Cortez

Ok, hope someone can answer a question I really don't feel like researching (we have a seven week old baby at home and as you can imagine it is very difficult for me to get any time to go online these days).

Anyway, we finally received our I-751 NOA (after my green card expired). It extended the GC for one year, etc., etc.

Do I need to go get a new 551 stamp in my passport (we are going to a family reunion outside of the USA in August), or do I just need to bring my NOA with me?

If it is not required, is it recommended?

What has everyone else been doing?

Rete, what about you guys?

Thanks!

- Cortez

Rete

Hi

Congratulations on the little one. You don't say whether you have a son or daughter? Either way a long and healthy and happy life for your new addition.

Your I-751 should be fine along with your passport and expired green card. It is rare that an airline has a problem with it. If they do ask them to call the airport BCIS extension and verify the validity of travel with the NOA.

Jim and I are fine. Waiting for Vermont to get their act together and move from processing I-751s from 12/31/01 and get into the year 2002 where we are stalled. Jim has applied for naturalization and it is hoped that this will jar VSC into acting on the I-751 sooner. All is well here.

Once again, congratulations.

Rete

Cortez

Rete,

Thanks for the information. When would I show the documents to the airline (on the trip out of the USA or back into the USA)? I know it sounds more logical to show it to them on the way back to the USA, but as you know, things are not always as they seem, nor logical when it comes to immigration matters.

Thanks also for the congratulations. We have a baby son. This is our second child (we have a 20 month old daughter). They are probably good evidence for the BCIS, eh?

Finally, I too plan on filing for naturalization as soon as I am permitted - in the hopes of speeding the I-751, as well as the obvious reason - to become a US citizen.

Anyway, thanks again!

- Cortez

Matthew Udall

Hi Cortez,
I’ve been racking my brain ever since reading your question earlier today. I swear that I just read something about this very issue just a few days ago, however I’ve not been able to find it. I’ve spent around 2 hours now looking on the infonet plus through the e-mails I get from various AILA chapters, to no avail.

I’ll bet where I can find this information will pop into my head as I’m just drifting off to sleep tonight (thus keeping me up all night). Anyway, what I seem to recall reading was contrary to the legal advice Rita gave you (by the way, its legal advice whether or not she says its legal advice… I can’t perform the functions of a doctor and then shield myself from liability by saying, “this is not a medical diagnosis or advice for a medical treatment�…especially if I demonstrated over the years my willingness to do so and have cultivated a reputation as a medical advisor by doing so), however I’m not saying she is wrong. The impression I had when reading this was that one should no longer travel with just the notice and definitely go in and get a new passport stamp before departure.

Who knows, maybe I'm remembering this incorrectly (its been a very long day) and it instead said not to travel with the "approval" notice for the I-751 and instead go in and get a passport stamp. I tend to err on the side of caution.

I really wish I could have found this, as this is a very important issue. Maybe I can find it later on when I’m not so fatigued from such a long day in the office.

Got to go. Those white sea bass await and I’ve not left the office yet. This time I’m “really� leaving.

M.U.

Christa

Matthew,

Sure, rules can change daily... My husband's experience was:
In November, he went to the Detroit office with the I751 extension to get
the I-551 passport stamp extended.
They sent him home and said it's not necessary and they wouldn't do it.
We traveled overseas and returned with this extension as proof of residency.
A few weeks ago he used it for a short trip through Canada and back into the
US without a problem.

Several other posters had the same experience. Some offices extend the
stamp, some don't. Apparently it is not required.


"Matthew Udall" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Originally posted by Cortez
    > > Anyway, we finally received our I-751 NOA (after my green card
    > > expired). It extended the GC for one year, etc., etc.
    > >
    > > Do I need to go get a new 551 stamp in my passport (we are going to a
    > > family reunion outside of the USA in August), or do I just need to
    > > bring my NOA with me?
    > >
    > > If it is not required, is it recommended?
    > >
    > > What has everyone else been doing?
    > >
    > > Rete, what about you guys?
    > >
    > > Thanks!
    > >
    > > - Cortez
    > Hi Cortez,
    > I've been racking my brain ever since reading your question earlier
    > today. I swear that I just read something about this very issue just a
    > few days ago, however I've not been able to find it. I've spent around 2
    > hours now looking on the infonet plus through the e-mails I get from
    > various AILA chapters, to no avail.
    > I'll bet where I can find this information will pop into my head as I'm
    > just drifting off to sleep tonight (thus keeping me up all night).
    > Anyway, what I seem to recall reading was contrary to the legal advice
    > Rita gave you (by the way its legal advice whether or not she says its
    > legal advice), however at this point in time I'm not saying she is
    > wrong. The impression I had when reading this was that one should no
    > longer travel with just the notice and definitely go in and get a new
    > passport stamp before departure.
    > I really wish I could have found this as this is a very important issue.
    > Maybe I can find it later on when I'm not so fatigued from such a long
    > day in the office.
    > Got to go. Those white sea bass await and I've not left the office yet.
    > This time I'm "really" leaving.
    > M.U.
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Rete

Can't wait to hear in the years to come how your son likes having an older sister. Jim tells me his older sister made life miserable when growing up 'cause she tended to put herself in the role of substitute mother always telling him what to do ;-0

As for the I-751 and the airlines, remember I'm not an attorney, but over the years I've seen others on the newsgroup go to the local office for the stamp before traveling. Some offices will give it; others refused stating the I-751 is all they need and a stamp will not be given until the I-751 is expired and the I-751 has not yet been adjudicated. There have been relatively few posters who have encountered problems at the airport by personnel not familiar with the I-751. Hence my thoughts of asking for BCIS personnel to confirm to them that travel is permissible with the I-751. Driving into Canada we had to show the expired green card and the I-751 before they would allow Jim to enter his own country. Others have reported needing to show it at the start of the trip as well.

Rete

Folinskyinla

Hi:

The I-751 receipt notice IS a valid extension of the card good for travel. After the one year, you will THEN have to get extension I-551 stamps while the application is pending.

Once the application is approved, the approval notice will NOT be travel permission -- you have to go through the I-551 stamp routine.

BTW, it is impossible to set up a "normal" timeline for I-751's. It depends in large part on whether or not you get interveiwed -- and even the cleanest most well documented case can get referred for an interview just as random.

However, even with the absense of a usual timeline, a CPR remains a lawful resident alien for all purposes including time for naturalization.

Daniel Pearson

    > Anyway, we finally received our I-751 NOA (after my green card expired).
    > It extended the GC for one year, etc., etc.

I am interested to know what service center you had filed your I-751 with?
Last month I filed the I-751 with TSC and am still waiting for an NOA. Until
today, I hadn't heard of anybody not getting the NOA till after the expiry
date. This might be a somewhat worrying trend?

Dan

Matthew Udall

OT report about the fishing trip today:
I'm back from fishing and came into the office to take care of a few items. Stop reading now if you don’t want to waste your time with this off topic posting.

The sky was clear today, the first time in a week or two (we have the June gloom here in So. Cal., and this year's June gloom had been especially gloomy) and there was a decent breeze blowing on shore.

There were 4 of us on this fishing trip. We put the boat in at the Marina Del Ray Harbor than picked up a net full of sardines for bait. We then headed south for a few miles to hit a spot Larry had fished before.

While heading to the fishing spot we saw 2 rather large Sun Fish, slowly sunning themselves on the surface of the water (we circled around then stopped to check them out). We also saw many sea lions and pods of dolphin. The ocean was teeming with life.

We made it to the first fishing spot, baited our lines and got started. I was the first to get a strike, and it turned out to be a calico bass. He was a little on the small side, so I released him back into the sea.

Matt (there was another guy named Matt on the boat) caught a pretty decent sized Mackerel (so it seemed to me), but he said it was not large enough to keep so it was let go too. A small sand bass was than caught and released by Larry. Roger then caught a Sculpin (sp?) which is a rather ugly looking redish fish with large poisonous spines running down its back and on its front fins. It was a little small, so he put it back into the ocean. I then caught a larger Sculpin, and even though they are supposedly good eating, it was starting to look like we were going to get skunked today (we had been at it for a while by now) so I decided to toss him back (didn’t want to have to clean and cook just one fish). Larry finally caught a vary large calico bass which he decided to keep.

We had been out there for around 4 hours by now, and the swells had been pretty large all morning. I started wondering if I was becoming seasick. I took a break, ate a sandwich, and then felt much better. Roger however did not do as well and began to feel very seasick.

We headed back to the marina to drop him off, and on the way we passed many more pods of dolphin. Larry turned the boat so we were going in their direction, and they were jumping up and slipping through the water within a couple of feet of me (According to Larry, they like to follow and ride the wakes created by boats). One came shooting out of the water and must have jumped a couple of its body lengths out of the water. Matt sat on the bow of the boat, and touched a couple of them as they jumped up in front of the boat while traveling with us.

We eventually turned around again and made our way to the marina to drop Roger off. Larry, Matt and I had some more bate left, so we went back out but this time stayed closer to the marina. We did not have luck around a mile off shore, so we came back in and cast our lines near the ocean side of the large stones placed as a tidal wall at the far end of the marina. I immediately had a large strike, but he got away before I could reel him in. Matt had a couple of strikes too, but did not land his either.

We were getting ready to leave, and as I was slowly reeling in my line, I had the largest strike of the day (for me). It turned out to be a very large Halibut. The other guys are deep sea fisherman (I’ve only done it very few times) and they told me Halibut is one of the best tasting fish in the ocean and a pretty rare catch (all but 1 of the Halibut Larry has caught over the years in California waters were apparently all too small to keep). This one was around 26 inches long and I got two really nice fillets. I’m going home in a few minutes to fire up the Bar-B-Q!

I can still feel the rocking of the boat as I type this.

M.U.

lairdside

Two Matts on the boat? Reminds me of another bad joke....

What do you call a guy with no arms and legs who lies on the floor?

Matt.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

Just got back from dinner. If you ever read John Grisham's "The Runaway Jury" -- Mary Mahoney's restaurnt in the Old French House was really good -- red snapper course and what the Southerners do with crawfish over pasta can't be described.

Relaxing before the beginning of AILA's conference next Thursday.

Cortez

Daniel,

We went through the very same TSC - we filed 2/15/03 and didn't receive the NOA until 5/27/03. They stated that they had computer problems entering I-751 Petitions into their system, and they couldn't be "Receipted". Apparently they have fixed this problem (or so it seems - everyone who filed about the same time I did seems to have finally received their NOA's).

Who knows what is happening at TSC re: I-751's now, but hopefully you won't have the same wait that all of us had.


Matt,

Glad to see you had a good time. Also glad you weren't on that charter boat that capsized just a little north - off the coast of Oregon. Nineteen on it in total, last I heard, nine confirmed dead, two missing.

- Cortez

sphyrapicus

Cortez,

Just wondering if you had heard anything from TSC yet on your I-751 application?

trasmus

My husband travelled to Norway soon after he got his I-751 extension letter. He didn't have to get a I-551 stamp in his passport. He just showed his passport and the extension letter at the POE and they let him in without a problem.

trasmus

Cortez

Sphyrapicus

No, unfortunately, we have not heard anything yet. I think we'll probably end up in the same situation as Rete and Jim - we'll be filing the N-400 well before we hear anything about the I-751.

- Cortez