Proof of bonafide marriage

[falmaind 13]

26 minutes ago, ajs1984 said:

The agency involved in approving the I-131 petition (USCIS) is different from the agency enforcing the use of Advance Parole for re-entry (CBP). As USCIS does not require a reason to be specified for non-DACA applicants in the case of an adjustment application, it is moot whether the instructions state a reason is required, as no reason need be codified on the application paperwork, and so, no reason can be inferred by USCIS.

 

At the border, the CBP handbook will kick in, as well as the officer's discretion. I agree that this could go any way. However the CBP website does clearly state the admissible reasons for travel with AP:

 

""Aliens in the United States should, prior to departure, obtain Advance Parole in order to re-enter the United States after travel abroad if they have:

• Filed an application for adjustment of status but have not received a decision from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services;
• Hold refugee or asylee status and intend to depart temporarily to apply for a U.S. immigrant visa in Canada; and/or
• An emergent personal or bona fide reason to travel temporarily abroad.""

This list is clearly an A, B or C type list; A does not require C. Therefore, if you have a pending adjustment of status, you don't need an "emergent personal or bona fide reason" any more than you need to "hold refugee or asylee status".

 

It's probably best not to state your opinion or the opinion of lawyers as any kind of fact. The facts in this case are contradictory on the government documents we have at hand. But it is quite safe for me to state my opinion that a botched USCIS instruction document will never be enforced by CBP -- it is the CBP's own rules, regulations and allowances that will be (as well as the Code of Federal Regulations).

Upon further reflection I think you are wrong here.

 

There are 2 Actions. 1) Granting of AP 2) Enforcing of re-entry based on whether the traveller has AP or NOT

1) USCIS has the authority to process the AP application (not CBP). So No, their document is not botching anything

2) CBP's job is to enforce requirement of having AP if you want to re-enter. They do not care what are the requirements of acquiring and AP (and they should not). they just need it present and available.  And with what you have quoted, it is describing (under A) one of the conditions in which AP would serve as a valid document to re-enter.

 

  So These two points of information are  NOT contradicting. They are fine as is. Nothing is botched. Folks who did get AP approved with "vacation" as a reason were lucky as their application was processed by incompetent agent. (At least not competent enough to know USCIS's own rules).

 

If more information is un-earthed I may stand corrected

Edited January 31, 2018 by falmaind

[ajs1984 28]

Yes, but your are missing the point that the I-131 form instructions document is telling you need an emergent reason, when the form does not provide any way to communicate what your emergent or non-emergent reason is. If you filled out Part 4, 1a to provide this reason, you filled the form out incorrectly (as the form itself says to skip to Part 7 if you are non-DACA).

 

So this becomes a philosophical argument about letter of the law vs intention of the law. And it seems, since you don't have to write a reason on the form, USCIS cannot be using your reason to approve or deny your application. This supports Scandi's interpretation that any reason goes.

Edited January 31, 2018 by ajs1984

[falmaind 13]

26 minutes ago, ajs1984 said:

Yes, but your are missing the point that the I-131 form instructions document is telling you need an emergent reason, when the form does not provide any way to communicate what your emergent or non-emergent reason is. If you filled out Part 4, 1a to provide this reason, you filled the form out incorrectly (as the form itself says to skip to Part 7 if you are non-DACA).

Thank you. So again "vacation" is never the right response. Either you leave it blank. Or fill a Non-frivolous reason

 

Quote

So this becomes a philosophical argument about letter of the law vs intention of the law. And it seems, since you don't have to write a reason on the form, USCIS cannot be using your reason to approve or deny your application. This supports Scandi's interpretation that any reason goes.

Scandi is recommending putting in "vacation".... but as you proved earlier, it should be left blank... Why invite trouble? And for those who shouldn't be leaving blank. "vacation" is expressly  not acceptable response as per instructions document for 131. It needs to be non frivolous which vacation is not.

Edited January 31, 2018 by falmaind

[ajs1984 28]

(I think maybe why you are getting combative responses from myself and others is your unnecessarily aggressive and assumptive tone. Where actually there is a great deal of 'grey area' here, you make it sound like it is black and white.)

 

Yes, if you followed the form (not the form instructions) correctly, and were non-DACA, you didn't fill out parts 3-6 because it asks you to skip them. This means you shouldn't have provided a reason.

 

But, since USCIS has designed this form so confusingly, it is not surprising that some people fill those bits in. After all, what does "non-DACA" mean? Some people might just want to be exhaustively honest and fill in everything. After all, if there's a box, why wouldn't you?

 

36 minutes ago, falmaind said:

Folks who did get AP approved with "vacation" as a reason were lucky as their application was processed by incompetent agent. (At least not competent enough to know USCIS's own rules).

This isn't a very nice thing to say, and to me it doesn't seem likely to be correct. The officer reviewing the form is probably just ignoring parts 3-6, because it's CIS policy to do so for non-DACA applicants. It would be much worse if they RFE'd everybody who filled in their confusing form slightly incorrectly, wouldn't it? As neither of us can know for sure, I prefer my nicer version.

 

9 minutes ago, falmaind said:

Scandi is recommending putting in "vacation"

Not really. Scandi said this (emphasis mine):

 

3 hours ago, Scandi said:

Not true. When you file form i-485 you don't need a reason to also file for i-131. You don't need an emergency, you don't need a date for travel or even have any plans to travel. You can apply "just in case you want it", and you don't need to mention a reason for why you want it on the form.

A part follows that Scandi put 'vacation' as a reason on the form. One of those 'completionist' form fillers. But in the same way people are telling you that any reason goes, which you could/did argue is hearsay, so too is your assumption that putting a reason that is non-emergent (or 'frivolous', as you put it) damages your chances of approval. I don't think you have any evidence that this is true, whatsoever.

[falmaind 13]

 

 

 

12 minutes ago, ajs1984 said:

(I think maybe why you are getting combative responses from myself and others is your unnecessarily aggressive and assumptive tone. Where actually there is a great deal of 'grey area' here, you make it sound like it is black and white.)

(maybe try reading back where the aggressive and assumptive tone started)

 

 

Quote

 

Yes, if you followed the form (not the form instructions) correctly, and were non-DACA, you didn't fill out parts 3-6 because it asks you to skip them. This means you shouldn't have provided a reason.

 

But, since USCIS has designed this form so confusingly, it is not surprising that some people fill those bits in. After all, what does "non-DACA" mean? Some people might just want to be exhaustively honest and fill in everything. After all, if there's a box, why wouldn't you?

Thats just a silly reasoning. You should be informing that person not to be exhaustive. Instead of "why wouldn't you". I'm simply trying to help someone who will land here while searching google. 

 

Quote

 

This isn't a very nice thing to say, and to me it doesn't seem likely to be correct. The officer reviewing the form is probably just ignoring parts 3-6, because it's CIS policy to do so for non-DACA applicants. It would be much worse if they RFE'd everybody who filled in their confusing form slightly incorrectly, wouldn't it? As neither of us can know for sure, I prefer my nicer version.

This is assuming the "vacation" was added when that box had merit to be filled.

The grey area is filling in boxes when they should be left blank

 

 

Quote

 

Not really. Scandi said this (emphasis mine):

 

A part follows that Scandi put 'vacation' as a reason on the form. One of those 'completionist' form fillers. But in the same way people are telling you that any reason goes, which you could/did argue is hearsay, so too is your assumption that putting a reason that is non-emergent (or 'frivolous', as you put it) damages your chances of approval. I don't think you have any evidence that this is true, whatsoever.

all the evidence on forums is hearsay. Goes both ways sir

 

 

Not really worth my time any longer honestly

To someone searching up on this topic. You have two scenarios:

DACA  : Vacation is not acceptable as reason

NON- DACA : leave reason blank. But if you put "vacation" you are tempting fate. Why tempt fate... and delay your process

Edited January 31, 2018 by falmaind

[MiraW 58]

21 minutes ago, falmaind said:

Thank you. So again "vacation" is never the right response. Either you leave it blank. Or fill a Non-frivolous reason

 

Scandi is recommending putting in "vacation".... but as you proved earlier, it should be left blank... Why invite trouble? And for those who shouldn't be leaving blank. "vacation" is expressly  not acceptable response as per instructions document for 131. It needs to be non frivolous which vacation is not.

Just went on a Taiwanese forum to see people's experiences, most of my fellow Taiwanese applicants put down "Visit family" or "Visit parents." They got approved fine. I personally belong to the former.

However, some of them also put down "Travel", "Honeymoon", and "Ski trip"... and these people were also approved. 

These people including myself, submitted I-131 along with I-485 or with a pending I-485 btw. 

I really don't think saying "vacation" would necessarily get you denied, but to be safe, I'd suggest putting down a reason related to family.

(I didn't see a single case that got rejected for AP on PTT (Taiwanese forum), is there anyone who applied for AP with I-485 that got denied on here?)

[azblk 338]

11 hours ago, MiraW said:

Just went on a Taiwanese forum to see people's experiences, most of my fellow Taiwanese applicants put down "Visit family" or "Visit parents." They got approved fine. I personally belong to the former.

However, some of them also put down "Travel", "Honeymoon", and "Ski trip"... and these people were also approved. 

These people including myself, submitted I-131 along with I-485 or with a pending I-485 btw. 

I really don't think saying "vacation" would necessarily get you denied, but to be safe, I'd suggest putting down a reason related to family.

(I didn't see a single case that got rejected for AP on PTT (Taiwanese forum), is there anyone who applied for AP with I-485 that got denied on here?)

Unless you are a DACA recipient  you do not need to give a reason for AP and if you do it will just be ignored.

[Londonergirl 133]

On 1/29/2018 at 9:08 PM, Becci391 said:

It can take up to a year for you to get your Green Card.

 

Also please update your timeline.

To say that a GC can take up to a year is a bit wrong because that depends completely on where you live. 

At my local office, most of the GC takes no longer than 7 months. 

[Becci391 339]

24 minutes ago, Londonergirl said:

To say that a GC can take up to a year is a bit wrong because that depends completely on where you live. 

At my local office, most of the GC takes no longer than 7 months. 

That's why I said UP TO a year. That doesn't mean it takes a year. It can but it doesn't have to.

I got my Green Card after 8 months.

[Londonergirl 133]

3 hours ago, Becci391 said:

That's why I said UP TO a year. That doesn't mean it takes a year. It can but it doesn't have to.

I got my Green Card after 8 months.

 

I am fully aware of this  It can take 2 years as well - or 3 months!

Anyway, I wrote "I applied for my travel document and work permit in August. I still haven't heard a thing." - I didn't mention any GC?

[AshMarty 359]

On 1/29/2018 at 10:18 PM, falmaind said:

It will be denied if you say "I want it in case we plan to go on vacation"

But they are not going to check and verify (not worth the resources) once AP is approved  whether you are using it for the previously stated purpose

My husband and I wrote Honeymoon/vacation/visit family as our reasons on the form and it was approved with no issues with our EAD. 

Edited February 2, 2018 by AshMarty

[AshMarty 359]

On 1/30/2018 at 7:32 PM, falmaind said:

Thank you. So again "vacation" is never the right response. Either you leave it blank. Or fill a Non-frivolous reason

 

Scandi is recommending putting in "vacation".... but as you proved earlier, it should be left blank... Why invite trouble? And for those who shouldn't be leaving blank. "vacation" is expressly  not acceptable response as per instructions document for 131. It needs to be non frivolous which vacation is not.

https://www.uscis.gov/archive/blog/2014/05/five-questions-about-advance-parole_9

 

Question number 4. From the USCIS government website: 

 

I’m going on a cruise, do I need advance parole?

"Maybe - it depends on where you are going on your cruise.  As discussed in question one above, if you are traveling directly between two parts of the United States (e.g., between Florida and Puerto Rico), an advance parole will not be needed.  If you will be traveling to other countries or non-U.S. territories, advance parole would be necessary."

 

They are recommending you get AP before you go on your cruise. I don't think they would recommend it, if they didn't want people to use it for vacation. They also discuss applying for emergency advanced parole, through an expedited process. Now that would not be approved for vacation purposes. 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2018 by AshMarty

[Nitas_man 3,100]

On ‎1‎/‎31‎/‎2018 at 12:05 AM, Scandi said:

Not true. When you file form i-485 you don't need a reason to also file for i-131. You don't need an emergency, you don't need a date for travel or even have any plans to travel. You can apply "just in case you want it", and you don't need to mention a reason for why you want it on the form.

 

You can travel just fine with it, doesn't matter if it's vacation or emergency. If you really want to put down a reason on the form you can write "vacation" (like I did), "honeymoon" or whatever you feel like.

This is correct