Travel During Green Card Petition to Remove Conditions, 1-751

[kaussie 0]

Looking for some advice. My 2-year marriage based green card (I have been married to a US citizen for 5 years and my son is also a US citizen) was issued in 2012 and expired in 2014. Prior to expiration, I filled out the 1-751 forms, and did my biometrics and received my 1-year extension letter. However, because I have bad fingerprints (which I've dealt with every single time I've filed visa paperwork, for years), I always get called back in to do a second round of biometrics, before they finally send me to secure a Good Conduct certificate (as I live in NYC, I've gone to One Police Plaza to do this and successfully did it with no issues for my first green card.) The process in between USCIS sending me the various notes to re-do biometrics etc took over a year, with my last request to do this in June 2015. I did it, submitted, and waited.

And waited.

Finally in September 2015 I started to worry and called USCIS customer service, who escalated my case due to 'outside normal processing times' and told me I would get a letter in 2 weeks about my status. I got the letter, but all it says is "our records show that your form i-751 is currently pending adjudication. You will be scheduled for an interview. Please wait to receive this notice. We apologize for the delay."

This is frustrating given how long the process has taken! But now I need to travel for work in April, and my 1-year extension letter will no longer be valid (which is what I used for the same trip last year.) What do I do? Am I able to travel? Is the new letter from USCIS saying my application is still in process enough to make sure I can get back into the country? Kind of freaking out and frustrated that I first filed this paperwork in 2014! Thanks in advance for any advice!

[teeak 224]

Yes, you can still travel. Schedule an infoPass appointment and bring all relevant documents. At the appointment, the CO will see that your 1-year extension letter has expired and they will give you an I-551 stamp in your passport.

https://infopass.uscis.gov/

This stamp is valid for 1 year and you shouldn't have a problem coming back to the US.

Also, another note, if it's been 3 years since receiving your GC, you can apply for citizenship as a spouse of a USC and this will "force" USCIS to render a decision on your ROC application.

Edited February 19, 2016 by teeak

[TBoneTX 45,540]

*** Thread is moved from AOS/Family-Based main forum to the Working & Traveling forum -- topic is travel. ***

[kaussie 0]

Yes, you can still travel. Schedule an infoPass appointment and bring all relevant documents. At the appointment, the CO will see that your 1-year extension letter has expired and they will give you an I-551 stamp in your passport.

https://infopass.uscis.gov/

This stamp is valid for 1 year and you shouldn't have a problem coming back to the US.

Also, another note, if it's been 3 years since receiving your GC, you can apply for citizenship as a spouse of a USC and this will "force" USCIS to render a decision on your ROC application.

Thank you! I went to the Infopass website to schedule, but what should I select as the reason for going?