Approved: ND 2/5/03. AC21 RFE case

N

Niti Upadhyay

Registered Users (C)
Hi All,

Just got 4 mails of approval from USCIS for me and my husband. I filed AC21 in June and got an RFE in late October. Replied back by November 3rd. LUD changed on Nov 3rd, 11th, 15th and today.

Good Luck to everybody!!

Thanks for all the help. I have one last question... I'm travelling to India on 19th and I know I won't get my notice by then. Can I just travel on my AP and then go for passport stamping when I come back?

Thanks,
Niti.
 
Congratulations!!
I think you can use your AP to travel. I read elsewhere that the stamping on your passport voids the AP. As you wont get the approval notice before you leave, you should be able to enter with the AP.
My .02.
 
was praying not to get approved!!!

I am also leaving on 19th for a month. I was hoping and praying not to get approved so that no ambiguity arises with AP.

We had a good discussion on this topic on another thread regarding this. The consensus is that you need to pretend that you were not enrolled on e-mail notification and didn't know about the approval when you left. In any case it will be next monday by the time you get the snail mail (i.e the best bet). ETA-GC where are you....your insight needed!!!!

You should be good ....but your attorney may say differently.
 
Thanks for the info. I suppose, I'll have to act a little bit to pass this phase.

I don't have a lawyer anymore. So, am depending on this forum.

If you see me on Nov 20th on this forum...that means they didn't let me travel.

Thanks,
Niti.
 
you won't be stopped going out....

You won't be stopped when you are leaving...no one cares or looks at your AP.

When you come back at port of entry you would be told that the case is approved,,, act as if you are hearing for the first time. You would be allowed in with 'deferred inspection'. Are you travelling by Air India 9:10PM flight. (keep the print out). I will post that article here....
 
I'm not flying with Air India. I'm flying out of Atlanta. What print out are you talking about rajudm?

joyd, Thanks for reminding me to update the tracker. Is there a tracker on immigrationportal? I will update the one on rupnet.

Thanks,
Niti.
 
got confused re: article

I had saved INS memo for 'dual intent when adjustment application pending'. It is not relevant to you.

The bottom line in your case is that 'you were not aware of I485 approval'. You would be in trouble if USCIS can prove that you travelled outside after receiving the approval. In this case they have to prove that you have read your mail which was sent out from their server. It is highly unlikely some one at POE can do IT related stuff to prove that.

If I get my approval notification today, I would definitely leave by Friday flight no thinking back.
 
Congratulations Niti,

rajudm...
I don't know how you can pretend that you were not enrolled in email notification if you were enrolled, it's computers man you can not prove it wrong if the point comes down to proving it.
 
Computer Jhamela

Right. Computer can prove that mail was mailed out. Period. Note that if you are in for secondary screening their system can tell almost everything about you. Don't lie.
 
Yes computers can tell everything...

I have suffered quite a lot with these morons and their computers. They couldn't even send my name for FBI name check even after 18 onths on their so called sophisticated super computer. Also, cannot even tell where exactly the I485 has got stuck.

I couldn't go when father expired last year this time. Even if there is a chance of their super computer finding out that I was approved before leaving US, I will leave and face the consequence. What is the maximum that can happen. NO GC. It is fine with me.
 
Can she not try to either get an infopass appointment or just show up at a local office with proof of her intending travel and request a stamping without the courtesy copy? After all, the officers should be able to tell her status by looking into their system. The approval notice, from what I've heard is a 'courtesy copy' anyway...
 
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My 2 cents

All I am saying is when you return back, if asked, tell the truth. There is no harm telling that I485 got approved but you have to go within 2 days for urgent reasons and you booked the tickets long back and in no way it was possible to foresee this approval. It is better to tell the truth than to lie. We are not terrorist right ?
 
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MD_Rockville..you are right but..

Yes we can be truthful and tell exactly the reason behind travel. In this post 9/11 era where is the compassion in immigrant officials at POE.

There were several cases reported on this forum where approved candidates left US without stamping (even after 1 month of approval) and successfully came back. Each individual case is different and cannot be equated to the current circumstance.

Niti,
you could do this....
If possible get a letter from Senator or Congressman's office for urgent InfoPass appointment for passport stamping. If local offices refuses to stamp then get a letter from them saying that it can be done after coming back from travel. So everyone is happy in this immigration world.
 
ok.. how am I going to get the appointment and do all that in 2 days?

On top of it, my husband is not in town till the last day. This is going to be tough.

So, if I come in to usa, and they tell me that my gc was approved and I never got a stamp, what would they do? I was wondering.. isn't this almost same as being in India and GC getting approved and coming back?

Thanks,
Niti.
 
rajudm said:
ETA-GC where are you....your insight needed!!!!
Click to expand...

The general concensus has been that it is very, very advisable to get the stamping done first.

But, there has been some suggestion that the bottom line is that you are a PR even if you don't have the stamp and you should ultimately be allowed back in to complete the stamping. Would I gamble on this myself? Ask me in 3 months if I get approved right before going up to Banff for a ski trip...

I've argued in the past that there must be many people who don't know they've been approved at the time that they leave the US -- there is normally at least a 2 week delay between the time one is approved and the receipt of the approval notice. Unless you've set up direct notification on the USCIS account and even then, if someone is on the road they might be unaware that they've been approved for quite some time.

For the sake of argument, if Niti had been too busy to check her email over the last few days, she could have easily been in this situation... I certainly wouldn't advocate lying but IMO there's no way that the USCIS could prove that she actually read the email -- she could easily say that she hasn't had a chance to access the internet since early November. Yes, the USCIS could take the stance that they sent the email out and the onus is on each individual to make sure of his/her situation but this seems to be unrealistic / extremely petty...

For what it's worth here is what our company lawyer said on this matter when I asked about leaving after approval but before stamping (without AP -- I have H status but I think the same principle would apply).

"I've checked with several inspection stations about this. Apparently you'll be let back in, but it will be a lot easier on you if you have the ADIT stamp showing I-551 processing entered into your passports before you leave. This is an area where the ultimate outcome will depend upon the common sense of the supervisor on duty at the time. Without proper documentation of your status, you might be offered an opportunity to apply for a document waiver (a fee of $250 applies), or might be paroled in for completion of processing of the paperwork (entry of the ADIT stamp) at a local office, or might possibly be admitted as residents based upon an approval notice that you have in your possession.

If you find your adjustment is approved before you leave, I advise you to request ADIT stamps before you go."

ETA
 
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AOS and CP

When I485 is filed AOS rules apply. One cannot go out without valid AP. As soon as I485 is approved AP becomes invalid. So if a person leaves US in that situation, USCIS would consider that the intention of residency is abandoned.

To avoid this USCIS assumption you need to ...1) show that you made all possible attempts to get the passport stamped. 2) or saying that you were not aware of I485 approval...since you didn't have the copy. There is danger in either approach. option 1 is not possible with your situation, and option 2 depends on what we discussed earlier...

In CP (consular processing)... it is the external embassy which gives the resident visa to travel. Therefore both process cannot be compared.
 
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