AP approval BEFORE leaving US necessary?

[atsokbg]

Hi all,

I have a pending I-485/AP and need to travel to Japan on business in Feb for a month and a half.

Is AP approval required BEFORE leaving US or is it enough to have the AP filed BEFORE leaving provided the AP is approved at the time of reentry?

The INS web site gives contradictory instructions about this: at one place they state that approval is required before travel while at another place they claim that it is only necessary to have the AP petition filed. Plus I can see the posters on this forum give contradictory advice about this.

Whatever the official instructions say, I am interested what can happen practically, i.e have people been successful leaving the US before getting their APs approved and then reentering after the approval is obtained.

Clearly there are risks in leaving the US without AP approval:
1) The AP is denied for some reason
2) Backlogs or what have you delay the approval for a long period of time.

But suppose all goes well will I have problems at reentry?

Thanks,


Thanks

 

[xiu_123]

You have not mentioned if you have valid H-1 visa. If yes you can use that. If answer is no, you need to have a AP document in hand.

 

[atsokbg]

No, I will not have a valid H-1B so I didn't mention it all. I understand I will need to have the AP, but when: before I leave the US or when I reenter?

Thanks

 

[jaxen]

If you will not get a RFE on AP, you should not anticipate problems in using a AP that was approved/received after leaving US.