bigticket77

Just want to know if its possible to go to Hawaii or one of the U.S carribean islands before i have AOS? want to go somewhere nice for our honeymoon and just wanted to know if there would be any problem, as they are not continental U.S.

thanks

penguinbar

Hawaii is a US state. You would still be in the USA if you traveled there. You cannot travel outside the US before you get your advanced parole for AOS. There are probably emergeny documents for travel before AOS (someone correct me if I'm wrong) but a honeymoon doesn't count.

Noorah101

It's best to stick to the continental US until you have your AP in hand. It takes about 60 days after filing AOS to get AP in hand. Also make sure your circumstances allow you to use AP safely.

The reason for this, is that if the plane needs to land outside the US for some emergency reason, and you do not have AP in hand, or you don't qualify to use AP, you will be stuck outside the USA and will not be able to return.

Rene

Michael

If you land outside of the US going to Hawaii, I think you are in more trouble than getting back into the US.

meauxna

lol, you'd think. The problem with a question like the OP's is that there is no pat answer. Just when you think 'that's the most ridiculous objection I've ever read, talk about hair splitting!' someone will come along and cite a time or three when it DID happen and went bad for the immigrant.

The most conservative thing to do is stay on the US mainland until you've got a travel document. I think it would be irresponsible to say 'heck yeah, go for it!' when it is not my bacon on the line.
People need to know what the possible problems are and make their own decision.

penguinbar

Good point Noorah.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

It is a long established principle of law that travel from one state to another is OK because one does not make an "entry" as that was defined in the Immigration & Nationality Act as it existed prior to Sept 30, 1996. In fact there was an old case about an Englishman who sailed from L.A. to Honolulu -- with a layover for provisioning in Ensenada. He was considered an applicant for admission.

In 1996, the term "entry" was eliminated from the INA and replaced with "admission" -- in the change, the words "from a place foreign" were eliminated. I will not go into the reasons why this was done except it was a desire to eliminate perceived problems with "entry."

So, although the practice of treating flights to Alaska and Hawaii as domestic flights continues, no one seems to have noticed that the legal basis for that practice went away.