What is Advanced Parole and Why Does my Spouse Need It?

Advanced Parole is basically permission to leave and return to the United States while your immigration case is pending. Permission to reenter the US is granted if the person has a Travel Document with them when the return to the US border. The document is fairly simple looking, it contains a photo, fingerprint and details about the number of times the person can reenter the US and for how long this is permitted.

The Travel Document can become a vital document should your spouse wish to return home during the adjustment of status waiting period. This could be a vacation or an emergency situation requiring short notice travel plans. For this reason, it is highly recommended that you obtain the travel document even if plans to return home are not likely.

Here is why:

• The Fiance Visa is a single entry Visa, meaning once your spouse exits US Borders, they cannot return without a different kind of visa showing permission to enter.
• A pending status adjustment case will not be accpeted by border officials. Even a cruise into international waters can present the same scenario on return.

Note: If your spouse leaves the US without a travel document, it will be viewed as abandonment of their adjustment of status Case. Correcting this issue will have to be done from your spouces home country and can be very difficult to resolve. In essence the sponsor would have to apply for the spouces travel document and request it be sent to their home country. A biometric interview (for fingerprinting) would also be required at the local embassy. As you can imagine this would become an expensive and frustrating situation for any newly married couple.