Please help! Maybe not able to return to US with wife and child

[mv3317 2]

Hello,

 

My wife and I have a very stressful situation at the moment and we are worried she won't be able to re-enter the US.

 

Me (US citizen) and my wife (Japanese, LPR) are currently in Japan with our 1 year old daughter. My wife is a Japanese citizen with a 2-year GC. Her GC expired March 2023, but we received the 24 month extension notice. Then we decided to come to Japan for 5 months to see her father (we came because he is sick with cancer and we wanted him to meet his granddaughter, we don't know when he will pass away). We arrived in Japan in May 2023, and we are supposed to return in 2 weeks.

 

Now before going back we realized that I forgot to bring the 797 form, so she can't go back to the US. We went to apply for a Boarding foil in the consulate yesterday, but at the consulate they were very negative on her chances to get it. The reason is that in September 2021 we had a domestic dispute that she was taken to jail for 1 day for. She was released after 1 day and no charges were pressed and there was no court date, the prosecutor decided not to press any charges. Unfortunately where we live (WA) when there is suspicion of domestic dispute/violence, one party must be taken to jail, and the officers determined it was my wife who should be taken. This whole situation had really stressed us out and scared us, but the attorney told us not to worry about the 10-year GC interview because there were no charges filed at all, and we've never had any other issues in the past (or since).

 

Now fast-forward 2 years later and this situation has reared itself again because of me forgetting to bring the 797! We're so scared on what to do now...

 

One option we have is that we can fly to Vancouver, CA, where my wife and daughter will stay in a hotel. Then I can rent a car and drive over to our storage in Washington, find the 797, and bring it back to her and then try to cross by land. The big question we have though is, what if the Boarding Foil is denied? Will they see at the CA border that she has a denied boarding foil and stop her from entering? Also will that affect her chance to get a 10-year Green Card next year? Can we cancel the boarding foil process before its finished?

 

Another question we have is, what if I go back to WA to our storage and I can't find the 797? Maybe it was lost or thrown out on accident (we only think its in the storage, but not sure). In this case would it be possible to apply for another boarding foil in CA if we did cancel the process here in Japan?

 

Sorry for so many long and difficult questions. I know I need to consult with a lawyer, but the earliest consulting time I could find is 3 days from now and we are worried sick right now : (

 

We are so scared of her losing GC status, or her needing to stay in Japan and restart the whole process again. We have a 1 year old daughter and to be away from them both for a year or more would tear us apart.

 

Please help with any advice, I'm so scared of what will happen now because of these mistakes :(

[Sparkle Sparkle 913]

Complicated, but i would say follow the foil through because if she got an extension for 24 months technically she is still a GC holder regardless of the domestic dispute situation

[OldUser 5,855]

Sorry to hear you're going through this.

I think the best course of action is:

 

11 minutes ago, mv3317 said:

One option we have is that we can fly to Vancouver, CA, where my wife and daughter will stay in a hotel. Then I can rent a car and drive over to our storage in Washington, find the 797, and bring it back to her and then try to cross by land.

She's an LPR and should not be denied entry.

 

If you don't have I-797, she still should try crossing by land, especially if you have a copy of extension letter.

[OldUser 5,855]

14 minutes ago, mv3317 said:

We went to apply for a Boarding foil in the consulate yesterday, but at the consulate they were very negative on her chances to get it. The reason is that in September 2021 we had a domestic dispute that she was taken to jail for 1 day for.

Did consulate ask her about arrests etc? Did you have to list it on a boarding foil form?

[mv3317 2]

Thank you for the replies!

 

@Sparkle Sparkle if there is a chance to be denied the boarding foil, could it be negatively viewed when trying for the GC interview for 10 years GC?

 

@OldUser yes at the consulate they asked about the arrest. She didn’t understand at first and replied no, but with clarification she explained what happened. There was nowhere on the boarding foil form to list about the arrest. However in the application to remove conditions on the GC we filed earlier this year we explained about it (maybe that’s not relevant now though).

 

I dont have a copy of the 797, but I do believe it’s in the safe in WA and we just forgot to bring it. There’s a small chance that it is actually lost, though I won’t find out until I actually go there and open the safe.

Edited October 3, 2023 by mv3317

[Mike E 11,732]

Does she have an online USCIS account?

[mv3317 2]

@Mike E no unfortunately not, and I don’t know the receipt number for the removal of conditions either

[Mike E 11,732]

4 minutes ago, mv3317 said:

@Mike E no unfortunately not, and I don’t know the receipt number for the removal of conditions either

Ok, my idea, a long shot, was to create an online account and add the case number to see if extension letter was online. Then if online, use a print out of that to board the flight on the high percentage bet that the airlines do not know about the Lady Liberty watermark.  

Aren’t you concerned that something might have happened with the case while you have been gone? RFE, interview, denial, or approval. If RFE or interview, then the case has long since been denied. 
 

So I do not recommend the Vancouver thing because if the case was denied, she might be taken into ICE custody at the border.

 

You need to get the case number, or file a new I-751 to get a new case number.

 

Personally, if it were me I would fly to U.S. alone to dig up that case number. If denied, then file a new I-751, bring the new extension letter to Japan,  fly to JFK or SFO, and hope CBP over looks the previous denial.

[mv3317 2]

@Mike E Thanks for the response!!
 

8 minutes ago, Mike E said:

Aren’t you concerned that something might have happened with the case while you have been gone?

 

One thing I did before leaving was forward all mail to my grandmother's house. I've been checking each day to make sure nothing has come from USCIS (the post office emails pictures of all forwarded mail daily). Nothing has come yet, although I do understand it is a small possibility that for some reason that mail wasn't forwarded or the case has very recently changed.

 

I think it might be good to do similar to what you suggested, while they are in the CA hotel for a few days, I could come across, get the 797 and receipt number on it to create an account, make sure nothing has changed yet, and then go back over to CA with the 797, and try to return to the US by the land border. 

 

But still very worried about if the boarding foil is denied how bad that would affect us in the future, maybe its better to cancel the boarding foil for now (and unfortunately take the money loss there). And also if they would possibly deny entry over the CA border if we have the 797 and expired green card with us because of the past incident

[Boiler 44,700]

I am not sure many Lawyers would recommend a LPR leave the US with a DV charge on their record.

Edited October 4, 2023 by Boiler

[Sam Burns 138]

Can’t you send someone you trust to see if the form is in your safe?

[mv3317 2]

@Boiler that’s true, they definitely wouldn’t. We thought it would be ok because there was no charges at all, but we can now see it still might be a problem : (

 

@Sam Burns Unfortunately we don’t know anyone in WA that can help us look for it so I have to go look myself. I really wish I had made the online account now!

 

 

[Mike E 11,732]

3 hours ago, mv3317 said:

One thing I did before leaving was forward all mail to my grandmother's house.

usps normally does not forward USCIS mail.

3 hours ago, mv3317 said:

I've been checking each day to make sure nothing has come from USCIS (the post office emails pictures of all forwarded mail daily).

I have informed delivery too, and have found it to be hit or miss, especially when it comes  to USCIS mail.

 

Regardless it is easy to find examples where the beneficiary received no mail regarding the case and then the case was denied.
 

2 hours ago, mv3317 said:

really wish I had made the online account now!

The bigger miss was not recording the case number. Every critical document is on my phone.

[Me and her 279]

15 minutes ago, Mike E said:

usps normally does not forward USCIS mail.

I have informed delivery too, and have found it to be hit or miss, especially when it comes  to USCIS mail.

 

Regardless it is easy to find examples where the beneficiary received no mail regarding the case and then the case was denied.
 

The bigger miss was not recording the case number. Every critical document is on my phone.

I agree with @Mike E.  USPS doesn't normally forward USCIS mail.  Also, my informed delivery was hit and miss, as well.  Informed delivery also did not scan the return of the naturalized certificate that was mailed for passport.

[mv3317 2]

4 hours ago, Mike E said:

usps normally does not forward USCIS mail.

I have informed delivery too, and have found it to be hit or miss, especially when it comes  to USCIS mail.

 

Regardless it is easy to find examples where the beneficiary received no mail regarding the case and then the case was denied.
 

The bigger miss was not recording the case number. Every critical document is on my phone.

 

3 hours ago, Me and her said:

I agree with @Mike E.  USPS doesn't normally forward USCIS mail.  Also, my informed delivery was hit and miss, as well.  Informed delivery also did not scan the return of the naturalized certificate that was mailed for passport.

 

Oh wow we did not know USPS doesn't forward the USCIS mail, that could be a big problem 😭.

Now I hope that with all the backlog that they have at the moment in the past few months nothing new happened to our case...