Permanent Resident in the USA Scared to Travel Abroad

[Taylor and Eric 7]

Hi everyone, I'm a Canadian citizen who moved to the USA January 2017 on a K1 Visa.

Fast forward to now and I have a conditional (2 year) Green Card and flights/hotels booked for a trip to Italy and Switzerland in May 2019 with my American citizen husband! Exciting!

 

I feel like lately I keep getting bombarded with headlines and articles about the USA and Trump's administration looking for any reason to deport non-citizens and I'm FREAKING OUT.

 

Fellow Green Card holders in the USA who love to travel, what has your experience been like? Any advice??

[Liam2021 551]

You're legal resident, so there will be no issue.

[shumway1756 304]

Any instance of deportation that I’ve read about has been due to someone not being in legal status, or committing a serious crime that would warrant deportation proceedings. If you have read articles about green card holders being deported or denied entry for no reason other than not being citizens then please by all means post the links, we would be curious to see that.

 

You shouldn’t have any problems. No cause for worry here.

Edited September 15, 2018 by shumway1756

[TM92 527]

7 minutes ago, Taylor and Eric said:

I feel like lately I keep getting bombarded with headlines and articles about the USA and Trump's administration looking for any reason to deport non-citizens and I'm FREAKING OUT.

It's just a short trip, no need to freak out. Let's discuss a hypothetical case: A LPR goes on a trip abroad for 16 months without a Re-entry Permit. At POE, CBP officer belives the LPR has abandoned US residency, but the officer has 0 authority to take away LPR status (only an Immigration Judge can do that). The officer can present a readily available Form I-407 and strongly request the LPR to sign it. The LPR has rights, so they can refuse to sign the I-407.

[TNJ17 1,329]

Worrying over nothing. As crazy as that ####### is you’re not his target. 

[Sunnyland 639]

Please do not follow the news. They mostly paint the situation in the color they want. If you have a GC and you are from Canada, you will have a stroll in the park. You should have no problem. 

[JFH 12,189]

Why do we keep hearing about it in the news? Because it makes a good story. The rules are exactly the same as before (with the exception of the "banned countries list", which does not even apply to you). We have the same visa categories as we had before and the process is exactly the same. I did my IR-1 process before Trump was elected but people doing the process now are following the exact same steps as I did with the exception of one additional form for biographical data and the fact that USCIS now accepts credit cards. Everything else is the same. The rules have not changed. The categories have not changed. The process has not changed. But the enforcement of the rules has got stricter and tighter. People that are being deported were here illegally for years and years. Time is up for them - game over. They only got away with it for so long because they were not caught. Doing something illegal but not getting caught doesn't make it legal. For those that are here legally, nothing has changed. 

[Ben&Zian 4,397]

Stop reading the news, especially certain left leaning ones who promote fear and anxiety over nothing. If you see majority of the sob stories of GC's being deported, the title will be a heart string pulling one, but deep in paragraph ten of the article they will mention some crime that made them deportable (drugs, sex crimes, ect).

 

If you obey the laws and do things like you should, then you'll be just fine. The laws for the most part are still the same now as they have been for decades. Main difference, finally those laws are being enforced.

Edited September 15, 2018 by Ben&Zian

[Diane and Chris 651]

Nothing to worry about. Fake news people that dislike a president that is enforcing the law. Have a wonderful, fun trip. My husband is from Switzerland. It’s a beautiful country!  

[Ontarkie 13,915]

~~Moved to Working and Traveling, from General Immigration~~

[mushroomspore 3,043]

I am a big supporter of journalism and the media and hate how they've been attacked a lot lately. I also have a lot of criticism of the current administration. So please keep that in mind when I say this: a lot of what you're reading and hearing regarding immigration is biased with the purpose of pushing people's buttons. It is not objective journalism with the intent of educating the American public on how their own immigration system works. I've read so many articles about people getting arrested at green card interviews, only for the writer to say something asinine like, "The interview is the first step in obtaining a green card." Unfortunately, a lot of these articles are written for the specific purpose of igniting passion either against or in favor of the current administration's "policies". Meanwhile, those who are aware of the system's methodology (such as ourselves) know that the system itself is largely unchanged and will probably remain so for the foreseeable future.

 

That said, please just go on your trip and enjoy yourself. You obtained your permanent residency completely legally and travelling is a privilege that not everyone in this world gets to enjoy. 

[ronniebreda 120]

You're not alone. We have a trip coming up in 2 weeks to visit my husband's family in the NL. It has been at the back of our mind because of the news articles, but we have done everything legally. It would be a shame to cancel trips and change plans out of fear when we have done nothing wrong. Try not to worry too much and enjoy your trip! 

[gregcrs2 1,777]

Since getting the conditional (2 year) green card, we have traveled internationally 5 times with visits ranging from 3 weeks to 2 1/2 months and have never had a problem returning.  No need for you to be nervous.  

[Hypnos 6,576]

Continue reading the news, though in all likelihood you will be fine.

 

I've gotten on this soapbox here before, but here goes: right now isn't a great time to be an immigrant in the US. Black, white, brown, orange, dayglo, documented, undocumented, man, woman, whatever... it's not awesome. Obviously, white males have it the best, because we can pass for American until we open our mouths, but not everyone gets that privilege.

 

This anti-immigrant sentiment has been bubbling under the surface here for some time. From Dubya's proposal to instantly criminalise everyone illegally present in the US about a decade ago (that he later backed off from, as I recall), to the at-first-subtle-and-then-less-so wave of pro-American/anti-immigrant stories you started seeing pushed after 9/11 by Fox News and the right/far right, it's been a work in progress for a while. Trump certainly didn't invent it but he is capitalising upon it.

 

I think in the long run this will go one of two ways: it will other start to swing the other way, and we'll see more Democrats in office who at least ostensibly seem to value people being seeing as people (shocking, right?) -- including immigrants -- or there will be a doubling-down of the current situation if Republicans are able to consolidate their power over the next couple of years, and you will start seeing more restrictive policies on immigration, such as (more) restrictions on who can petition for relatives, restrictions on naturalisation eligibility, perhaps even some kind of more overt racist policies (think Travel Ban but on a much larger and more colourful scale) if the orange one thinks he can get away with it, and he has enough enablers around him left to enact it.

 

So right now America is kinda at a crossroads, and the next year or so is going to set the tone for the foreseeable future.

 

But as I said above, in all likelihood you will be fine since Canada is almost the 51st state. Now if you were from Mozambique, India, Mexico... somewhere like that, you might run into more issues (or just wind up dead solely for being an immigrant) because that is what, collectively, a large chunk of America sees as acceptable right now. Just keep an eye on the news, stand up for yourself and know your rights (just because you're only an LPR doesn't mean these go out the window), and hope that things begin to turn in a more positive direction. These past few months I've felt like the wind has begun to change for us, that the blowback against this administration has begun. Let's see if it holds up.

Edited September 15, 2018 by Hypnos

[POA 175]

7 hours ago, Taylor and Eric said:

Hi everyone, I'm a Canadian citizen who moved to the USA January 2017 on a K1 Visa.

Fast forward to now and I have a conditional (2 year) Green Card and flights/hotels booked for a trip to Italy and Switzerland in May 2019 with my American citizen husband! Exciting!

 

I feel like lately I keep getting bombarded with headlines and articles about the USA and Trump's administration looking for any reason to deport non-citizens and I'm FREAKING OUT.

 

Fellow Green Card holders in the USA who love to travel, what has your experience been like? Any advice??

I traveled to the Philippines last year on a green card using my PH passport. I can see how it can be scary but you should be fine.

Edited September 15, 2018 by POA