Hi,
Just wanted to post my experience here. We did concurrent filing last year in January. We got our AP and EAD in April. They are both expiring end of this month. We filed for the extension in Dec '03 and are still waiting for it.
Meanwhile, my dad has not doing well in India and we got the news last week that he needed bypass surgery. It is scheduled for first week of May. Since he has other complications and even if ppl say bypass is common nowadays, it is still a major surgery I decided to go home for 2 weeks, leaving on the 23rd of April.
I was able to get tickets on Lufthansa and British Airways but then heard about this new requirement to get a Transit visa if you are going through UK or Germany. Called the respective embassy/consulate yesterday and got that confirmed.
The hitch being the British embassy in DC doesn't process visa anymore and we have to got o NYC. Since I dont have the time to travel to NYC right now, we decided to pay $300 more and travel on Lufthansa. But I need the Advance Parole to get the transit visa.
So, my husband and I went with our 22 mths son to the INS office at 6:15 a.m today. They gave us a ticket number but the numbers were called in random order. Even though the INS office opens up at 7:30 a.m, we were not called up until 12:00 pm. The lady was extremely unhelpful, just told us that our case was pending (which we already knew). Then she told us to get letters from the doctor/hospital stating the emergency and come back another day. I asked her if I can appointment, she said no, then later said call the 800 number. She couldn't guarantee that we would get the AP even if we produce the letters from India.
I called the 800 number once I got back to myoffice. Someone answered the phone after being on hold for 1/2 hr. She said that we don't qualify for an appointment. That I should get all the documents and try going back to the local office. Another option is to send a fax to CIS asking them to expedite the case and attaching the reason as to y they should expedite the case.
In the case of 'extreme extreme emergency' (don't know what qualifies as 'extreme extreme emergency'), they might expedite the case.
I am going to call my parents and have them fax letters from the doctor and hospital. Meanwhile, we are not going anywhere as we need the AP to re-enter the country and to get the transit visa, essential meaning neither can I leave or re-enter the country.
My boss is not happy either since he doesn't want me to take off on such short notice. He doesn't seem happy off since I took 1/2 day off today. And I told him I still want to keep my travel options open and that I meant to travel after I get all my travel issues straigtened out.
I am just frustrated with this runaround. I should be spending this time thinking about my dad and spending time with him instead of standing in line in the INS office.
Is this the price we have to pay for leaving our home country?
Just wanted to post my experience here. We did concurrent filing last year in January. We got our AP and EAD in April. They are both expiring end of this month. We filed for the extension in Dec '03 and are still waiting for it.
Meanwhile, my dad has not doing well in India and we got the news last week that he needed bypass surgery. It is scheduled for first week of May. Since he has other complications and even if ppl say bypass is common nowadays, it is still a major surgery I decided to go home for 2 weeks, leaving on the 23rd of April.
I was able to get tickets on Lufthansa and British Airways but then heard about this new requirement to get a Transit visa if you are going through UK or Germany. Called the respective embassy/consulate yesterday and got that confirmed.
The hitch being the British embassy in DC doesn't process visa anymore and we have to got o NYC. Since I dont have the time to travel to NYC right now, we decided to pay $300 more and travel on Lufthansa. But I need the Advance Parole to get the transit visa.
So, my husband and I went with our 22 mths son to the INS office at 6:15 a.m today. They gave us a ticket number but the numbers were called in random order. Even though the INS office opens up at 7:30 a.m, we were not called up until 12:00 pm. The lady was extremely unhelpful, just told us that our case was pending (which we already knew). Then she told us to get letters from the doctor/hospital stating the emergency and come back another day. I asked her if I can appointment, she said no, then later said call the 800 number. She couldn't guarantee that we would get the AP even if we produce the letters from India.
I called the 800 number once I got back to myoffice. Someone answered the phone after being on hold for 1/2 hr. She said that we don't qualify for an appointment. That I should get all the documents and try going back to the local office. Another option is to send a fax to CIS asking them to expedite the case and attaching the reason as to y they should expedite the case.
In the case of 'extreme extreme emergency' (don't know what qualifies as 'extreme extreme emergency'), they might expedite the case.
I am going to call my parents and have them fax letters from the doctor and hospital. Meanwhile, we are not going anywhere as we need the AP to re-enter the country and to get the transit visa, essential meaning neither can I leave or re-enter the country.
My boss is not happy either since he doesn't want me to take off on such short notice. He doesn't seem happy off since I took 1/2 day off today. And I told him I still want to keep my travel options open and that I meant to travel after I get all my travel issues straigtened out.
I am just frustrated with this runaround. I should be spending this time thinking about my dad and spending time with him instead of standing in line in the INS office.
Is this the price we have to pay for leaving our home country?