News Update - October 24, 2009

By Alan Lee, Esq.

Apply Early for Advance Parole to Travel Outside the U.S.


If you want to travel outside the U.S. and be granted permission to reenter, you must apply for and be granted Advance Parole (travel documents) before you leave the U.S. if you have: been granted Temporary Protected Status; a pending application for adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident (LPR); a pending application under section 203 of NACARA; a pending asylum application; or a pending application for legalization.

In order to apply for Advance Parole, you must complete and file a Form I-131. Keep in mind that if you fall into one of the aforementioned categories and you leave the U.S. without an approved I-131, THE CONSEQUENCES ARE SEVERE. Failure to have obtained Advance Parole prior to leaving the U.S. may result in your being denied reentry and your pending applications may be denied or closed.

You must ensure that you are not in the U.S. illegally. In some instances, aliens who are unlawfully present for over 180 days are granted Advance Parole and then denied reentry on the grounds of inadmissibility.

Processing times for the Form I-131 for the travel documents for Advance Parole take about 90 days. There is no guarantee when your application will be processed, so plan ahead and file early. For more on Advance Parole go to uscis.gov under “How Do I Get a Travel Document?” and instruction for Form I-131.

If you have a pending asylum or refugee application, and return to the country of claimed persecution or fear of persecution, your application will be presumed abandoned -even if you obtained Advance Parole. In some cases returning to the country of persecution or feared persecution is allowed if you explain a compelling reason and the circumstances for your reasonable fear have not changed.

 


The author is a 26+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.

This article © 2009 Alan Lee, Esq.

 

Copyright © 2003-2012 Alan Lee, Esq.
The information provided here is of a general nature and may not apply to any particular set of facts or circumstances. It should not be construed as legal advice and does not constitute an engagement of the Law Office of Alan Lee or establish an attorney-client relationship.