The airline would not let him board last week and in the section of special instructions of the form, it said carrier can deny boarding him and then he'd have to file I-131a. The local Embassy is really of no use, they are the ones who told him to file I-131a in the first place and we he called and said the number is not being accepted to pay the fee, their solution was "keep trying until it does." He is definitely out of lock. He already did the live chat which was of no use either, and tried calling the 800 number but it is impossible to get a live human there. Should he try to stand his ground with the airline?
He has been out of the US. 8 months I believe, but for sure less than a year, so in theory he should be able to return with expired GC but the airline did not allow it. I wonder if another airline would...