Some people can apply for a green card despite overstaying their status, such as those who are legal entry overstays who apply for a green card based on marriage to a US Citizen, or those who are applying based on employment, overstayed their status, but benefit from Section 245i. When you have a green card application pending, you may apply for advance parole, a travel document that in theory permits you to travel and reenter the United States. So those who overstayed and applied for a green card usually still obtain advance parole.
Prior to Matter of Arrabally and Yerrabelly, 25 I&N Dec. 771 (BIA 2012), which we shall discuss in a bit, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) position was that those who departed the U.S. on an advance parole, after incurring unlawful presence of six months or more, would be subject to either the three or ten year bars, and are thus inadmissible. Because of this position, a lot of people who have approved advanced paroles after incurring years of unlawful presence (marriage to a U.S. Citizen or those eligible for adjustment due to INA 245i) were not able to return to the United States due to either the three or ten year bar. Why does the I-131 advance parole get granted when the applicant will be inadmissible anyway? Who knows. Those applicants would’ve been better off had the I-131 been denied, because at least it would have prevented them from traveling abroad. It was a tricky and deceiving aspect of advance paroles and adjustment of status applications for those with unlawful presence issues, especially for those who did not seek legal advice.
But in Matter of Arrabally and Yerrabelly, the Board finally held that a departure under an approved advance parole is not a “departure” for purposes of INA § 212(a)(9)(B) which triggers the three and ten year bars. Thus, those who have over six months of unlawful presence, who are eligible to adjust status in the United States, would now be able to come back on the advance parole without being inadmissible anymore. This is a big decision for those employment-based 245i green card cases by applicants with six or more months unlawful presence. Since visa retrogression has delayed a lot of green card applications, those applicants with unlawful presence issues but are 245i eligible can now apply for advance parole and visit their home countries, without being subject to the three or ten year bars that the DHS used to impose on them upon return prior to this BIA decision.
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