WARNING for Adjustment of Status Applicants

If you leave the United States while your application for permanent residence is pending, the application will be considered abandoned.... unless

• you obtain permission in advance to travel and return, or
•  
• you are in H-1b status, have an unexpired H-1b visa, and return to resume your previously approved employment, using both the visa and the receipt we will obtain after filing your adjustment of status application, or
•  
• you or in H-4 status, have an unexpired H-4 visa, have not worked, and return using your visa and your adjustment of status filing receipt. The “permission” to return is called an “advance parole.” It may take several months to obtain approval of an advance parole, and it is valid for only one year. Please plan accordingly. The Immigration Service has recently changed the procedures regarding traveling while an application for permanent residence is pending by publishing an interim rule which was effective on July 1, 1999. We anticipate that the procedures will be changing again. We will post a summary of any changes here.

Prepared from information current as of July 5, 1999.
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