Just got Advance Parole approved

I just got my approval today. Looking forward to returning to my home country to visit my ailing grandmother. I am just a little worried about getting back to the US. I have no criminal record but I am going to check with an immigration attorney before departing next month. I will keep you guys posted.

Congratulations on getting approved. If you don't mind sharing, how long did the process take you?

what did you send as evidence

It took me about 1.5 months. I got a letter from my grandma's doctor stating her disease and how my visit will help her in the recovery. I got an RFE because I did not send evidence to establish a relationship between my grandma and me. So I sent my grandma's, my mom's and my birth certificate. After they got that information it only took 10 days to get approved.

Since you got approved already, there's really no need to consult an immigration attorney. All they'll tell you is to make sure you take the letter with you. Don't forget your native passport. When my wife got approved for AP, the only advice our lawyer gave us was to leave and re-enter through a "well-known" airport since their TSA would probably be more up to date with new immigration laws. In our case, we left from LAX and had no issues. Also when you do re-enter, go through the resident/citizen line instead of visitors line. Everything else is pretty much as if you're traveling anywhere else.

hey here are two of my posts - that may help you feel better

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




Hi there,
sorry for the late reply of this. [i wrote the original post]
oF course, I actually fileld out all the paperwork myself.
The bottom line is this --> they don't know you and don't know your case, therefore, you need to prove to them EVERYTHING including, that you are you (a copy of a legal document that proves that you are you), proof that the person you claim to be your father is your father (a legal, translated doc by an official translator like a birh certificate, and officilal doctor's documentation that explains his illness, translated to english.
also, remember that these are immigration officers and NOT doctors, so I also sent copies of explanations of the illness my dad has from a reputable site online webMD that explained his illness in detal.

I followed the instructions for the application to the T (meaning I read it over and over again) and made sure my packet was organized, like a story, so the immigration officers had an easy time understanding it.

here are the isntructions to the application. READ THEM SLOWLY. you'd be applying for #3 advanced parole http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/f...i-131instr.pdf

-I first proved that I was who I said I was
- I then proved that my father was my fatehr with a copy of the spanish birth certificate and a translation attached to it from a reputable translating company
- I then proved his illness - provided copies of doctor's paperwork explaining his diagnosis. I included the spanish copies and the english translations
- I then proved that the illness was serious by providing an explanationo of the illness dfrom a reputable site (webmd).
- I then explained the reason why I needed to travel to see him (to help locate good medical care for him)
- note that the instructions say sending copies is ok. I NEVER SENT ANY originals in case they got lost.

my application was approved the first time around ==> it took about two months for it to go through.

let me know if you have any other questions

oh and ps. I worked for 1 year with an immigration attorney so that's how I learned to be methodical in submitting applications

agreed- attorney not needed in this case. all he/she'll tell you is to not forget the APs, and your country's passport (make sure it's not expired)

Congrats to everyone who's been getting approved for AP! It must be awesome to travel abroad!

I too got advance parole it was granted for August of this year. I am planning on flying out of the OC (john wayne) airport since they have a direct flight to mexico city. I really don't feel like driving all the way to LA and find a ride home when the oc is just around the corner. Do you think this will be an issue? OC airport has only two international flights to los cabos and to mexico city.

I'm not sure. You could try calling the airport and ask them if they know about AP. If so, then you can just fly out from OC.