travelling to US virgin islands, EB-1 OR petition not acknowledged

[immipassion]

I and my wife are travelling to US virgin islands next week. My EB-1 OR petition was sent to NSC center on Nov 24 but have not received the acknowledgement receipt yet (my lawyer called USCIS and was told its taking them almost 45 days due to large number of applications). I am on H1B and my wife is employed on OPT. Is it safe to travel? Could there by any issue with re-entry and pending I485 (abandonment)? Does any one here know if travel to USVI involved immigration inspection? (some web-sites mention pre-clearance immigration while other say even passport is not required!)

 

[MyEB1_2006]

my thoughts

1. ALWAYS CARRY EVERY POSSIBLE DOCUMENT WHEN LEAVING THE COUNTRY (although USVI may not be out of the country)

2. I travelled to India after sending my EB-1 OR, and also got a new H-1 visa stamped in Mumbai. Hence if you have a valid H-1 visa and your wife, a valid F-1 visa , you should not worry. Since technically you are no leaving the US, visa issues may not come up.

3. Specifically, NOT having a receipt to the EB-1OR application. No one ever asked me about that throughout my travel outside the US, so can assume it will not matter in this situation.

These are my thoughts....

 

[immipassion]

thanks for replying

apologies for post-travel response. we had alrady left by the time i checked it but just wanted to summarize our experience for what it is worth. travel to USVI is completely safe and easy. on the way there from mainland US no checks are conducted whatsoever. on the way back there is a minor custom/immigration check but IMO just to verify 2 things:
1. whether or not the person has right documents to be in US, and
2. whether or not the person is carrying items worth less than the allowed limit.

overall, we had a smooth sailing