Advance parole is an immigration document that is issued only to aliens who have not established permanent residence in the United States.

The advance parole document serves as a valid form of permission for certain aliens to re-enter the U.S. after traveling abroad even though they do not have an official immigrant visa. Advance parole, however, is not an actual re-entry permit.

Aliens who can benefit from advance parole include persons who have applied for an adjustment to their status which would allow them to switch to being a permanent resident, as well as persons who have applied to change their non-immigrant status. Only those advance parole applications that are approved prior to the applicant leaving the U.S. will be considered as valid. Any residency application made after leaving the U.S. will, in general, be denied.

Obtaining Advance Parole: Do you need a New York immigration attorney?

In order to obtain advance parole, you must first complete the I-131 Application for Travel Document, which can be found here. Included with this document, you will be expected to submit supportive documentation that includes photos and the appropriate filing fees. To ensure that you correctly complete this form and that you provide all of the information that is asked of you, we encourage you to work with a New York immigration lawyer at Pozo Goldstein, LLP.

The I-131 Application for Travel Document comes with detailed instructions on how to complete the document; however, it is always wise to involve a legal professional in the matter to ensure that your application stands every chance of being accepted rather than denied. Once the form has been sufficiently filled out, you can then submit it to your local USCIS office, or the Service Center that holds jurisdiction over your place of residence.

Determining Eligibility for Advance Parole

As we briefly mentioned above, not all aliens will be eligible to take advantage of the benefits of advance parole. In fact, a very specific set of criteria must be met in order to allow an alien to seek re-entry into the U.S. through advance parole.

Disqualifying Factors

• The alien is currently living in the U.S. without any type of valid immigration status
• The alien is a beneficiary of a private bill
• The alien is an exchange alien who is subject to the foreign residence requirement
• The alien is currently under removal proceedings

Assuming that you do not meet any of the disqualifying factors listed above, then you can proceed with advance parole. This is most often used for persons whose conditions can be identified as one of the following:

• The alien has an application for adjustment of status pending
• The alien has been granted benefits under the Family Unity Program
• The alien has been granted asylum
• The alien currently has an asylum application pending
• The alien has been admitted as a refugee
• The alien has been granted Temporary Protected Status
• The alien has a justifiable and emergent personal reason for temporarily traveling abroad

Why work with Pozo Goldstein, LLP?

Filing the USCIS Form I-131, Application for Travel Document, does not guarantee that you will be approved for advance parole. On the same note, being approved for advance parole does not necessarily guarantee that you will be granted admission into the U.S. upon your return to the country.

Any alien who has been granted advance parole will still be subject to inspection by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the time that he or she reaches a port of entry. An alien who would normally be inadmissible because of his or her unlawful presence, however, will not be subject to the same inadmissibility if he or she has obtained advance parole.

The conditions upon which advance parole decisions are made are intricate, and as such, should not be addressed without the help of a well-qualified attorney. Therefore, we highly encourage you to contact a New York City immigration attorney at our office for the help you need when completing a process of this nature. We are here to assist in any way we can.