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Immigration Guy
Jun 4, 2025
I went thru this case from 2017 in federal court. An asylee adjusted to LPR and traveled with RTD and country of origin passport. Take a read, let me know what you think!
some of you know I run an immigrant community and interview immigration attorneys to help break down confusing topics. I wanted to share a case from 2017 that touches on a question many people including myself are curious about: - If you got your green card through asylum, are you still considered an asylee? And do you still need a Refugee Travel Document (RTD) to travel? This came up in Mahmood v. Sessions — a man who was granted asylum in 1997 and became a lawful permanent resident (green card holder) in 2012. He had traveled abroad multiple times, sometimes with a Refugee Travel Document and sometimes with his Pakistani passport (in i131 he answered as never renewed his Pakistani passport). He wasn’t always honest in his applications, and immigration officials eventually caught up on that tried to remove (deport) him, after he got his green card, for fraud. His argument? That he was still technically an asylee and couldn’t be deported unless USCIS formally terminated his asylum status. But the court said no. They ruled that when you adjust your status from asylee to lawful permanent resident under INA § 1159(b), you no longer hold asylee status. You’re just an LPR now — and like any other green card holder, you can be removed without going through asylum termination procedures. The court also directly mentioned that a green card holder doesn’t need permission to leave or re-enter the U.S. — specifically calling out the Refugee Travel Document as something that no longer applies once you’ve adjusted status. But here’s where it gets confusing: USCIS regulations (8 C.F.R. §§ 223.1 and 223.3) still say that if you got your green card through asylum, you must use a Refugee Travel Document to travel. That regulation hasn’t been updated and the court hasn't directly given a more detailed answer to this since the question seemed to be if the guy held the rights as asylee even after becoming LPR. So even with this case, it’s not fully cleared up. There’s still a disconnect between the regulation and the court’s interpretation. I’m continuing to interview attorneys and research this issue and many others! If you want to stay updated: 👉 Join the community here: https://www.skool.com/uscis/ 👉 Follow updates on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uscis_immigration 👉 Watch short clips on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@immigrationusatoday
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Schneider Skrtel
Jun 4, 2025
I still can’t believe that my stokes interview was less than 10 minutes
My wife and I were preparing for 3 days prior to our stokes interview. We prepared questions and more evidence. We were both very nervous the day of the interview. When we came in the room I expected the IO to separate us. And he didn’t. I was the only one answering the questions and they were all based off my form. At the end we both had a neutral answer and told to wait 60 days for a decision to be made. We both returned home confused about what happened, then when I received the approval notice, I was so shocked, it took me a minute to tell her. Then it was all kind of emotion flowing 😂

IR-1/CR-1

U.S. citizen filing for a spouse

Total Days: 459 days
Case
2024-03-01
2025-06-03
I-765
99 Days
I-131
160 Days
I-130
459 Days
National Benefits Center: I-765, I-131, I-130
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