Back in US after travelling with Advance Parole with deferred action - Page 10

I just came back yesterday with advance parole from Guadalajara, Mexico. I flew directly from GDL to LAX, I gave my documents to the officer in the same line everyone is in, they asked me what my status was etc (i told them my case is deferred through DACA) then they told me to wait while they verified my documents, 20 minutes later a CBP hands me my documents and says "your good to go" it was EXTREMELY easy, they did not question me at all about where i went, why i went or anything. The first officer asked me about my status because she seemed a bit confused about how I got paroled thinking i had a i-485 pending, i told her i did not have a pending application that i needed to travel because of work and that was about it. I probably had a 3 minute conversation at most.

HI EVERYONE!!

I just returned from Colombia using Advance Parole. Everything was really smooth!
I wanted to provide my experience in detail in case you are also thinking of traveling and to help demistify some of the things that I was really worried about. hope you find it helpful

Personal Info:

-DACA Approved
-Advance Parole Approved for humanitarian reasons (my father's illness)
- traveled through: Boston Logan International Airport, making a stop in Miami Intl, then Medellin, Colombia
- traveled with: Colombian passport
- additional info: have been in the US since the age of 12, visa expired. obviously accruing unlawful presence and subject to the 10-year ban for adminissability
how I am currently waiting to adjust my status: my mother is a US citizen. I applied for an I-130 and is currently pending. I am over 21 so my wait time for approval of greencard is quite long


Experience:

Leaving the U.S:
Leaving the US was a breeze and the AP documents are not needed. all you have to do is show your colombian passport to the airline and go through smoothly.

Returning to the US:
- arrived at medellin's airport 3-hours before my flight anticipating delays of airline agents that did not understand Advance Parole (AP) and how to process paperwork. when the airline agent took my password and the AP to provide me the boarding pass for my flight, she called her supervisor, who quickly read through the document and told her how to fill out the information to print my boarding pass. he told her that in the future, to pay specific attention to the start and end dates on the AP document as they can only let you on the plane if you arrived and departed before it expired. Everyone was super nice in Medellin's intl airport.

NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU KEEP BOTH AP DOCUMENTS. IMMIGRATION WILL NEED THEM BOTH WHEN YOU ARRIVE IN THE US - THEY KEEP ONE AND YOU KEEP THE OTHER. in your home country, make sure the airline makes a copy of the doc and do not keep your original. if they ask, let them know that immigration in the US needs both to parole you in. YOU NEED THE ORIGINALS!!!!

In medellin I had to show my AP documents to the airline, immigration in colombia and also before boarding my plane. keep them handy as you'll need to present it everytime you present your passport.

on the plane you are given a customs paper to fill out. make sure you fill it out, as it is required and immigration will ask you for it.
After I arrived in Miami, everyone has to go thorough immigration. unlike some of the other cases I have read, it took me about 1 hour and 30 minutes to go through immigration so make sure if you have a connecting flight, you have at least a good 2-3 hour layover so you can make it.
I went through the visitors/greencard holders line. my mother, who is a US citizen was also in the line with us and there were no issues for this. though my mother gave a sense of security, it did not seem like it mattered at all, as she wasnt asked any questions.
when I finally got to the immigration officer's booth, he took my fingerprints on the left and right hands (everyone has to do it), took my custom's paperwork the airline had given me and asked me "why are you a parolee" I explained that I was approved AP through deferred action also known as the dream act for humanitarian reasons. that was the only question he asked me. he then took my passport, custom document, and AP and called an officer to take me to another room for further verification of paperwork. I knew this was a normal practice basedon other postings I had seen on this site.
everyone was really nice and curteous. many of them were cubans and spoke to me in spanish.
in the room, I waited with my mom (they allowed her to come with me) for about 45 minutes. during that time,. they were checking a ton of things on the computer but I never found out what they were looking for. they then called my name and gave me back my passport with a stamp that said paroled until next year and a stamp on one of the AP documents I was allowed to keep. they placed the stamp on the right hand corner in the blank box.

they did not ask me any questions or asked me to sit wih them. they simply called me when the docs were ready.

I then got on my miami-boston flight smoothly.

I was so relieved at how easy it was!!!!!!! hopefully this will ease your worries of traveling once you've been approved for AP.

Good luck!

ps. remember to travel ONLY any day between the approved dates. you''ll be stuck in your country if you try to depart after it has expired

CONGRATS!!! You're back!! YAY!!

thanks for sharing your experience. I'm glad you mention, we need ORIGINALS!
Well, I applied for AP but haven't heard anything yet. I hope I get approve, it's for work. My husband who is a USC wants to go with me because he is concern. I noticed you say it doesn't matter, but I guess for moral support .

Thank you so much for your detail report.

Regards & Welcome back home

Can anyone clarify what it means to be paroled until next year?

It means that the person that entered with Advance Parole (who doesn't have a pending Green Card Application) is legally present for one year.

However the date doesn't apply though, we already have a "status" under deferred action and we would continue under deferred action until the expiration date, therefore the "paroled for 1 year" can be disregarded.

I'm wondering if the person that was paroled can apply for financial aid now. Because I think it's one of the categories of non-citizens that can get federal aid....

thanks for clarification. now i wonder if one can travel with "paroled for 1 year" status without applying another AP?

You can't travel outside the US if you don't have a visa. Once you're paroled, you are only allowed to stay in the US. You'll get the 10 year ban if you leave.

I was wondering the same thing! I think I will start a thread and see if anyone has more info!

I applied for AP and I got rfe. I want to visit my grandma for humanitarian reasons. she is old and had a surgery. I sent documents from 2011 and they request more recent documents. can someone please share what they sent? so I can request it from my grandma? does it have to be a serious illness like cancer or something.

Just note that in order to receive a green card through F1 category after living in US illegally you need to be covered under 245(i). Otherwise, yes your I-130 will be approved, you'll have a priority date, but when it comes to filing I-485 that's when they'll say "yeah sorry".

It means that you are let into US for 1 year as a parolee.

I doubt it, that generally only includes persons paroled in for humanitarian reasons.