Advance Parole

hello!

I'm very nervous and I needed to share my situation.
I married a month ago with an American citizen. I'm from Mexico and I came here to study and after Graduate School I had an OPT (time for students to stay) for a year. It ended in June 2017. Currently I'm married but my permit already expired.

We decided to do our big wedding next year in June 2018 because Mexico weddings are awesome and I have a lot of family and friends.
We are just waiting for our marriage certificate to arrive so that we can submit all the papers to UNCIS. - It's been 4 weeks and I hope it gets here soon!!

I had understood advance parole would allow me to go back to Mexico and return to the US, so we planned our wedding for JUNE. My lawyer told me just a couple of minutes ago that they don't advice me to travel with advance parole because I entered on OPT and it already expired and it's very likely they wouldn't allow me back in the country. I just want to go to my wedding and be allowed back!!!!

I already paid the deposit for the wedding and I'm so nervous. I don't know what to do, my marriage certificate doesn't arrive and I want to apply the soonest possible.

Anybody's experience like mine?
Do you really think I wouldn't let back in because of my student visa expired? (I still have a tourist visa)
Any advice?

Hello everyone sorry I didn't updat you guys. I was suppose to return on the 11th but my flight was canceled due to a storm, I'm guessing Irma or Jose.

Anyways I ended up flying on the 12th at 4:35pm and landed at JFK at 10:15pm. I am back safely and everything went smoothly with CBP and immigration. When I landed at JFK I went through the US Citizen line to the kiosk but unfortunately I couldn't get my passport scanned. I was told to go in a separate line to see a immigration officer. The officer asked my for my passport and I handed him my traveling document "AP". He proceeded to take my finger print the right hand 4 finger the thumb and same for the left hand. Then he told me to stand up infront of a camera and he took my picture. After that the officer said you are " being paroled in". Then I was pulled into a room and another officer did a background check which seems normal. He didn't ask me any question while I was in the office. It took him about 10 mins to run a complete background check. Then the officer called me up to the counter and handed me my passport and on of my AP document and told me good luck!

For anyone that's going to travel out I suggest you travel ASAP and don't be scared. There is nothing to worry about. Take the risk! Any question feel free to post I will answer your questions. Everything feels so unreal at the moment I keep on pinching myself to see if I'm dreaming!

Thanks to everyone for all the positive feedback.

Hello everyone, I have been an anonymous user just reading all of your expiriences since I applied for an Advance Parole back in June. I applied for AP for humanitarian purpose to get medical help for my self in Mexico. I got my AP approved before september 5th and like many of you I was devastated when I heard the bad news about DACA being rescinded. I am very nervous to use the AP but I am willing to take the risk. My attorney thinks I will be fine coming back in. Has anyone here traveled to Tijuana, Mexico and crossed back through San Ysidro POE after September 5th? I will be going to Tijuana on next Thursday 9/21 and I just want to feel more secure by knowing someone came in safely after Sept. 5th... Thank you all in advance by sharing all of your expierences they really encouraged me to apply for AP. Please pray for me for a safe return, I will pray for you guys as well.

Hello! I flew to Guadalajara Friday midnight and returned Monday night. I was very nervous leaving, but I am glad I did it! On the way back in Guadalajara they do ask to see your visa or how you are returning so I showed them my parole paper. They weren't very familiar with it but still let me fly. At LAX I went on the non citizens line and while in line they ask to see your visa but I had my parole and again they weren't familiar with it and looked confused. They had me wait in line to see an officer and once it was my turn the officer asked for my Mexican passport and my parole paper. He took my fingerprints and picture, and he asked for my occupation. I work for a school district so I told him that. It seems like he already had that information and was just comparing my response to what he was seeing on the computer. Then he kept my passport and parole paper and asked me to follow him to a waiting room where there was 50 other people waiting to be interviewed. DO NOT USE YOUR PHONE IN THERE. I waited around an hour to be called into a window with an officer. He didn't ask me anything just was doing something on the computer and he did ask me about an address and if I knew who lived there. I just responded with I don't live there and he kept insisting I tell him who lives there but I showed him my license and explained that I didn't live there and all my paperwork is sent to my home address. He then changed my address on the computer. This was weird because the address he was asking me about is my boyfriends address. I'm not sure how they even knew about his address. I don't receive any mail there or anything like that. Nonetheless, he stamped my parole and passport and emphasized that I wasn't allowed to use my parole anymore. I left and another officer on my way out checked my paperwork and asked me why I was coming to California and I told him I worked and went to school here and he was very friendly about it. As long as you don't have a criminal record or deportation I would say it is safe to travel.

PD: 5/25 NBC for I-765
8/29 (Day 96): Mailed in Form I-131 for AP
9/5 (Day 103): Email receipt for I-131
9/11 (Day 109): EAD card in production

We should have submitted form for AP with original application, but didn't. Am wondering if anyone submitted their AP form after EAD form and how much time it took for AP approval - was it shorter than normal 90 days?

Has one had their DACA Advance Parole approved after September? I know USCIS said they were going to stop approving.

Thnanks for the info guys .

Hello everyone, happy to see some of us were still able to travel safely after sept 5 , thank god for that. Just like some of you may have felt, I too was devasted with the sept 5 announcement. I had applied for ap back on June 2017 and was anxiously waiting hoping to get approved (my status said my ap was received in June and hadn't changed) today 9-11-17 it was updated, now it says (it has been transferred to another office who now has jurisdiction and a letter has been mailed to me on 9-8-17) do any of you have a similiar status ? Does anyone know what this means? My case was sent to Texas service center . Any comments would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance

Hi,

I used my AP card to enter back to US after hajj (coming from Saudi Arabia) on 09/10/2017. My AP is not thru DACA but thru marriage based Green card filing.

Port of Entry : IAD Washington DC
I was asked to go a different hall upon initial immigration round, the officer took few minutes and then allowed me in. Total immigration time less than 5 minutes.

To be honest, I was very scared to travel on AP, but Thank God, things worked perfectly fine.
I cannot comment on DACA applicants but for others its seems pretty safe to travel on AP.

my I94 allows my stay to be one year from date of entry.

Prelude:
I'm speaking on behalf of my husband's experience. I'm a US born citizen and he has DACA, originally from Hong Kong, he had an EWI (through Canada). He applied for advance parole last year in October 2016 to see his sick grandpa, he received an RFE April 2017 because the requested dates have passed. He was finally approved a week before we got married in May 2017 (best wedding gift ever). In total it took about 8 months. We decided to leave early September 2017 and made the plans, booked the flight, etc, then all this lawsuit stuff happened. My husband doesn't read up much on this stuff since he doesn't want to worry himself, but I do, more than I should so I started regretting our choice of days but the tickets were not refundable and his lawyer said there's nothing to worry about. Anyway! Things in the news kept looking bad, then good, then bad, to good, to finally last week when the rumors started that DACA would be ending. My stomach dropped and in my mind I started contemplating things. Without this trip he cannot adjust his status. We were putting our entire lives on the line.

The trip:
We left for HK on September 4th got there on the 5th. Woke up the next day and saw the decision Trump made during the middle of the night HK time. He ended DACA but my husband was safe for 6 months and we were relieved but afraid for our friends who have no way to adjust status. We spent 5 days in HK to visit his family and such. He hasn't seen most of them in 13 years.

The moment of truth:
We arrived in JFK this morning and we had to separate at immigration. I went through the citizen line and it went by fast so I was able to watch my husband through the glass barrier as he went through his line. The officer he got was pretty cool, this officer flirted with the previous visitor which was funny to watch as I sat there nervous and when my husband went up the officer was making jokes and made the situation less tense. I read my husband's lips saying "oh I don't have that". Turns out my husband was supposed to fill out a customs form on the plane but the flight attendant skipped him (make sure you get one). He went to the side to fill it out and went back and then was escorted to a separate room, I was able to follow him. We sat in this room that had a tall courtroom like desk with several officers on the other side. It was pretty intimidating. A man with his wife and daughter was arguing with officers because the little daughter wasn't being allowed in (she looked about 4 or 5). We saw the officers talk to each other saying "we should just let her go" which humanized them in our eyes. At the same time my husband saw his passport and AP being stamped and we breathed a sigh of relief. We waited another minute and they called him up and gave him the stuff without saying anything. So we left to the officer at the entrance who checked everything and said "you're good to go". We rushed out of there with smiles on our faces and my eyes started to swell up with tears. Took the escalator to an exit and hugged because this nightmare was over.

Advice:
Be over prepared. We had copies of everything and gave copies to my dad, left copies at our apartment and I carried the second advance parole on me. We made sure he remembered our travel dates (time difference made the days kinda confusing and looked through any questions they may ask, they ended up not questioning him at all.

Fill out that customs form they give you on the plane.

Be polite and don't get impatient. I learned the officers are genuine human beings who seem to care what happens to people, like the little girl I mentioned.

Don't wait so long to travel. We wish we left earlier but flights were drastically more expensive and HK in August is supposedly hell, but it would've been worth it to avoid the stress and gut wrenching fear.

P.S
Thanks to everyone on this website who has written their experience. It helped us so much. And as a citizen myself who has the privilege to not fear for her livelihood I will always fight for you guys. Every DACA recipient I know are incredible people. You're all so smart, persistent and are the personification of what it means to be American and achieve the American dream. Thank goodness the climate on this issue is shifting and more people are on your side every day. I will do whatever in my power, through voting and other things, to make sure you all can stay and continue making this country great.

Since the USCIS/DHS.gov states that they'll be issuing refunds for pending AP cases. . . has anyone with a pending case received a refund or a status update online (on the check case status, USCIS.gov)?