Travel on AP question: 485 approval after RFE imminent

V

vipi

New Member
Hi All

I plan to travel to India with my family in mid October for a month and have already booked the tickets. My GC application had been pending for a long long time (Labor since mid 98, July01 notice date, FP in Feb02) but we finally received a RFE for proof of employment & paystubs and are responding to it today. This, according to my lawyer, means we will get the approval in the next month or so. The lawyer says he strongly advises us not to travel till the passports are stamped. Does this make any sense?

We have a valid AP visa to travel and had planned this trip a while ago. Cancelling it will mean a big loss as the 4 tickets to India are non-refundable. Plus there are some family events planned in India which will be hard to cancel/ postpone now.

Acc. to the lawyer the AP is really invalid once the 485 is approved. I think this is true once the passport is stamped but till then we can always say we did not know about the approval.

Please let me know if you have had any experience travelling on AP when the 485 approval was expected any day. I think the lawyer is being overly cautious.

Thanks
 
IF u wanna go with ur lawyer and still wanna go to india then u can delay ur rfe response. think INS gives u 83 days to respond.
 
hi

from what you have told us , my view is very much what you think, that is you can travel on an AP when your 485 is pending, and if the 485 is approved during your travel, you will not be faulted at all.

look at it practically, when you come back to the US after your trip, the Immg officer at the airport will have no way of knowing whetehr your 485 has been approved or not.

assuming he does, still he will not fault you in any matter as you were travelling when your approval came.

then only problem may be, if your 485 approval comes in on the day you are leaving the US! well, if that happens then you can still go , since INS always takes the date your approval noticed reached you physically through mail, rahter than an approval notice you 'heard' on an AVM

So, don't ask too many people, as the conservatives will always say Nay, and the liberals will always say Yes!. looking at yr case, it looks like you can travel on an AP and return back without any problem even if yr approval comes during that time!

have fun, going to India and meeting family and friends etc is not a everyday event, so don't ask yr lawyer, just go and come back!
 
My husband did some research and found the following. I am posting it here for any one in similar situation.

This link describes the INS guidelines for cases like ours.
THe advance parole becomes invalid once the 485 is approved.
But if you had a valid advance parole when you left the USA the officer should let you in, pending a "deferred inspection"

http://www.murthy.com/ukpbadpl.html
 
A small risk

There is a very small risk that if the case is approved, deferred inspection should be granted at port of entry. This is equal to the risk that AP is not accepted because of other reasons.

Since approval comes typically in 2-3 weeks after receipt of RFE, the best thing would be to follow your lawyer's advice and travel after stamping.

On the other hand, if you need to travel urgently, I would go for it, because the risk is so small.

Disclaimer applies! :D :D :D
 
Thanks to all for their responses.

I have asked my lawyer to do what he thinks best - whether to respond to RFE on Monday (he has all the papers with him now) or wait a few weeks before responding as we have till end Nov to respond to the RFE.

From what I have read, in the worst case, we will be granted a deferred inspection, which means we will have to go to the local INS office. But, that we would have to do anyway to get the passports stamped. I don't see any risk of the 485 being rejected or we being told to return to India so I guess all is fine :)

And by the way, I still have a valid H1 so it isn't an issue for me but my husband's h1 has expired (6+ years) so he is working on EAD now and needs the AP.

I'll still be checking in to see if anyone actually went thru this.

My friend's 485 was approved while she was travelling but she came back on AP no questions asked. The only difference in her case was that there was no RFE involved.

Thanks
 
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