ikerson

Hello All,

My wife has a conditional permanent resident visa from the United
States. I moved to Taiwan for work. She applied for a reentry permit
(I-131) so that she could stay outside of the United States for up to
two years and not loose her conditional permanent residency status.

When we received the reentry permit it was only valid for a year from
the date we left the United States. We assumed this was a mistake
because, according to the instructions that accompanied the reentry
application, conditional permanent residents can reenter the United
States for up to a year after their departure without a permit. We
found out secondhand from my father when he called U.S. CIS from inside
the States that our assumption was correct. The expiration date on the
reentry permit is wrong.

However, this is the problem, because I am not inside the United States
or in a country with a U.S. Embassy, it is imposable to contact anyone
to correct the error. There is no email address for U.S. CIS. Their
customer service line is not accessible from outside the country.
International callers automatically get a message that instructs them
to contact the local U.S. Embassy. But, there is no embassy in Taiwan
because the U.S. does not have official relations with the country. I
called the closest thing to an Embassy, the American Institute in
Taiwan. But, they were not equipped to help me.

I tried sending a letter to U.S. CIS's Nebraska Service Center and
asked them to send all correspondence to my father's address in the
U.S. But, it's been three months and I have heard nothing. I even
faxed a letter to them, but they have not responded.

Please help! I've been at this on and off for nearly 6 months now and
I haven't heard anything from CIS. It will seriously disrupt our
plans if my wife has to return to the United States a year early based
simply on a clerical error on her reentry permit.

Any help, advice, or solutions you could offer would be much
appreciated.

Thanks for your time and consideration,

Isaac

jeffreyhy

Isaac,

There's a US consulate in Hong Kong.

Perhaps more useful, there's a USCIS District Office in Bangkok with a Sub Office in Hong Kong.

Regards, JEff

scrubbedexpat099

She still needs to maintain residency in the US during any absence.