Can I safely travel domestically in the USA while waiting on delayed i-485 NOA letter and expired I-94?

[bridan2024 0]

I’m a UK citizen, my husband (USC) and I filed the i-130 in Dec 2023, and it is still in progress. We entered the USA on my ESTA at the end of March to visit some of his family. We decided we wanted to stay here, as we couldn’t stand the idea of being apart during the immigration process. With the support of our immigration lawyer, we submitted the i-485 and I-864 in the beginning of May.

My I-94 expired at the end of June (thereby invalidating my ESTA), but I understand that the NOA letter I will receive from the i-485 would be evidence that I am here legally while they process our application. It has not yet arrived, but I've seen that they are taking longer than normal to get to cases and posting NOAs at the moment. 

 

My husband and I are hoping to travel to another state in two weeks to attend a very large family reunion his family is having. It’s too far to drive (CA to MI) so we would need to fly. 

If our NOA doesn’t arrive before we want to travel, do I run any risks flying domestically with an expired I-94? 

 

It would break our hearts to not go to the family reunion (he's been looking forward to this for ages) but we would hate to throw off our application process or get myself reported to ICE and deported for “overstaying”. Not sure if I am being paranoid or not.

Additional info: 

We sent our I-485 package and i-864 to the lockbox in Chicago via USPS tracked delivery. To date, the package has not marked as “collected” from the lockbox, but has not been returned. Our lawyer said he’s seen this as a common issue, as the agent collecting the packages doesn’t always scan them to mark as collected on USPS tracking.

The cheque our lawyer sent with the package has not been cashed, so they seemingly haven’t gotten to our application yet. Lawyer assured us that there is a backlog and USCIS are taking longer to get to cases than normal. 

[Crazy Cat 41,985]

22 minutes ago, bridan2024 said:

If our NOA doesn’t arrive before we want to travel, do I run any risks flying domestically with an expired I-94?

Yes. Without proof of having filed a proper I-485, you are at level of risk if interviewed by authorities, imo. 

Edited July 8 by Crazy Cat

[Dashinka 24,649]

I agree, you want to wait for your I485 acceptance NOA as sometimes CBP officers hangout at TSA checkpoints.

 

Good Luck!

 

As an aside, CA to MI is not very far to drive  .  My wife and I did it a couple of times, and I70 through UT and CO is a beautiful drive (of course it gets a little boring through Eastern CO, KS, MO, and IL).