Advance Parole

Hello, everyone!

First of all, I want to thank everyone for sharing your experiences. Reading your experiences gave me the courage to use the Advance Parole.
I applied back in November 2016, for humanitarian reasons (to visit my sick grandmother). I was approved in February 2017, but with the uncertainty of DACA, I had decided not to risk it and travel. I found this forum in May, and after reading all the experiences, I got the courage to travel.

Leaving to Mexico was the easiest part, I just had to show my passport at the kiosk, and they checked me in and gave me my boarding pass. I did not have to show my advance parole document. During the flight, the flight attendant will give you a couple of forms to fill out, fill out personal information and make sure to keep the small green and white form; they will ask for it when you return to the states.

I arrived at Puerto Vallarta, and Alaska forgot to put my luggage in the airplane, and it was left back home. That was upsetting because I reached the airport 3 hours before to make sure everything went well. I made a claim, and the good part was that Alaska would pay for anything that I needed for the first 24 hours, while they delivered my luggage. After I made the claim I had to go through Mexican customs, I had to press a button that would determine whether they inspected my carry-on. To my luck, I got red, and they had to check my stuff. The officer asked what I had in my missing luggage, and I told him clothes, and other things, he said that I was not allowed to bring things to give away and that I might have to pay a fee. In the end, I did not have to pay anything, and they delivered my luggage to the bus terminal close to where I was staying. I was upset, but then I let it go because I was finally with my family.

Mexico was great; I got to see my family that I had not seen in 18 years, it felt like a dream come true, to be able to touch Mexican soil. The rest of the trip was good.

On my way back to the U.S, I had to check in at the kiosk, and the lady was not that familiar with the AP document. I had made copies just in case they wanted to keep one. I showed her a copy of my AP document( she didn't notice it was not the original one). She then gave me my boarding pass after she confirmed with her supervisor. I landed in San Francisco yesterday around 5:30 PM and went to the visitors line. It was not that long; it took me about 20-25 minutes to reach the booths. When reached the officer, I showed him my passport, and my advance parole document he was like "oh another one of these, these are a pain in the ass." He explained that he couldn't stamp it there and that I would have to go to secondary inspection because they have another program that he did not. He asked what I did for a living, and I told him. After that, I walked over to secondary inspection. There was only one person in there, so I handed my documents to the guy and told me to take a seat. He called me up asked for my weight, height, hair color, and eye color then asked me to take a seat and that it would take him about 10 minutes to type everything in the system. I was a relief when he said that, but then he called me again and asked to take fingerprints, how long I was in Mexico for, and if I worked or went to school. I responded, and he said it looks like we were not able to verify your fingerprints, this will take a little bit longer, take a seat. My heart started to beat faster, but I told myself to stay calm. He called another officer who to go over to his desk; he remained for about 2 minutes, then in about 3 minutes, he called my name and said I was ready to go! I was so happy leaving that place, and I was not nervous at all, until he told me they could not verify my fingerprints, but thank God everything went well! The whole process was about 15 minutes, and he was not mean, he was a nice guy. I do not know what will happent to DACA after September 5th, so I am glad I went before. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!