US Immigration from Canada

My I751 got approved much much earlier than expected yesterday. I had planned to travel by land to Canada this weekend, leaving tomorrow and returning on Tuesday.

My approval letter says, "You should not travel outside the United States until you receive your new Green Card, as you may have difficulty reentering the United States. If an emergency arises and you have a need to travel outside the United States before you receive your Green Card, you may make an appointment at your local USCIS office to request an I-551 stamp in your passport that shows temporary evidence of status as a lawful permanent resident."

If I return to the border with my extension letter and expired green card, will CBP allow me to enter. I have no idea if I will be able to get the stamp today.

We have hotels booked and my mother in law is travelling to us today from NYC, and then we drive together tomorrow to Canada. So I really don't want to cancel the trip...

Would really like to hear from people in similar situation who successfully managed to return without the stamp...

I am going to add extra evidence such as three years joint bank account statements / investment account statements. The full statements are several pages long. Would it be sufficient to just upload the first page showing the institution and account numbers and the fact that the accounts are jointly held - and provide 36 months of these ? If each statement is 5 -10 pages long it could be 360 pages instead, and I'm worried about size of .jpg at that point as there are size limits. Thoughts ?

Hello, this question is for Canadian citizens who have obtained approval for their immigrant visa to the USA.

1. Should the house be sold before or after entering the United States to activate the visa?
2. What process did they follow to import their car?
3. What happens with social security?

Thank you very much for your answers and comments.

I was pleasantly surprised to wake up to an approval email for my 1-751 submission this morning. I was totally not expecting it as the average timeline is currently around 2 years.

Just wanted to share the happy news and thank everyone here for the support through this immigration journey.

Next stop - Citizenship!

On 10/9/2018 at 10:14 AM, KaeAlexandria said:

Hey there! I just got my approval for my K-1 visa so me and my fiance were just planning the same thing and it sounds like we may have a similar amount of stuff (I have kitchen stuff, a lot of collectibles and games, and 2 books shelves + 2 carts).

Our distance is a LOT shorter than yours (Nova Scotia --> NYC) however what my fiance is doing is renting a cargo van in NYC, driving to Nova Scotia, loading me up and driving back. The reason he's renting it in NYC is that UHaul only rents cargo vans locally (no long distance drop offs) but it STILL ends up being cheaper for us then renting a 10' Uhaul. For your distance however, it may be cheaper to rent the 10' Uhaul and drop it at your final destination.

When you go to cross the border we have seen MANY websites say that you need a full inventory of all of your stuff. What I did when I packed my stuff up (I was staying with family because my lease went up, so the majority of my stuff is already packed and in storage waiting for the move) was write everything that was in the box down in a notebook (like "Hair / Make-up, Over the counter medicine, bathroom shelves, shampoo / body wash -- Bathroom Box #1") and also wrote that on the outside of the box itself. This will apparently really help facilitate a quick border crossing.

Good luck, and I hope your process goes quick!

Hey all, I hope to cross the land border into the USA within the next few weeks on my K1 visa(from Canada). I've began making a list of all household items i have. Is there any U.S. Custom form to fill out. Or can I literally just make my own listing and give it to them?