February 2009 filers

update:
Today my old employment-based case status shows that it has been transfered to Cleveland DO and they'll handle it from now on. Why am I putting this here? That's what I've been waiting for to help finalize my approved family-based case.
So now hopefully it's just a matter or 1-2 weeks before I get my GC, or at least the case is "officially" approved. I hope by my May 8 INFOPASS appointment everything is OK for a travel stamp put in my passport (unless I get the GC by then, but I really doubt that).
 
Another update:

As promised the interviewing officer called me today. He said my A file (my employment GC process) has been sent out to him. Once he gets it, he would proceed to approve it.
HOWEVER, in the end we figured out that since we are travelling, and I will definitely not receive my actual card by May 13, I will have to use my Advance Parole when I get back. And he will only officially approve the case on June 4th, a day after I return to the US. In this way I can still travel with my AP because my GC will be approved only after I return to the US.
So he was really nice and flexible. He also told me not to waste my time with that INFOPASS because they only stamp the passport in extreme travel cases, like death of a family member etc. He said I should be fine with my AP.
So that's where it stands now.

Ok, here's a question to everybody who has an Advance Parole: Which box on your AP has the X? "Approved" or "Conditions/Comments" ?

On mine it's the "Conditions/Comments" box, with a reference "As an alien paroled...."

This is important just want to make sure.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
gabebalazs said:
Ok, here's a question to everybody who has an Advance Parole: Which box on your AP has the X? "Approved" or "Conditions/Comments"? On mine it's the "Conditions/Comments" box, with a reference "As an alien paroled...." This is important just want to make sure.
Click to expand...

I wish I could tell you, but I hardly even got a look at my AP as I got it just before my interview and they then took it back. Normally, I scanned everything but missed that one.

Glad to hear you have encountered a helpful person who'll hold off on the approval so you can use that AP. Sounds like a nice solution.

I'm going to throw myself on the mercy of the person at the INFOPASS appointment to try to get my stamp if the GC doesn't show up by Thursday night (I got the approval letter today). My reason (long delayed honeymoon) is theoretically a fairly poor one so might not work.

Otherwise, I'm going to have a friend check our mail and express mail me the GC in Europe before I leave to come back. That should work, right?
 
COngrats on the approval letter.

I hope you get the passport stamp. Last week when I called the general 800 number for help, there a lady told me they do still have the passport stamping procedure, even though my interview officer told me the opposite.

Too bad you had the AP for such a short time :) but good for you that you got approved quick.

Mailing the GC to Europe should work, but I myself would not want mine mailed to Hungary where I'll be for 3 weeks. There are occasional lost mail cases and I wouldn't want my GC get lost in the mail. For some reason some people working for the postal service in my home country still think that any letter or package coming from the US must contain something valuable...

Anyway good luck and post an update how the Infopass went.
 
called uscis they said my EAC has been approved as of 04/09 but i never received anything in mail though and they said they have sent an approval notice
 
hey DCDUDE2009,

I wonder if you've seen my question above your post.

Which box on your Advance Parole has the X? The "Approved" or the "Conditions/comments" box?

thanks
gabe
 
gabebalazs said:
hey DCDUDE2009,

I wonder if you've seen my question above your post.

Which box on your Advance Parole has the X? The "Approved" or the "Conditions/comments" box?

thanks
gabe
Click to expand...

gabe,
Sorry I did not see your post,I don't have my advance parole on me right now but I think mine says approved.

I will look at it once more after I get home and send you a PM.
 
Ok thanks.
My past AP (for my old employment based case) had "Approved" checked, I know. I just want to find out what's the deal with my new AP.
 
DCDUDE2009,

gabe,
Sorry I did not see your post,I don't have my advance parole on me right now but I think mine says approved.

I will look at it once more after I get home and send you a PM.
Click to expand...

Just babbling here, I have theory. If you find that you have the X in the "Approved" box, do you by chance have a non-immigrant visa currently, such as an H1B?

Here's my theory. People who have some other kind of valid visa or legal status such as an H1B will get an X in the "Approved" box. My last AP a year and a half ago was like this, I had a valid H1B then.

People like me now, who do not have a valid visa any more, are under a so called Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and will get an X in the 'Conditions/comments" box. And next to it is reference to the 244.15 paragraph of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
This all means that yes, I can get paroled into the US to resume my TPS status, meaning waiting for my GC to be approved. The 244.15 law says that people in Temporary Protected Status cannon physically leave the US. But a "director" may grant advance parole for travel purposes, quote form the law:


"(a) After the grant of Temporary Protected Status, the alien must remain continuously physically present in the United States under the provisions of section 244(c)(3)(B) of the Act. The grant of Temporary Protected Status shall not constitute permission to travel abroad. Permission to travel may be granted by the director pursuant to the Service's advance parole provisions. There is no appeal from a denial of advance parole.

(b) Failure to obtain advance parole prior to the alien's departure from the United States may result in the withdrawal of Temporary Protected Status and/or the institution or recalendering of deportation or exclusion proceedings against the alien."



I know I've always been very paranoid when it comes to taking care of legal stuff, immigration stuff etc. I want to know everything, and why.

I will still double check with my former attorney (attorney for my old EB GC case). Preferable I don't want to drive 250 miles roundtrip to the Cleveland DO just so they tell me, "yeah, you're good to travel". Because I called the USCIS 800 number and the lady could not for the love of god help me what that X in the Comments box means. She said I have to make an INFOPASS appointment for that. :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
New update.

After some research and talking to USCIS, it turns out that there may be a mistake regarding my Advance Parole. The TPS Temporary Protected Status is a special status for immigrants of certain troubled countries, such as Haiti, Nicaragua, Honduras etc. Only a handful of them, definitely not Hungary. In fact, I had never heard of TPS until I started researching it a few hours ago because my AP talks about it ("The name bearer of this document has been granted Temporary Protected Status"... I was like WHAAAAT???).
The USCIS lady asked me if I filled out the I-131 correctly, I said yes (later I verified that by looking at a copy of what I filed). PLus the application form doesn't even mention this TPS at all. Anyway, the usual ending of the conversation: get an INFOPASS. So I'm cancelling my May 8 infopass and getting an earlier one.
just great :( ... I easily get approved on April 14, but due to my employment based case, there is a delay, I won't get my GC in time for my trip, now it turns out that my AP may be screwed up too, just a day after my interviewing officer calls me to tell me that he'd approve my GC only on June 4th so I can go travel and come back with my AP. And I've already purchased the tickets! What a mess.

Now, if the AP is truly messed up, I probably won't have time to get a new one in 2 weeks. So the only option left is to talk to my interviewing officer and tell him to approve my case ASAP and hopefully I can get an I-551 stamp in my passport. They reserve those for extreme situations but this IS getting extreme :(
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I just got a reply from my former attorney. I had sent him a scanned version of my AP earlier. He says the AP is screwed up. It is a service error on USCIS's part because I did check the right box on Form I-131 when I applied.

My attorney suggested I ask for the I-551 stamp in my passport. I think that's my only chance to be able to travel. He even sent me a scan of one of his client's I-551 stamp, but that was stamped in Denver. But of course for that they'd have to approve my case ASAP. My old file is being trasnferred right now from Lincoln to Cleveland.

I've been planning this trip for months. I haven't been to my home country for a year and a half.
There is also a 5 day trip with my parents to Germany with a group of locals visiting the German sister city of my ex-hometown. I've never been to Germany and they even want me to help translate and photograph the events. It all may go down the drain because of this mess. :(

Sorry for the rant.
 
USCIS chicago address

** sorry....i asked this question on a different thread but got no Response so i am asking it here now**

Tomorrow, on April 30th i am sending my AOS package ( I-130,I-485,I-131,I-765) to USCIS chicago using USPS Express mail service (overnight delivery) so that my wait clock starts on May 1.
IS THIS IS THE RIGHT ADDRESS FOR USPS EXPRESS MAIL DELIVERY ??

USCIS
P.O. Box 805887
Chicago, IL 60680-4120


Punjabi1
 
gabebalazs said:
Sorry for the rant.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear you're caught up in such a mess. I hope they do approve it quickly. You still have a few days.

I leave on Saturday (no matter what) so if my GC doesn't arrive today I'm hoping to get the stamp on Friday morning (I have an INFOPASS).

If they don't give me a stamp, then I'm just going to leave anyway and have my GC mailed over. That could be a last resort option for you too, no? I know you mentioned the difficulties with mail in your home country (I'm familiar with that type of thing, I lived in Belarus for a while and I'm not sure anyone there gets any mail ever either) but perhaps you could use Fedex and get them to hold it at an office/depot for you to collect? I've quickly checked and I'm pretty sure they have operations there.
 
Sorry to hear you're caught up in such a mess. I hope they do approve it quickly. You still have a few days.

I leave on Saturday (no matter what) so if my GC doesn't arrive today I'm hoping to get the stamp on Friday morning (I have an INFOPASS).

If they don't give me a stamp, then I'm just going to leave anyway and have my GC mailed over. That could be a last resort option for you too, no? I know you mentioned the difficulties with mail in your home country (I'm familiar with that type of thing, I lived in Belarus for a while and I'm not sure anyone there gets any mail ever either) but perhaps you could use Fedex and get them to hold it at an office/depot for you to collect? I've quickly checked and I'm pretty sure they have operations there.
Click to expand...

thanks. Yes we have Fedex and UPS too, so that would work.

However, I went to Cleveland today, and took care of it. I showed the INFOPASS Immigration Officer my AP and told her what the problem was. She did not seem very familiar with this situation, she kept saying "oh, if your AP is bad, you have to get a new one and that takes time...". I tried to explain to her that the last remaining file is being transfered from Lincoln to Cleveland and was sent out Monday, so my GC can be approved soon, and maybe I could get a stamp once it's been approved. Her response was telling me that the postal service is slow and there is Priority Mail, regular first class etc. and it will take time for it to arrive in Cleveland :) So she wasn't that helpful, so another IO came over she showed my AP to him, and he said I should be OK at the border, they will let me in. And they pretty much finished the conversation with me... :(

So I thought, OK they will let me in, but I don't want the border officer to classify/parole me as a TPS alien when I enter the US.

So I left but I just went over to the other side of the waiting room. I was determined to wait for Officer Vega who interviewed us 2 weeks ago, and even called me on Monday telling me he would approve my GC on only June 4th, a day after I get back using my AP. When I talked to him on Monday I did not yet know my AP wasn't perfect.

Anyway, it was about lunch time and I knew he was going to lunch soon. He came out along with 2 other interviewing officers. He recognized me, and I showed him my AP. The other 2 officers also joined in the conversation like a mini committee :) They are all about my age, 35. They saw the AP was granted to me as if I was in TPS status, which I'm not. They said I would be allowed to enter the US with it though. Still, they modified it by writing the following on the front: "Applicant has a pending I-485. Parole him into US pursuant of 212 (d). Cleveland DO, 4/30/2009, John Vega" and his signature. 212 (d) is adjustment of status classification. They all said I will be fine. One of them even used to work 4 years as a border officer and he said he would let me in with no problem, even without the added modification :)

So looks like I'm set. I'm happy to say the least. :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top