Mn

Hi all,

I received my conditional residence in Feb 2001 and early this year
filed I-751 for removal of conditions. I received a letter from INS
stating that they have received the I-751 application and are
currently processing it, and stating that: "..alien card is extended
one year employment & travel authorized ". Now I need to travel
abroad and have this question:

- do I need the I-551 stamp in my passport? Let me explain: I know I
have the letter authorizing travel abroad , but it looks very
"unofficial", smudged from the carbon cover it arrived in, just plain
flying piece of paper. I don't want to offend anyone, just making sure
that I can come back home. I asked a lawyer and he said we need the
stamp. The other day we went to the San Francisco office and tried to
get my passport stamped. The officer refused to stamp it saying I have
the letter, this is enough, he can't double the work already done,
etc, meaning NO stamp fo me. We were assertive but failed since the
officer simply left the counter.

Now, I have my card(expired) , I have my passport with nothing in it
and barely legible letter. I am not worried as much about the INS on
the way back, but the airline people, the immigration officials at my
home country and also Germany (I have layover in Munich on the way
back and I don't recall wheather they ask for visa before boarding the
plane).

Please, relate to me your experiences...

Thanks,
terra

Lucy

"mn" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Hi all,
    > I received my conditional residence in Feb 2001 and early this year
    > filed I-751 for removal of conditions. I received a letter from INS
    > stating that they have received the I-751 application and are
    > currently processing it, and stating that: "..alien card is extended
    > one year employment & travel authorized ". Now I need to travel
    > abroad and have this question:
    > - do I need the I-551 stamp in my passport?

When I was in your situation, I travelled abroad several times and had no
problems. I travelled to and from the UK, Canada and India (via Germany) and
no one even questioned the validity when I presented the expired green card
and letter.

My letter was one of the official 'Notice of Action' letters, so I assume
yours is the same?

After the year's extension authorised by the letter had elapsed, I got a
stamp in my passport. At that point, I was scrutinised very closely at the
departure airport in the UK (Manchester). That was by people working for the
airline, who seemed unsure of the validity of the stamp for some reason. I
had no problems at immigration in the US though.