Caroline Novaes
Apr 26, 2025
TRAVELING WITH ADVANCE PAROLE I-131
I would like to share my experience with my most recent travel outside USA. Yesterday I came back from a week trip with my husband (who is a permanent resident) and we arrived at Chicago O’Hare airport around 12:30am. it was my first time traveling with this paper and I knew I had to be taken to secondary scanning. my husband was with me all the time, he didn’t have any problems with his entry being a green card holder. I saw many green card holders there waiting for secondary scanning tho (specially older people). I saw many situations, specially with tourists, where the guards were more restrictive, they took peoples phone, I saw someone leaving with handcuffs in a hospital bed (probably the person got sick or had a bad reaction from being deportated). I girl who had her phone taken was using another’s persons phone (maybe to let her family know she was ok, idk) and the officer yelled at her and took the phone from the other guy. Anyways, it was a very tense and scary experience, even tho nothing happened directly to me. I saw the officer walk around with my papers multiple times, I waited between 3/4 hours and they called me and said I was all good to go, explain to me the stamp on my paper and said that my parole allows multiple entries.
my situation is very unusual being married to a green card holder, so my I-130 and I-485 are still pending (my process is different from being married to a citizen so it can take years), but I decided to take the risks once I lost my mother last years and I couldn’t go to her funeral because of this process. Now I have this authorization to travel and it is good to know I can use in case of an emergency. But I am still not sure if it is worth the anxiety and stress just for a vacation.
F2A
Permanent resident filing for a spouse or child under 21
Total Days: 593 days
Case
2023-12-24
Today
I-765
28 Days
I-131
80 Days
I-130
593 Days
I-485
347 Days
National Benefits Center: I-765, I-131, I-485
Vermont Service Center: I-130
Timeline Map
2023-12-24
I-130
Submission to USCIS
2024-08-26
I-131
I-765
I-485
D+246
Submission to USCIS
2024-08-30
I-485
D+250
Biometrics, i.e. fingerprint and photo
2024-09-09
I-485
D+260
Request for Evidence(RFE) from USCIS
2024-09-23
I-765
D+274
Decision (Approval or Denial)
2024-11-14
I-131
D+326
Decision (Approval or Denial)
2024-12-05
I-485
D+347
Response to RFE
This timeline was created with the Lawfully App. Download the Lawfully App now.
ADVERTISEMENT
Faith Anna Apr 26, 2025
glad you came back safe
But I didn’t know a green card holder could file for their wife within the US
Caroline NovaesApr 26, 2025
@Faith Anna hi Anna, yes it is possible. the process is a little different, but we can do an adjustment of status as well. the only thing is I had to have a valid visa to apply for the adjustment of status and I need to keep track of something called visa bullet to see when I can apply according to my priority date
SINGH iS KiNGApr 26, 2025
hi
caroline
hopefully you will get your result soon
on September 9, 2024 did they ask you to submit (Form I-693), Report of Immigration Medical Examination and Vaccination Record?
Caroline NovaesApr 26, 2025
@SINGH iS KiNG hey there! no, I had already sent it. The evidence was about taxes (I filled everything myself and wasn’t sure about some stuff, but we hired someone to do a better job to answer the RFE) case is been actively reviewing ever since
Ania EskaApr 27, 2025
@Faith Anna as far as I know, it is possible, but the beneficiary must maintain legal status throughout the wait and this is what makes it complicated considering it takes years to have the approval. Being out of status is only forgiven if the one applying is a US citizen, the same doesn't apply for permanent residents.
Shanice BApr 27, 2025
@Ania Eska you are wrong about maintaining legal status throughout the process! you only need to have legal status at the time of filing and NOT maintaining throughout
Caroline NovaesApr 28, 2025
@the g yea but it seems that the situation is very sensitive. the girl for example was naive on getting someone’s phone to send a message to her family and that could have caused problems for her, but also idk what happened, it’s just speculation
Caroline NovaesApr 28, 2025
@Faith Anna @Ania Eska @Shanice blue Shanice is right. I kept my legal status until I filled for adjustment of status. the safest way is to keep your legal status until the end of the process but it’s very unusual once I was an F1 student who was not allowed to work outside campus and they gave me a work permission. once I use the work permission and leave the country with the parole, my student status would be automatically dropped, which happened
Shanice BApr 28, 2025
@Caroline Novaes exactly! so it’s kind of pointless keeping the student status! I was also in students and decided to drop it after a while because it takes a lot and like you said, I still had an active SEVIS but the minute you travel with your combo card, they parole you in instead of your valid visa so there is absolutely no point in keeping the student status
Ania EskaApr 30, 2025
@Shanice blue ok, thanks for letting me know
Shanice BApr 30, 2025
@Ania Eska you’re welcome. we are all here for each other
