Help - My wife left before we got the travel document

[dant244 0]

We made a major mistake. We thought that you only had to have the advance parole for the return and that you could leave before you recieved it. What can we do. Please help.

[Kez/JWolf 6]

If your wife has left the US before she has been approved for AP then she has abandoned her AOS and you will need to file for a K3/CR1 before she will be allowed to come back....

Can I Travel Outside the United States?

If you are applying for adjustment to permanent resident status, you must receive advance permission to return to the United States if you are traveling outside the United States. This advance permission is called Advance Parole. If you do not obtain Advance Parole before you leave the country, you will abandon your application with USCIS and you may not be permitted to return to the United States. For more information, please see How Do I Get a Travel Document?.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1RCRD

Kez

[ramos96 1]

How far did you go? I'm being serious. I discussed my fiancee transitting thru Chicago (O'hara) with an immigration supervisor as she is a Canadian and could enter the US under Visa Waiver Program and he said they would let her transit because of that, additionally he said since she is a Canadian if she went across just for a few days that would be fine also, they only worry about it if its going to be an "extended time" like a month or so, of course this may not apply to you and this supervisor may be mistaken.

Sincerely,

Ramos

P.S. Does the AP get stamped or something when people leave the US, if not couldn't someone just mail it you?

[Yodrak 7]

dant,

You can start preparing an I-130 petition.

Yodrak

We made a major mistake. We thought that you only had to have the advance parole for the return and that you could leave before you recieved it. What can we do. Please help.

[MissStacey 1]

I made the mistake of leaving the US shortly after we filed the I 130. I was ignorant of the Immigration process at that time- I knew nothing.

I was denied re-entry and went through the Visa process in Canada.

[Cassie 8]

How far did you go? I'm being serious. I discussed my fiancee transitting thru Chicago (O'hara) with an immigration supervisor as she is a Canadian and could enter the US under Visa Waiver Program and he said they would let her transit because of that, additionally he said since she is a Canadian if she went across just for a few days that would be fine also, they only worry about it if its going to be an "extended time" like a month or so, of course this may not apply to you and this supervisor may be mistaken.

Sincerely,

Ramos

P.S. Does the AP get stamped or something when people leave the US, if not couldn't someone just mail it you?

Yes, it gets stamped upon successful re-entry to the US, and no, you can't have someone mail it to you after you've left the US. If the date the AP is approved is after the date you leave the US, you are considered to have abandoned your petition to adjust status.

[Yodrak 7]

ramos,

The VWP does not apply to Canada, Canada is not a VWP country. Canada and the USA have a unique arrangement that is different from the VWP.

A person may indeed escape the problem on a short visit to Canada due to the law regarding visits to Canada. Or not, it's been a few years since I've read about that and I wouldn't want to put anyone at risk by giving them a wrong idea. (That's a hint to you.)

The AP document gets stamped when a person is paroled back into the USA, not on the way out. But except perhaps for a short trip to Canada CBP knows when a person left the country, they know the date that AP was approved and roughly how long it takes to be sent to and received by an applicant, and they can do the simple math.

Yodrak

How far did you go? I'm being serious. I discussed my fiancee transitting thru Chicago (O'hara) with an immigration supervisor as she is a Canadian and could enter the US under Visa Waiver Program and he said they would let her transit because of that, additionally he said since she is a Canadian if she went across just for a few days that would be fine also, they only worry about it if its going to be an "extended time" like a month or so, of course this may not apply to you and this supervisor may be mistaken.

Sincerely,

Ramos

P.S. Does the AP get stamped or something when people leave the US, if not couldn't someone just mail it you?

[ramos96 1]

Cool.

Thanks for the information in regards to AP, I didn't know that and so that is why I was asking if it got stamped or not.

Yodrak,

I did a very thorough read of all I could find in regards to Canadians transitting or entering the US and none of it made it any clearer, It seems as though unofficially Canada is a VWP country. Again the information I provided was what I was told by the supervior at Chicago O'Hara in regards to what their officers would do in my particular situation (My fiancee transitting to Canada). He said their greatest concern was people leaving for an extended amount of time, they are not worried about a few days. A prudent person would make sure they did have their AP, unless they had no other choice.

Sincerely,

Ramos

[Kathryn41 3,205]

How far did you go? I'm being serious. I discussed my fiancee transitting thru Chicago (O'hara) with an immigration supervisor as she is a Canadian and could enter the US under Visa Waiver Program and he said they would let her transit because of that, additionally he said since she is a Canadian if she went across just for a few days that would be fine also, they only worry about it if its going to be an "extended time" like a month or so, of course this may not apply to you and this supervisor may be mistaken.

Sincerely,

Ramos

P.S. Does the AP get stamped or something when people leave the US, if not couldn't someone just mail it you?

This is dangerous advice! I worked in an MPs office in Canada before moving to the US on a K-1 and had a number of heart-broken individuals come into our office hoping we could help because they were married to Americans, had left the country before their greencards were approved, didn't have APs, and were denied entry back into the US. In each case they had to start the immigration process all over again from the beginning.

When I activated my K-1 the immigration officer at the border was extremely adamant about me NOT crossing the border unless I had an AP or my green card - that one of the hardest parts of his job was having to deny Canadian spouses who did not have the proper documentation from returning to the US.

Canadians are considered no differently than any other immigrant once they are into a visa process. And as a correction, Canadians are NOT part of the visa waiver program - Canadians have a unique relationship with the US in so much as "Visitors" do not require a visa so there is no visa to waive. The border guard, however, decides whether or not to allow each Canadian visitor to take advantage of that relationship or to require the appropriate documentation.

The AP must be received prior to the individual leaving the country. Passport and travel documents need to match up for both exit and re-entry dates. If she left before the AP was approved then immigration considers that abandonment of the AOS process regardless of what country you immigrate from.

[misa 2]

Like Kathryn stated, that is EXTREMELY dangerous advice. The instructions for the I-485 clearly state:

Travel outside the United States for adjustment ofstatus applicants under sections 209 and 245 of the Act, and Registry applicants under section 249 of the Act.

Your departure from the United States (including brief visits to Canada or Mexico) constitutes an abandonment of youra djustment of status application, unless you are granted permission to depart and you are inspected upon your return to the United States. Such permission to travel is called''advance parole.'' To request advance parole, you must file Form I-131, Application for Travel Document, with the appropriate fee at the USCIS office where you applied for adjustment of status.

Canada does have a special relationship with the U.S. primarily for visitors, not for immigration. We are processed and treated like everyone else.

Edited June 27, 2007 by misa