Can I Travel Internationally While My Advance Parole Is Pending?
This article addresses the consequences of international travel while a travel document (Advance Parole or Re-Entry Permit) is pending. Departing before AP approval generally abandons the application unless a valid AP is held; Re-Entry Permit can designate an overseas consulate, but changing the delivery address after filing is difficult.
Today a reader asked: "I applied for advance parole in February and have already completed biometrics. I want to pick up the advance parole document at a consulate in China. How do I apply for that?"
'回美证' generally refers to one of two documents: Advance Parole or a Re-Entry Permit. For example, applicants adjusting status through AOS may travel internationally on AP before their green card is approved. A Re-Entry Permit, by contrast, is for green card holders: if they need to leave the United States to live or work abroad for more than 1 year, they may apply before departing so that their green card does not become invalid.
Advance Parole
If your Advance Parole application has not yet been approved and you leave the United States at this point, the application will be considered abandoned and will certainly not be sent to a consulate in China. The exception is: although the new AP is still pending, if you hold another already-approved AP that remains valid throughout your time abroad, your new AP application will not be considered abandoned; after you return to the United States using the old AP (provided it has not expired), you may simply continue waiting for the new AP to be adjudicated.
The USCIS website provides the following explanation:
USCIS explains that if a person files Form I-131, Application for Travel Document, to request an advance parole document and departs the United States without possessing an advance parole document valid for the entire time abroad, the Form I-131 will be considered abandoned. At times, an individual may have an approved advance parole document while a second one is pending. The individual may travel on the approved advance parole document, provided it is valid for the entire duration abroad; in this situation, the pending Form I-131 will not be considered abandoned.
Re-Entry Permit
When applying for a Re-Entry Permit, you may designate an overseas consulate as the delivery location in Part 3 of Form I-131. However, if you want to change the delivery location after submission, I have not found authoritative guidance. USCIS's website has a "change address" page, but it is mainly for "I moved within the United States"; you may still give it a try. Another option is to call USCIS and ask whether customer service can make the change.
- {https://gonglue.us/77855}
A few years ago, someone asked a similar question on the legal Q&A site AVVO, and several immigration attorneys gave essentially the same answer: you can try changing your address via AR-11 (the first method above) or by calling the 800 number (the second method above), but do not get your hopes up.
