Passport expiration and AOS Stamping

[bwkim]

Hi,

I got RFE for AOS recently and I expect my case to be approved
soon (at least in 3 months).

Assuming that our AOS is approved without any trouble I
understand that we'll be requested to get the stamp on our
passport at the local INS office once it's approved.

My question is, do our passports have to be valid more than
6 months beyond the stamping time?

My wife's passport will be expired in Sep this year. Does she
have to make a new passport before getting the stamp at INS
for the permanent residency?

I found this from one of this forum's message board:

> One more point. The 551 stamp is valid till your passport is
> valid, so if you have passport expiring soon (3 months from
> now) better get it renewed, in my case my passport is valid till
> Sep so the stamp is valid till Sep. If your passsport does not
> expire in a year the stamp is valid for one year.

Is this statement true?

Some people are saying that they got the stamp even with
already expired passport and then they made the new passport.
If the above is true, this will never happen and I'm kind of lost.

Please advise me if I have to make a new passport for my wife
before the stamping.

Thanks a lot.

bwkim

 

[jaxen]

Yes in order to get a 551 stamp the passport has to be valid for more than 6 months. Since they ship the Green card within weeks of stamping, getting the 551 stamp is not an issue.

A PM I received froma couple in jacksonville , florida e said that they received a fashioned out temporary green card (instead of the 551 stamp) since their passport was expiring soon. They travelled out of US & back with that "temporary card" - no hassles.
They also received their green card within 2 weeks.

You can always get the new passport within 3 months or wait for new passport before going for stamping.

 

[bwkim]

Thanks a lot for your quick reply, jaxen.
I think I'd rather get my wife's new passport while we're waiting
for the approval. That'll make the situation simpler, I guess.

Thanks.

bwkim