Travel May Be Risky While Adjustment Application Is Pending, Recent Case Shows
The Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers warns that traveling outside the U.S. while an adjustment of status application is pending can be risky, even with advance parole. A recent case illustrates this point. While his adjustment application was pending, Nadeem Hassan, a citizen of Pakistan, traveled outside the U.S. to Saudi Arabia. He received an I-512 advance parole travel document, which granted him permission to return to the U.S. so long as his application for adjustment remained pending. While Hassan was abroad, the government denied his adjustment application and revoked the advance parole. When he attempted to return to the U.S., he was denied admission, placed in expedited removal proceedings, and removed. He challenged the denial of status adjustment and revocation of advance parole.
A federal district court held that under the REAL ID Act of 2005, both the denial of the adjustment of status and the revocation of the advance parole were discretionary decisions that the court lacked jurisdiction to review, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently agreed, affirming the district court’s dismissal of the case. The Ninth Circuit noted that Hassan was granted advance parole solely to allow him to return to the U.S. while his application for status adjustment was pending. Thus, the court reasoned, once Hassan’s application for adjustment of status was denied, he was no longer eligible for advance parole.
