U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) recently updated its website to provide additional notes on when certain Form I-131 Advance Parole application requests would be deemed abandoned and subsequently denied. Advance Parole is most commonly used by individuals with a pending Form I-485 Adjustment of Status/green card application, as it allows them to travel abroad and re-enter the United States without having to present a visa. Importantly, if you travel outside the United States while your green card application is pending and you do not have a valid advance parole, your case can be denied for abandonment. There is a narrow exception for individuals maintaining certain nonimmigrant statuses. Advance Parole requests are reviewed and approved by USCIS, and the documents can be renewed repeatedly throughout the period the green card case remains pending.
Last year, USCIS started denying Advance Parole applications for abandonment in instances where the applicant had traveled abroad during the pendency of the application. The denials were being issued even if the applicant had a separate, previously approved valid Advance Parole document or held a valid H, K, L, or V nonimmigrant visa status. The denial notifications often read “[i]f you depart the United States before the Advance Parole Document is issued, your application for an Advance Parole Document will be considered abandoned.” However, this policy and reason for denials represents a change in how USCIS has adjudicated the applications. In the past, USCIS has approved Advance Parole applications for individuals who traveled abroad with a valid Advance Parole Document during the pendency of a renewal application and also approved requests for individuals that held valid H, K, L or V visa status who traveled abroad during the pendency of their applications.
Practitioners and stakeholders have been following up with USCIS to confirm whether this policy change was intentional and will remain in place. Comments from Director L. Francis Cissna at the USCIS Ombudsman Annual Conference in November 2018 suggested that the agency would review the matter and potentially end the practice of denying Advance Parole requests for these two groups when the applicants traveled abroad.
USCIS then updated its Emergency Travel webpage, which now indicates that if an individual applies for Advance Parole, then departs the Unites States without an Advance Parole document valid for the entire time the person will be abroad, USCIS will consider the pending Advance Parole application abandoned. However, if the individual applies for Advance Parole, then departs the Unites States with a separate Advance Parole document valid for the entire time the person will be abroad, USCIS will not consider a pending Advance Parole application abandoned. Therefore, it appears USCIS has reverted to its prior policy that allows applicants to travel on an existing Advance Parole document and not have their pending renewal application be deemed abandoned. Importantly, the update does not indicate that Advance Parole applications for those who travel abroad with a valid H, K, L, or V visa will similarly not be denied for abandonment.
This week, USCIS updated the “Special Instructions” section of its Advance Parole webpage to reflect the same updates posted on the Emergency Travel webpage. Nonetheless, the policy may still be in flux. Therefore, it is important for applicants to review this issue carefully and obtain legal assistance as necessary.