hey pork....!

[sks052001]

hey dude,

do u have any idea how long can we wait to get our passport stamped after getting the approval?

i'm planning to go to India in May for a breather....and in the meantime if i get approved can i complete my stay or do i have to come back immediately.

thanks,
cheers,

 

[gheewalabhai888]

there is not time limit. i was told that it is

just a formality. your approval notice is your ticket for pr and can be used anywhere wherever needed. on your leisure you can go and get stamped and order plastic but that is up to you when do you want and how soon you want that. bottom line is there is no written rule.
This is my impression. I may be wrong.

 

[Pork Chop]

theoretically, you can go for passport stamping any old time after you receive your approval notices. however, getting your GC approved while outside the u.s. does entail a complication. i will copy and paste a question about this situation on a thread, and jim mills reply to that. if you would like to read the thread in its entirety, click here: Is it possible to get green card while you are waiting in India after filing for I485

Question:
I applied for I485 10 months back. Is it possible for me to still get plastic cards after INS approved it? That means I didn't plan to go for stamping. Is stamping mandatory?

James D. Mills, Esq.:
Actually, if the GC is approved while you are out of the US, you annot technically enter on AP since the AP became invalid when the I-485 was approved. You technically need to be paroled in for deferred inspection. People are getting in on AP but it is not the technically correct way to do it and I'm not sure that INS will not raise a stink later.

 

[cinci2002]

sks... I do not think you need to come back immediately if your 485 gets approved but as posted earlier by Pork and others, you need to make sure that you are paroled in under 'deferred inspection' which would be technically correct but lot of people enter on AP which is not the right way and may pose problems later. I am also told by my attorney that if we reenter on H1 there is even a higher risk of invalidating your 485 approval.