Can we plan on traveling

Thanks for your advice, dr lha. My travel plans would be difficult and costly to change (coordinated with my wife's, dad's and friend's vacation plans), so I think I'll take the interview whenever it comes, before or after the vacation. (If it falls within the vacation time I hope they let me reschedule.)

My major concern would be if they would not immediately approve the AOS at the interview. Technically I suppose I'd still be in H-1 status, but would they still cancel my H-1 visa (CWOP) at that time, even if the AOS is not immediately approved? (If it is immediately approved, I'm assuming they can give me an I551 stamp or other document that I can use for travel purposes.)
 
austriacus said:
My major concern would be if they would not immediately approve the AOS at the interview. Technically I suppose I'd still be in H-1 status, but would they still cancel my H-1 visa (CWOP) at that time, even if the AOS is not immediately approved?
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If your AOS is not approved at interview, I can see no reason why they would "CWOP" your H-1B or take your I-94.

(If it is immediately approved, I'm assuming they can give me an I551 stamp or other document that I can use for travel purposes.)
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Its not guaranteed that you will get an I-551 stamp. I asked for one and was told "we don't do those any more because Green Cards come in 2 weeks these days", of course then my Green Card took 2 months to come, but that's another story.
 
I spent some time this evening reading up on the issue of re-enterning the country while the AOS is approved (i.e. the person left before approval and re-enters after approval). I didn't find any recent information, but several discussions and experiences from employment based AOS filers since obviously they don't usually have interviews, so they get caught by this by surprise.

The consensus on this seems to be that at the POE, the person will either be admitted in "secondary inspection" (receiving a stamp at POE) or "deferred inspection," requiring a visit to a USCIS office. In some places I read that this option is only available for people traveling with AP, others say either AP or one of the specific nonimmigrant visas allowing travel (such as H-1B) are acceptable documents (of course with AOS receipt notice) at POE in this case. According to some descriptions, it is also acceptable if your AOS has been approved while you're gone but you don't know this at POE after a brief vacation, since you're not expected to be checking on your status during your vacation.

So for our cases, it appears to really hinge on - can we get the I551 stamp if the AOS is approved at the interview, or, if it is not approved, is our visa not cancelled (or AP document not taken away). And if it is subsequently approved just prior to departure, how quickly can one get the I551 stamp before leaving the country, and how can someone prepare for it.
 
You can get the I-551 stamp if your AOS is approved before you leave by making an Infopass appointment and asking for the stamp.
 
Thanks dr lha!

Perhaps a prudent thing to do, without having a specific interview date yet, would be to schedule an infopass appointment 1-2 days before we plan to travel. That way, if we receive the interview notice shortly before we leave and it happens to be for a time we're not in the country, we'd have an appointment to resolve the issue. Alternatively, if the interview has already happened and I didn't get an I551 stamp right away, I could use the same appointment for that instead.

What I'm somewhat more concerned about is receiving the interview notice while we're gone (3 weeks). Is the interview notice sent to the I-485 applicant (= I-130 beneficiary), or the I-130 petitioner, or both? I (beneficiary) usually put my mail on hold when I travel, but my wife's (petitioner's) mail will be checked by her family. Any other way we can find out our interview date, without physically having access to the notice for up to 3 weeks?

EDIT: I just discovered that instead of putting the mail on hold, I can have it forwarded with a "temporary change of address request" at USPS for the duration of our vacation. I suppose that way I can make sure the interview notice would arrive at my wife's address where her family can check it.
 
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