USCIS Case Status Message Explorer

Community Post

Combo Card Travel Experience

I wanted to share my experience for anyone that has combo card with Vawa pending. I went to Tijuana, Mexico yesterday and came back same day. crossed via card through San Ysidro. I was taken to secondary inspection, officer that walked me was not familiar with my combo card and was asking for my AP approval. I was asked to sit in the lobby and wait for my name to be called, and he asked me if I have a digital copy of my approval to search for it. as I was in my phone gathering all my VAWA receipts, a supervisor walked by and told me I couldn’t be on my phone i explained to her what the offer told me and she said, i didn’t need that but she will look into it. she came back about 20 mins later, asked me what was the reason I left, when did I leave, what did I do in tj, she asked about my vawa case and my current DACA. she then asked me if I had my AP approval letter because they needed to confirm if my parole was granted because of daca or vawa. by this time it was already 9:50 pm, and she told me she would be back. they do shift changes at 10 pm and she had to pass along all my information to the next shifts supervisor. the next supervisor came to talk to me at around 11pm and asked me the same questions, when did I leave, what did I do there. I showed him my AP & EAD approval. I asked what exactly was it they needed so I can try to help. he said my entry was approved, the only thing they are waiting on was verification on if I needed to pay the $1,000 fee. they were all very nice and it seemed like this type of combo card is not something they see often. my fees were waived, my passport was stamped. total time I was in secondary inspection was 5hours, part being the shift change, me having to dig for my copies in my emails and how complicated the case was for anyone else that came in to be processed. I recommend traveling with your approval documents to help speed up the process.