Advance Parole

We applied for Advance Parole because my husband needed to travel for work. We didn't send this with the I-485 and I-130 because we weren't sure if we'd need it and I also had gotten the impression it takes about 30 days. Later on, I learned it takes about 3 months. When we applied, then, we needed it expedited, which I wrote on the form, and we included evidence. When we received the notice that our application was received, however, there was no mention of the expedite request. We called, and the officer wasn't sure but he thought that probably meant it wasn't expedited. He helped us put in a service request to have the application expedited. At this point, I want to pause and recommend that if you're expediting an application, call as soon as you see the status updated online, instead of waiting for the notice to arrive in the mail and to tell you if it was expedited. This delayed everything for us and we ended up quite anxious.

We waited and monitored the status after submitting the service request. It was about a week later, I think, that we saw online that they had made a decision. We called, and learned that the decision was to reject the expedite request but requesting that we fax additional info (employer letter). At this point, I also want to pause and recommend that you make sure you have all of this material before you submit your application. In the end, waiting for and getting all the notices that allowed us to submit the additional information delayed our application. The officer was able to read us the letter, but said we have to wait for the notice in the mail in order to fax it in with the additional information. It was almost two weeks since they'd mailed it, and we still hadn't received it, so we called again, and at the second level of customer service, we were given the fax number, the case number, and advised to send it in even without the notice. We did this, and within two days, the request was approved only. Even more miraculously, the documents arrived the next business day in the mail. BTW, we never received that notification that we had been waiting on for so long before faxing our additional evidence.