Advance Parole 101

[William3rd]

Just had a client send me a copy of an AOS rejection letter. It was rejected because wife decided she just had to go home and wouldn't wait for her parole to arrive. Husband then carried it to her in Russia and she used it to re-enter.

The attorney advice was to WAIT until parole was approved and in hand before going anywhere.

The rules under 8 CFR 245.2(a)(4)(i)(A)-Departure of an applicant. . .shall be deemed abandonment of the applicationconstituting grounds for termination of any pending application for adjustment of status, UNLESS the applicant was PREVIOUSLY granted advance parole for such absences. . . .

USCIS is getting much better at catching this stuff. SO, just because your cousin did it two years ago and got away with it, your result may be much different.

[Bruce]

Perfect reason why every guy should get an I-131 approved for his girl until the green card comes in hand no matter how many of the I-131 forms he has to apply for.  I agree in the case above it is technically not the right thing to do for a girl to return home prior to an I-131 approval, but say a girl is here waiting and waiting and waitng for her green card, like at least three of the Russian women married to American guys on this board, and a family emergency of some sort comes up in Russia.  Advanced parole can take up to six months for approval.  What is the couple going to do?  I perfectly understand how the husband would say, just go and I'll pick up the pieces for you.  This is just another perfect example of how our immigration system is broken, partial, discriminatory and hostile.  This family was operating legally until the wife had to return home.  Is there anything called within the spirit of the law ever taken into account.  It is not their fault that the system screwed them over.  Outright law breakers have had amnesty declared during the Reagan administration.  It will occur again during the upcomming Hiliary administration.  Better if this guy just gets his wife into Canada, walks her accross the border and lets her stay in the country until Hiliary gets in to declare amnesty for her.  Immigration actually became worse during a Republican administration.

[William3rd]

The RIGHT way to do it-
1) you apply for it in conjunction with AOS just in case this stuff comes up.
2) In an emergency, you make an appointment at the district office and you bring proof of the emergency.
3) If your wife is too stubborn or ignorant to listen to you and prefers the advice of her friends and leaves anyway, be prepared to file an I130 petition in advance.

[Jet]

The RIGHT way to do it-
1) you apply for it in conjunction with AOS just in case this stuff comes up.
2) In an emergency, you make an appointment at the district office and you bring proof of the emergency.
3) If your wife is too stubborn or ignorant to listen to you and prefers the advice of her friends and leaves anyway, be prepared to file an I130 petition in advance.

Absolutely agree, but something else to keep in mind when attempting #2:
Some local offices have different ideas about what constitutes an "emergency".

In our case, Lil's father had a heart attack. We went to Miami armed with originals and certified translations of affidavits from the cardiologist and the hospital administrator attesting to the fact that Papa was on his deathbed and may not make it through the week, let alone making a full recovery. Since Lil was able to speak at least two words of English, I was denied entry with her and required to wait outside. An hour later, she came out in tears. They had denied the request without even reading the evidence. I asked to consult a supervisor (who came outside rather than letting me enter the building). The woman let me explain the circumstance, read through the evidence, and exclaimed loudly "OHH! He ain't dead yet? Then it ain't no emergency! File it with Missouri" and waddled back inside.

I made an infopass appointment with the West Palm Beach satellite office two days later, and we were in and out in 20 minutes with the AP document in hand.
These two offices are 50 miles apart and run under the same director

In case anyone is curious why we didn't file with the AOS application... That same Miami office refused to take the I-131 as a concurrent filing with the I-485 and told my wife that it was against the law to file them in that manner, she'd have to wait for the I-797 receipt from her AOS petition before she was allowed to apply for AP (I had not been allowed into the building on that occasion either  )

Always scary when you know more than the people who are handling your case 

[catzenmouse]

Always scary when you know more than the people who are handling your case 

And unfortunately all we have to do is read the forms and the website a little bit to KNOW more than the ones handling the case!

If you call them 3 different times with the same question you will get three different answers totally contradicting each other. Trained monkeys and 5 year olds would do a better job than our lovely and talented USCIS employees.

Ken