I-551 stamping without approval notice

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ClevelandGuru

Registered Users (C)
I was in situation where I got an approval email for me and my wife, 2 days before our travel date. We can't travel outside the country without the stamping. We took an appointment and went there with our tickets and approval email copy. The immigration officer was kind enough to check our tickets and process our I-551 stamping without the approval notice. He checked his computer and took a printout from a "Claims database". The printout had the entire timeline of our case(date and status history of our case). He highlighted the approval status and attached it to form in place of the approval notice. He said, he is not supposed to this(I think they are authorized to do it), but he anyway did it .

I am just posting this, so that in future, if anyone is similar situation, give a try and you might be able to get the stamping without an approval notice.
 
ClevelandGuru said:
I was in situation where I got an approval email for me and my wife, 2 days before our travel date. We can't travel outside the country without the stamping. We took an appointment and went there with our tickets and approval email copy. The immigration officer was kind enough to check our tickets and process our I-551 stamping without the approval notice. He checked his computer and took a printout from a "Claims database". The printout had the entire timeline of our case(date and status history of our case). He highlighted the approval status and attached it to form in place of the approval notice. He said, he is not supposed to this(I think they are authorized to do it), but he anyway did it .

I am just posting this, so that in future, if anyone is similar situation, give a try and you might be able to get the stamping without an approval notice.
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Cool -- that's good news indeed :)
But from what I've read here (& elsewhere), if your approval comes in this close to a planned travel date, you can actually travel and re-enter using your AP.

Technically, you have some amount of time *AFTER* getting the approval notice in hand to get the stamping done. After all not everyone is expected to check status of their cases (not folks in this forum - we check it way too much !!).

So for others - if you have a valid AP, you can still travel -- you'll get deferred inspection when you come back in - then you can go and complete the 551 process in the nearest ASC.

Thanks :)
 
Hi

When you went there for stamping , did you have to show your current employment status with your W2, pay stubs and job description?

Thank you.
 
Not if your case is approved at the Service Center.

If your case is transfered to the local INS office i think in the interview letter they will let you know what they need
 
zipper said:
Not if your case is approved at the Service Center.

If your case is transfered to the local INS office i think in the interview letter they will let you know what they need
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No, he didn't ask for pay stub or w2. He just wanted to see the air ticket. He got the alien number from the advance parole and used it to get the approved status from his claims database. He mentioned the claim database doesn't show our class (Empolyment). I told him I was in the EB3 catagory, then he wrote E3-7 for me and E3-9 for my wife on the passport stamp.
 
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