Turned Away at JFK due to RTD expiration date. Help!

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WillH

Registered Users (C)
I was set to travel last night. I get to the airport to check in, the ticket agent starts entering my info and then it starts to take longer than usual. Finally she says that the system is making her look into it further and then she has to go talk to a supervisor because they may not let me get on the plane. 20 minutes later after I plead several times with her to check with everyone she can, they decide that they can't let me fly. The reason: My RTD expires October 30th of this year and there is some sort of a rule that I didn't see anywhere online or on my e-ticket that states that my travel document has to be valid for two months beyond my date of stay (I was coming back in a month leaving three weeks on the RTD)

What's more, it seems that neither a refund nor a free rebook for a later date is automatic and I have to contact customer service and put in a request for review. Can you believe this. They don't tell you the rules and then they charge you anyway. Or am I wrong? Is this a known rule?

Anyway, what I really need is advice on whether I can get an expedited new RTD even though my current one is still Valid. How would I do that? Schedule an infopass appointment with immigration? Contact my congressman? I am at a loss. Please help me if you can.

Thanks for reading all this... and please feel free to ask questions as I am sure I must be leaving something out.
 
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WillH said:
I was set to travel last night. I get to the airport to check in, the ticket agent starts entering my info and then it starts to take longer than usual. Finally she says that the system is making her look into it further and then she has to go talk to a supervisor because they may not let me get on the plane. 20 minutes later after I plead several times with her to check with everyone she can, they decide that they can't let me fly. The reason: My RTD expires October 30th of this year and there is some sort of a rule that I didn't see anywhere online or on my e-ticket that states that my travel document has to be valid for two months beyond my date of stay (I was coming back in a month leaving three weeks on the RTD)

What's more, it seems that neither a refund nor a free rebook for a later date is automatic and I have to contact customer service and put in a request for review. Can you believe this. They don't tell you the rules and then they charge you anyway. Or am I wrong? Is this a known rule?

Anyway, what I really need is advice on whether I can get an expedited new RTD even though my current one is still Valid. How would I do that? Schedule an infopass appointment with immigration? Contact my congressman? I am at a loss. Please help me if you can.

Thanks for reading all this... and please feel free to ask questions as I am sure I must be leaving something out.
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Which county are you going to? Usually most countries require you have 3 months or so left in your passport(or rtd). Maybe they were following the rules based on those countries entry requirements as they have to honor those.
 
It was Egypt. The irony is that Egypt gave me a visa three weeks ago that was valid for 6 months
 
Isn't it incredicle that the Travel document is only valid one year, then you need to have at least 2 or 3 months validity so that you can still use it, and when you receive it from USCIS, 2 to 3 weeks have already passed since it was issued, and they won't give a new one until the previous one has expired. That thing is only valid 8 months or so. But hey! We don't have much of a choice...
 
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WillH said:
It was Egypt. The irony is that Egypt gave me a visa three weeks ago that was valid for 6 months
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Then you need to fight with the airline company..I havent seen any rules that say how long a passport should be valid for. Read the fine print of the ticket you bought.
 
That's quite a sad but real way to look at it. I guess my only other option is to get Delta to give me a refund since I can't apply for another until October 30th
 
Man WillH, you did not waste a single day. You just received your GC and you are already on your way to Egypt? Good for you. I plan on going to Canada the same week I receive mine and then to Europe within the first month.

Question: You are carrying a refugee travel doc but you are now a permanent resident
1. Are you even allowed to do this? Aren't you supposed to apply for a new one that says "Perm. Res" instead of "Asyleee"
2. Could this be the reason why you could not travel?
 
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DaveBJ, I never heard that you have to apply for a new one once you adjust. It's valid until it's Valid (Except it's not... of course) They didn't seem to care one way or another when I showed them my GC and the airline doesn't have access to your immigration files so they can't tell whether you are a Perm Res or not when they plug your name into the computer. No this was based purely on RTD dated.

Also as far as not wasting time to travel. One thing has nothing to do with the other. I could have traveled on my RTD the day that I got it last November when I wasn't even close to being eligible to adjust but some complications arose and I couldn't travel then. Now my dad is recovering from a stroke in a hospital in cairo and I wanna go see him.. and of course I can't.
 
WillH said:
DaveBJ, I never heard that you have to apply for a new one once you adjust. It's valid until it's Valid (Except it's not... of course) They didn't seem to care one way or another when I showed them my GC and the airline doesn't have access to your immigration files so they can't tell whether you are a Perm Res or not when they plug your name into the computer. No this was based purely on RTD dated.

Also as far as not wasting time to travel. One thing has nothing to do with the other. I could have traveled on my RTD the day that I got it last November when I wasn't even close to being eligible to adjust but some complications arose and I couldn't travel then. Now my dad is recovering from a stroke in a hospital in cairo and I wanna go see him.. and of course I can't.
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Actually DAVEBJ is correct. Even though you can travel using your old RTD that says "ASYLEE"..it will be taken away from you when you renter the country. Happend to me in 2005. You should've gotten a new RTD.
 
To add more the confusion my congressman's office telling me that I am no longer ellegible for one because I am a perm res. The woman said that she contacted TSC and that's what they are telling her so now I may not even be able to get them to help me because of the false info they got.

Also, I was to get back on the 7th of October so if they took it away then then fine. I would have had to apply for another one three weeks later anyway. Again, my being a GC holder didn't come into play until they had already rejected me and I pulled it out as last ditch effort to get them to let me on.
 
WillH,

I think you can apply for one but it will say that you are a permanent resident (not asylee). You and I don't see the difference because the two travel docs look exatly the same, but it seems to be a big deal for USCIS agents at the port of entry.
Remember that some of us (myself) will not be given a National passport even if I asked one from our COP. My current govenment likes it better that I remain outside of my country.
 
OK just spoke to somebody at the USCIS customer service line and the man told me that I now that I am a perm res, I should apply for a re-entry permit instead. Any thoughts or experiences?

Also as far as getting a new NP goes. Isn't that pretty much a no no? Truthfully, that would be the least complicated fastest solution but I don't want to complicate my citizenship chances or be turned away by Border Patrol when I come back because I am carrying a recently renewed NP. I have no plans of going back to my COP of course but this RTD situation is proving to be quite a mess.
 
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WillH,

My brother is a PR and former asylee (just like me). His NP was still valid when he became a Perm Res. (unlike mine) and he's been using it to enter the US at least 3 times in 2008 and 2009. Immigration inspectors never questioned it.
 
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The re-entry permit is valid for two years, so you do have a bit more time to manage.

If you plan to renew NP "only", then just do it if you feel it makes your entry convenient, and most of the time it does. Just remember, there is no iron-barred prison inside your COP's embassy. The worst they can do is to say "no", and you wind up losing nothing.

Hope that helps.
 
I have heard that there are requirements that airlines needs to follow and one of them is validity of passport,travel document or Visa.(I remember that validity of 6 month or longer was required). If Airline doesn't follow this boarding issuance guideline, destination Immigration authority could fine airline $ 10000 for each passenger who was not checked up properly.This happened to me on 1998 when I was going to Germany and my port of entry to europe was Amesterdam.I did not know about EU visas and were assuming that I will be transit in Amesterdam.I was held there and they did investegate that why I was able to board the plane with RTD without visa and finally I was issued visa to continue my trip. The irony is that Germany does not need visa for RTD but I was entering Europe from somewhere else other than Germany. I was told by Netherland Immigration superviser that United Airline is going to pay fine for this mistake and fine is $ 10000.
 
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mh66ii, I didn't know that plus which Egyptian authorities gave me a visa that was valid for 6 months and they were aware of my travel dates and such as well as the dates on my RTD. At any rate, I am going to try with Delta and see if they will refund me. In the meantime, I am going to try to get a new RTD asap.

P.S: Someone told me that when you adjust to LPR you can get an RTD for free???? That's not true is it?
 
I guess that is in your package when you file I-485 and I prefer to say it is paid if you want it therfore I would not call it free since USCIS does not do anything for free.As you might know this is set up betwen airline and immigration.Put it this way, even if you have visa still there is no guranty that you be able to enter the country and immigration can deny yout entry to egypt or any other country.Bottom line even if this was not the case, Airline was trying to cover their butt. I would difinitly follow it with airline and I bet you their deffense will be that it is your responsibility to check about visa, passport and so forth but do not buy it and make noise if you want to get something out of this. In other hand depend on your ticket you might be able to get some refund without hassle or no refund if the ticket is non refundable. If it is non refundable I really doubt if you can get refund and you are lucky if airline accept to give you some kind of voucher to use in the future, If that will be the case pay attention of expiration date of the voucher and try to use it before expiration.
Good luck
 
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WillH said:
That's not true is it?
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it is true, you can send the RTD application to USCIS without fees since you already paid for the GC, include a copy of the GC biometric letter with the RTD application.

Airlines will not refund you, they will give you credit for a future ticket "just like mh66ii said "voucher"" this voucher "non transferable" is not the full ticket price, they will take about $250 and it will expire in a year.

As for the Egyptian consul who gave you the visa on a 2-month expiration RTD, he is a real dumm.

Life is not always a pleasant trip, so accept what happened :cool: and thank you for sharing with us, we are gonna be careful about it.
 
Ok I am sending a fax to delta tomorrow to try to get a refund or whatever. So what do I need to apply for my free RTD? Copy of biometrics letter and GC? what else? I would love some complete details as I need to apply asap
 
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