I-551 stamped on passport - No physical Green card - Trip to Canada - Pls advice

vsaksena

Registered Users (C)
My wife's and my 485 was approved & I-551 stamped on the passport first week of May. We are planning on visiting Canada for vacation next week. Considering that we don't have a physical card, will weface any problems -

(1) entering Canada (I know once you have the gren card you don't need a VISA to enter Canada - BTW I am an Indian citizen)

(2) re-entering US on the way back.

Experiences/opinions appreciated.

Regards

Vikas
 
Take the original welcome or approval notice along. The I551 stamp is easily forged and sometimes looked at with suspicion by the border patrol guys.
 
Yeah the I-551 stamp blew us away

hadron said:
Take the original welcome or approval notice along. The I551 stamp is easily forged and sometimes looked at with suspicion by the border patrol guys.

The stamp is pretty unbelievable, & does look like could be easily forged, unless they use some kind of special ink, which gives specific information under certain kind of light or something.

We haven't recieved any welcome letter yet, although its been more than a month since approval.

The letter which we recieved in the mail (on the basis of which we went to the district office to get our passports stamped) says

"The application for adjustment of status to that of a permanent resident filed by the above named has been granted. .
You should recieve your Alien Registration card within 10-20 business days. If you are travelling before this time, you must sign on to the website at www.USCIS.gov and click on the Infopass icon."


signed by the District Director USCIS


Is this what you mean by the approval notice? Would this be sufficient documentation for travel? Pls advice
 
this thing will also say somewhere: 'this is not a visa and cannot be used as a visa'. the 551 stamp is technically sufficient, but people have encountered suspicion before. anything like old ead with your a-number and approval notice (which has a watermark and other tamper resistance features) can help to overcome suspicion.
 
ummm no!

hadron said:
this thing will also say somewhere: 'this is not a visa and cannot be used as a visa'. the 551 stamp is technically sufficient, but people have encountered suspicion before. anything like old ead with your a-number and approval notice (which has a watermark and other tamper resistance features) can help to overcome suspicion.

none of the 2 things we have (the 551 stamp or the letter informing us abt the granting of the application of permanent resident staus has the statement you mention abt "this is not a visa and cannot be used as a visa"
All the stamp says is PROCESSED FOR i-551. TEMPORARY EVIDENCE FOR LAWFUL ADMISSION FOR PERMANENT RESIDENCE. VALID UNTIL 5-02-06. EMPLOYMENT AUTHORIZED ( with all that they have a hand scribbled A-#)

the reason I am concerned is as I earlier mentioned that we are planning on going to Canada , and I would like not to get into hassles from the perspective of both getting into Canada as well as coming into US.

All tht being said we will take our previous EADs. & so forth & the hwole package with the I-485 approvals, would you suggest we need anything else?

Regards

Vikas
 
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