Advance Parole shouldn't be this hard (long)
Mar 11th 2003, 3:04 pm
#1
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Joined: Dec 2002
Location: Greenville, SC
Posts: 160
Advance Parole shouldn't be this hard (long)
I guess one could say that about any "benefit" offered by BCIS. I post this account to warn of the potential difficulty of obtaining advance parole after moving to a different district office area (for those who are dealing with AOS through district offices).
My wife and I returned from Arlington last night on a second mission to resolve a troubled AP application. What makes Adela's case somewhat atypical is the fact that we moved from one office area to another in the months preceding our request for AP.
The AP application was first submitted by mail in early December...with us naively pondering a Christmas vacation in Mexico. This application was erroneously rejected upon receipt. They neither returned nor cashed the check. We went to the then INS-Washington District Office to understand what had happened. We never got an answer to that, but we learned of a different problem, the fact that our AOS file was in Atlanta while we were living in Virginia. The INS agent requested the file be sent to his attention so that an expedited AP could be processed. (Incidentally, we had already notified INS Atlanta-twice- and the headquarters of the address change.) When nothing happened by the beginning of February, I wrote Senator Allen's office to see if they could determine what's up with the AOS file. I received a written acknowledgment four days after mailing and a phone call the following day indicating that the AOS file was received in Arlington in January, but this information came from Atlanta...the Washington office didn't respond to the Senator independently, so we didn't learn anything about the AP application.
So, off we went to Arlington again. By the way, the office was much busier yesterday than in December (both visits were Mondays). We arrived before 8:00 and only a handful of people behind us got tickets. After speaking to not the friendliest agent at the window, we were sent to the room where AP's are processed, and after quite a bit of running around, the woman was able to confirm that the AOS file was in Arlington...but not in her office. So, she ran upstairs and located it. We were obviusly quite happy with this development, but alas she pointed out that she wouldn't be able to work on the AP yesterday. She said she would do it today and mail it out, so we again left with some encouragement but without the needed document. Of course, no phone number was offered to check on the status if nothing arrives this week, so it ain't over yet. We're mostly happy knowing that we can start working on travel plans, but I won't be happy at all if we need to go back to Arlington next week.
Hmmm. I'm not sure what the appropriate emoticon is to append to this post...
My wife and I returned from Arlington last night on a second mission to resolve a troubled AP application. What makes Adela's case somewhat atypical is the fact that we moved from one office area to another in the months preceding our request for AP.
The AP application was first submitted by mail in early December...with us naively pondering a Christmas vacation in Mexico. This application was erroneously rejected upon receipt. They neither returned nor cashed the check. We went to the then INS-Washington District Office to understand what had happened. We never got an answer to that, but we learned of a different problem, the fact that our AOS file was in Atlanta while we were living in Virginia. The INS agent requested the file be sent to his attention so that an expedited AP could be processed. (Incidentally, we had already notified INS Atlanta-twice- and the headquarters of the address change.) When nothing happened by the beginning of February, I wrote Senator Allen's office to see if they could determine what's up with the AOS file. I received a written acknowledgment four days after mailing and a phone call the following day indicating that the AOS file was received in Arlington in January, but this information came from Atlanta...the Washington office didn't respond to the Senator independently, so we didn't learn anything about the AP application.
So, off we went to Arlington again. By the way, the office was much busier yesterday than in December (both visits were Mondays). We arrived before 8:00 and only a handful of people behind us got tickets. After speaking to not the friendliest agent at the window, we were sent to the room where AP's are processed, and after quite a bit of running around, the woman was able to confirm that the AOS file was in Arlington...but not in her office. So, she ran upstairs and located it. We were obviusly quite happy with this development, but alas she pointed out that she wouldn't be able to work on the AP yesterday. She said she would do it today and mail it out, so we again left with some encouragement but without the needed document. Of course, no phone number was offered to check on the status if nothing arrives this week, so it ain't over yet. We're mostly happy knowing that we can start working on travel plans, but I won't be happy at all if we need to go back to Arlington next week.
Hmmm. I'm not sure what the appropriate emoticon is to append to this post...
Mar 11th 2003, 3:32 pm
#2
unDAUNTEd
Joined: Dec 2002
Location: Minnesota, USA
Posts: 256
Re: Advance Parole shouldn't be this hard (long)
Originally posted by John McHugh
I guess one could say that about any "benefit" offered by BCIS. I post this account to warn of the potential difficulty of obtaining advance parole after moving to a different district office area (for those who are dealing with AOS through district offices).
My wife and I returned from Arlington last night on a second mission to resolve a troubled AP application. What makes Adela's case somewhat atypical is the fact that we moved from one office area to another in the months preceding our request for AP.
The AP application was first submitted by mail in early December...with us naively pondering a Christmas vacation in Mexico. This application was erroneously rejected upon receipt. They neither returned nor cashed the check. We went to the then INS-Washington District Office to understand what had happened. We never got an answer to that, but we learned of a different problem, the fact that our AOS file was in Atlanta while we were living in Virginia. The INS agent requested the file be sent to his attention so that an expedited AP could be processed. (Incidentally, we had already notified INS Atlanta-twice- and the headquarters of the address change.) When nothing happened by the beginning of February, I wrote Senator Allen's office to see if they could determine what's up with the AOS file. I received a written acknowledgment four days after mailing and a phone call the following day indicating that the AOS file was received in Arlington in January, but this information came from Atlanta...the Washington office didn't respond to the Senator independently, so we didn't learn anything about the AP application.
So, off we went to Arlington again. By the way, the office was much busier yesterday than in December (both visits were Mondays). We arrived before 8:00 and only a handful of people behind us got tickets. After speaking to not the friendliest agent at the window, we were sent to the room where AP's are processed, and after quite a bit of running around, the woman was able to confirm that the AOS file was in Arlington...but not in her office. So, she ran upstairs and located it. We were obviusly quite happy with this development, but alas she pointed out that she wouldn't be able to work on the AP yesterday. She said she would do it today and mail it out, so we again left with some encouragement but without the needed document. Of course, no phone number was offered to check on the status if nothing arrives this week, so it ain't over yet. We're mostly happy knowing that we can start working on travel plans, but I won't be happy at all if we need to go back to Arlington next week.
Hmmm. I'm not sure what the appropriate emoticon is to append to this post...
I guess one could say that about any "benefit" offered by BCIS. I post this account to warn of the potential difficulty of obtaining advance parole after moving to a different district office area (for those who are dealing with AOS through district offices).
My wife and I returned from Arlington last night on a second mission to resolve a troubled AP application. What makes Adela's case somewhat atypical is the fact that we moved from one office area to another in the months preceding our request for AP.
The AP application was first submitted by mail in early December...with us naively pondering a Christmas vacation in Mexico. This application was erroneously rejected upon receipt. They neither returned nor cashed the check. We went to the then INS-Washington District Office to understand what had happened. We never got an answer to that, but we learned of a different problem, the fact that our AOS file was in Atlanta while we were living in Virginia. The INS agent requested the file be sent to his attention so that an expedited AP could be processed. (Incidentally, we had already notified INS Atlanta-twice- and the headquarters of the address change.) When nothing happened by the beginning of February, I wrote Senator Allen's office to see if they could determine what's up with the AOS file. I received a written acknowledgment four days after mailing and a phone call the following day indicating that the AOS file was received in Arlington in January, but this information came from Atlanta...the Washington office didn't respond to the Senator independently, so we didn't learn anything about the AP application.
So, off we went to Arlington again. By the way, the office was much busier yesterday than in December (both visits were Mondays). We arrived before 8:00 and only a handful of people behind us got tickets. After speaking to not the friendliest agent at the window, we were sent to the room where AP's are processed, and after quite a bit of running around, the woman was able to confirm that the AOS file was in Arlington...but not in her office. So, she ran upstairs and located it. We were obviusly quite happy with this development, but alas she pointed out that she wouldn't be able to work on the AP yesterday. She said she would do it today and mail it out, so we again left with some encouragement but without the needed document. Of course, no phone number was offered to check on the status if nothing arrives this week, so it ain't over yet. We're mostly happy knowing that we can start working on travel plans, but I won't be happy at all if we need to go back to Arlington next week.
Hmmm. I'm not sure what the appropriate emoticon is to append to this post...
An emoticon pulling it's hair our by the roots I'd say.
Thank you for posting this. My husband is going to file for advance parole and it's nice to know that we should do it about nine months before we plan on going anywhere,
Well...after our fiasco with SSA...I guess that's just generally a good rule of thumb all the way around.
Sorry about all the run around, but hopefully you'll get it this week!
Take care,
Ang
Mar 11th 2003, 6:12 pm
#3
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Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2002
Location: Greenville, SC
Posts: 160
Re: Advance Parole shouldn't be this hard (long)
Originally posted by KissingtheBrit
An emoticon pulling it's hair our by the roots I'd say.
Thank you for posting this. My husband is going to file for advance parole and it's nice to know that we should do it about nine months before we plan on going anywhere,
Well...after our fiasco with SSA...I guess that's just generally a good rule of thumb all the way around.
Sorry about all the run around, but hopefully you'll get it this week!
Take care,
Ang
An emoticon pulling it's hair our by the roots I'd say.
Thank you for posting this. My husband is going to file for advance parole and it's nice to know that we should do it about nine months before we plan on going anywhere,
Well...after our fiasco with SSA...I guess that's just generally a good rule of thumb all the way around.
Sorry about all the run around, but hopefully you'll get it this week!
Take care,
Ang
Well, I hope you're right...it's a 3 1/2 hour drive to Arlington. And, it's nice to hear that the long-awaited SS card came through. I think it's somewhat unusual to wait as long as we have for AP, just as was the case with your situation with the SSA. Still, leaving some room for delays is a wise decision. Ironically, we didn't apply for AP with AOS, because we didn't have immediate travel plans, and I didn't want the document to expire before using it! Live and learn, I guess.
Mar 11th 2003, 6:38 pm
#4
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Joined: Jan 2003
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana headed for Nottinghamshire in May, 2012
Posts: 135
Re: Advance Parole shouldn't be this hard (long)
We didn't have immediate travel plans but INS suggested that we turn the AP in with our AOS. You can see my timeline at the bottom and I was surprised how fast we received it. Ours is good for a year. Hope everything else goes smooth for you.
Kady
Kady
Originally posted by John McHugh
Well, I hope you're right...it's a 3 1/2 hour drive to Arlington. And, it's nice to hear that the long-awaited SS card came through. I think it's somewhat unusual to wait as long as we have for AP, just as was the case with your situation with the SSA. Still, leaving some room for delays is a wise decision. Ironically, we didn't apply for AP with AOS, because we didn't have immediate travel plans, and I didn't want the document to expire before using it! Live and learn, I guess.
Well, I hope you're right...it's a 3 1/2 hour drive to Arlington. And, it's nice to hear that the long-awaited SS card came through. I think it's somewhat unusual to wait as long as we have for AP, just as was the case with your situation with the SSA. Still, leaving some room for delays is a wise decision. Ironically, we didn't apply for AP with AOS, because we didn't have immediate travel plans, and I didn't want the document to expire before using it! Live and learn, I guess.
Mar 14th 2003, 9:54 pm
#5
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Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2002
Location: Greenville, SC
Posts: 160
Re: Advance Parole shouldn't be this hard (long)
Originally posted by Kady
We didn't have immediate travel plans but INS suggested that we turn the AP in with our AOS. You can see my timeline at the bottom and I was surprised how fast we received it. Ours is good for a year. Hope everything else goes smooth for you.
Kady
We didn't have immediate travel plans but INS suggested that we turn the AP in with our AOS. You can see my timeline at the bottom and I was surprised how fast we received it. Ours is good for a year. Hope everything else goes smooth for you.
Kady
By the way, on the use of AP, the envelope contained a cover letter (on new BCIS letterhead) and three copies of the AP document, the first two of which had photos attached.
Can anyone advise which of these should be carried out of the country, and which they keep at the border upon reentry? I think I've read an answer to this, but it's been a while.
