to Mexico for a week and came back to the US using the “Automatic Visa Revalidation” rule. The officer let me in at the airport with no questions asked, but when I checked the i-94 website to see my i-94 admit until date, I noticed that it was updated to the same date of my entry to the US! So I technically was out of status the morning after I came back to the US. However, I went to the CBP office again for deferred inspection and they updated my i-94 one more time to January 2018 (on my passport), however, on the website it says February 2018, most likely this was a typo at their end. This typo was never corrected, it still says February 2018 on the i-94 website. I have not left the US since then.

 

Another odd thing regarding a trip (within the US) from last year. My wife (then girlfriend) and I flew to another city. On the flight back, a guy sitting across the aisle reported me as “suspicious” because I was trying to get my camera from inside a half gallon glass jar. I packed stuff inside this jar to save space in my carry-on luggage. The guy stood up and asked me what I was doing. I told him that I was just trying to get my camera out of the jar. He did not believe me, I believe he thought it was a bomb. He talked to the flight attendants and they took the jar with my camera and miscellaneous stuff in it. The guy wanted them to take my phone away too, but the flight attendants did not agree. When we landed, the police were waiting for me at the gate and I was the first one to get off the plane. They did not grab me or anything. They asked me where I lived and I showed them my driver’s license. They did not check all my stuff, just the jar. I told them what happened, they helped me get my camera out of the jar and were laughing about it, then they said that I am free to go. They gave me a notice saying that I was not arrested. I don’t know if this will affect me in any way.

 

Sorry for the long post, I might be worrying too much.

I hope a few people can read it and tell me if they think I’m ok to travel outside the US or not.

 

Is Advance Parole to be used for emergencies only, so should we not go?

 

I want to visit Mexico for two weeks, but my wife only wants to go there for a week, so I was thinking I could either go one week before she does and we come back together, or we can go together and I stay for another week and come back separate. Are my chances of being paroled into the US higher if we cross the border together, or does it not matter at all?

 

Can the status of the AOS be changed to "denied" suddenly before the interview is scheduled?

 

The below notes about the POTUS executive orders make me worry too!
http://www.eb5insights.com/2017/02/16/the-trump-administration-contemplates-an-executive-order-affecting-advance-parole/
https://www.mmhpc.com/2017/02/travel-warning-for-all-individuals-with-advance-parole-documents/

 

Thanks!

[broppy 204]

11 hours ago, 0310 said:

In January 2015, I received a “1099-Misc” tax form for the year 2014 because I sold a few hundred collectible items that I had bought here in the US through online websites (huge mistake). Collecting was my main hobby, then I realized that I had too many of these items (500+) and that it would not be easy to take them with me through Mexican customs if for whatever reason I had to move back to Mexico, so I sold a lot of them in 2014. In early 2015 I sold some of these items too, but I did not receive a tax form for that year. I took a big hit in the tax return because I did not find all the purchase receipts of the items I sold, and ended up paying taxes to the IRS for profit that I didn’t make. I also paid taxes for the items I sold in the year 2015 even though I did not receive a tax form. For the 2015 tax return (in 2016) I calculated the amount manually.

 

A couple of weeks after getting the 1099-Misc tax form (in 2015) I learned that I was not allowed to receive income from any sources other than my work visa employer as it counts as unauthorized employment. I also learned that once you do this, you fall “out of status”. I don’t think anybody knew I was out of status back then, but when I realized this, I went to Mexico for a week in May 2015 and re-entered the US to be back in status and never sold anything again. I never accrued more than 180 continuous days out of status because I was never more than 180 continuous days in the US in 2014, so I don’t think I am subject to a 3-year bar.

That's one of those grey areas with a blurry line. You are allowed to sell stuff that you own - you're even allowed to make a profit. You're not allowed to make a business out of it by buying stuff for the sole purpose of reselling it. The fact that you didn't keep records and got stung for taxes strongly supports the claim that you were not running a business. On the face of it, your actions here would appear to have no impact whatsoever on your status, nor on your admissibility.

[0310 10]

On 10/25/2017 at 7:34 AM, broppy said:

That's one of those grey areas with a blurry line. You are allowed to sell stuff that you own - you're even allowed to make a profit. You're not allowed to make a business out of it by buying stuff for the sole purpose of reselling it. The fact that you didn't keep records and got stung for taxes strongly supports the claim that you were not running a business. On the face of it, your actions here would appear to have no impact whatsoever on your status, nor on your admissibility.

Broppy, thanks for the reply! It helps me feel better about it.

We booked the flight today.