Advance Parole: Traveling While Your Green Card Is Pending

If you have a pending adjustment of status application and you leave the US without advance parole, USCIS usually treats the application as abandoned. Advance parole prevents that. It is also used by:

• DACA recipients traveling for approved reasons
• People already in the US on parole who need to travel
• Some other groups listed in the Form I-131 instructions

You may not need it if you are in valid H-1B, H-4, L-1, or L-2 status with a valid visa. You can travel and return in that status, and your I-485 stays pending, as long as you keep maintaining the status.

Green card holders do not use advance parole. For long trips they use a reentry permit. TPS holders apply for a separate TPS travel authorization.

• File Form I-131 with USCIS. Adjustment applicants often file it together with the I-485 and the work permit application (I-765).
• You must be in the US when you file and generally stay until you have the document. Leaving before approval usually abandons the I-131 request.
• USCIS may schedule a biometrics appointment.
• Many adjustment applicants receive a combination card that works as both a work permit and an advance parole document.

Emergencies. If you must travel urgently (for example, a dying parent), call the USCIS Contact Center to ask for an emergency appointment at a local field office. Bring proof of the emergency, your ID, passport photos, and the fee.

The fee schedule dated September 9, 2026 says CBP will collect the Pub. L. 119-21 parole fee each time a person seeks parole at a port of entry, unless CBP finds an exception applies. The law lists exceptions such as medical emergencies and some urgent family situations. Because this fee is new and its application varies, ask a lawyer whether it applies to your return before you book travel. Check the USCIS fee schedule for the current amounts.

Advance parole lets you ask to come back. It does not guarantee it. At the airport, a CBP officer decides whether to parole you in.

• Past unlawful presence. For most adjustment applicants, leaving on advance parole does not by itself trigger the 3-year or 10-year bar. But other grounds of inadmissibility still apply.
• Criminal or immigration history. Any arrest, prior removal, or fraud issue can lead to problems at the border. Talk to a lawyer first.
• Asylum applicants who return to the country they fear may be seen as having abandoned their claim.
• Travel ban countries. Nationals of the 39 countries under Proclamation 10998 face extra review, and USCIS has held many pending cases from those countries since January 1, 2026. See travel ban.
• Discretion. Since USCIS memo PM-602-0199 (May 21, 2026), adjustment of status is treated as discretionary relief. Time spent abroad and your reasons for travel could become part of that review.

Keep trips short, carry your approval, your I-485 receipt, and proof of ties, and respond quickly to any USCIS notice while abroad (an interview notice can arrive while you travel).

Show your advance parole document to CBP. If allowed in, you are paroled, not admitted, and you get a new I-94 record showing parole. Download it from the CBP I-94 website. Your pending application continues.

If your advance parole document expires while you are abroad, you generally cannot use it to return. Check the dates before booking.