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Immigration
Advance Parole
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Post 9/5 DACA return experience (long)
Prelude:
I'm speaking on behalf of my husband's experience. I'm a US born citizen and he has DACA, originally from Hong Kong, he had an EWI (through Canada). He applied for advance parole last year in October 2016 to see his sick grandpa, he received an RFE April 2017 because the requested dates have passed. He was finally approved a week before we got married in May 2017 (best wedding gift ever). In total it took about 8 months. We decided to leave early September 2017 and made the plans, booked the flight, etc, then all this lawsuit stuff happened. My husband doesn't read up much on this stuff since he doesn't want to worry himself, but I do, more than I should so I started regretting our choice of days but the tickets were not refundable and his lawyer said there's nothing to worry about. Anyway! Things in the news kept looking bad, then good, then bad, to good, to finally last week when the rumors started that DACA would be ending. My stomach dropped and in my mind I started contemplating things. Without this trip he cannot adjust his status. We were putting our entire lives on the line.
The trip:
We left for HK on September 4th got there on the 5th. Woke up the next day and saw the decision Trump made during the middle of the night HK time. He ended DACA but my husband was safe for 6 months and we were relieved but afraid for our friends who have no way to adjust status. We spent 5 days in HK to visit his family and such. He hasn't seen most of them in 13 years.
The moment of truth:
We arrived in JFK this morning and we had to separate at immigration. I went through the citizen line and it went by fast so I was able to watch my husband through the glass barrier as he went through his line. The officer he got was pretty cool, this officer flirted with the previous visitor which was funny to watch as I sat there nervous and when my husband went up the officer was making jokes and made the situation less tense. I read my husband's lips saying "oh I don't have that". Turns out my husband was supposed to fill out a customs form on the plane but the flight attendant skipped him (make sure you get one). He went to the side to fill it out and went back and then was escorted to a separate room, I was able to follow him. We sat in this room that had a tall courtroom like desk with several officers on the other side. It was pretty intimidating. A man with his wife and daughter was arguing with officers because the little daughter wasn't being allowed in (she looked about 4 or 5). We saw the officers talk to each other saying "we should just let her go" which humanized them in our eyes. At the same time my husband saw his passport and AP being stamped and we breathed a sigh of relief. We waited another minute and they called him up and gave him the stuff without saying anything. So we left to the officer at the entrance who checked everything and said "you're good to go". We rushed out of there with smiles on our faces and my eyes started to swell up with tears. Took the escalator to an exit and hugged because this nightmare was over.
Advice:
Be over prepared. We had copies of everything and gave copies to my dad, left copies at our apartment and I carried the second advance parole on me. We made sure he remembered our travel dates (time difference made the days kinda confusing and looked through any questions they may ask, they ended up not questioning him at all.
Fill out that customs form they give you on the plane.
Be polite and don't get impatient. I learned the officers are genuine human beings who seem to care what happens to people, like the little girl I mentioned.
Don't wait so long to travel. We wish we left earlier but flights were drastically more expensive and HK in August is supposedly hell, but it would've been worth it to avoid the stress and gut wrenching fear.
P.S
Thanks to everyone on this website who has written their experience. It helped us so much. And as a citizen myself who has the privilege to not fear for her livelihood I will always fight for you guys. Every DACA recipient I know are incredible people. You're all so smart, persistent and are the personification of what it means to be American and achieve the American dream. Thank goodness the climate on this issue is shifting and more people are on your side every day. I will do whatever in my power, through voting and other things, to make sure you all can stay and continue making this country great.
I'm speaking on behalf of my husband's experience. I'm a US born citizen and he has DACA, originally from Hong Kong, he had an EWI (through Canada). He applied for advance parole last year in October 2016 to see his sick grandpa, he received an RFE April 2017 because the requested dates have passed. He was finally approved a week before we got married in May 2017 (best wedding gift ever). In total it took about 8 months. We decided to leave early September 2017 and made the plans, booked the flight, etc, then all this lawsuit stuff happened. My husband doesn't read up much on this stuff since he doesn't want to worry himself, but I do, more than I should so I started regretting our choice of days but the tickets were not refundable and his lawyer said there's nothing to worry about. Anyway! Things in the news kept looking bad, then good, then bad, to good, to finally last week when the rumors started that DACA would be ending. My stomach dropped and in my mind I started contemplating things. Without this trip he cannot adjust his status. We were putting our entire lives on the line.
The trip:
We left for HK on September 4th got there on the 5th. Woke up the next day and saw the decision Trump made during the middle of the night HK time. He ended DACA but my husband was safe for 6 months and we were relieved but afraid for our friends who have no way to adjust status. We spent 5 days in HK to visit his family and such. He hasn't seen most of them in 13 years.
The moment of truth:
We arrived in JFK this morning and we had to separate at immigration. I went through the citizen line and it went by fast so I was able to watch my husband through the glass barrier as he went through his line. The officer he got was pretty cool, this officer flirted with the previous visitor which was funny to watch as I sat there nervous and when my husband went up the officer was making jokes and made the situation less tense. I read my husband's lips saying "oh I don't have that". Turns out my husband was supposed to fill out a customs form on the plane but the flight attendant skipped him (make sure you get one). He went to the side to fill it out and went back and then was escorted to a separate room, I was able to follow him. We sat in this room that had a tall courtroom like desk with several officers on the other side. It was pretty intimidating. A man with his wife and daughter was arguing with officers because the little daughter wasn't being allowed in (she looked about 4 or 5). We saw the officers talk to each other saying "we should just let her go" which humanized them in our eyes. At the same time my husband saw his passport and AP being stamped and we breathed a sigh of relief. We waited another minute and they called him up and gave him the stuff without saying anything. So we left to the officer at the entrance who checked everything and said "you're good to go". We rushed out of there with smiles on our faces and my eyes started to swell up with tears. Took the escalator to an exit and hugged because this nightmare was over.
Advice:
Be over prepared. We had copies of everything and gave copies to my dad, left copies at our apartment and I carried the second advance parole on me. We made sure he remembered our travel dates (time difference made the days kinda confusing and looked through any questions they may ask, they ended up not questioning him at all.
Fill out that customs form they give you on the plane.
Be polite and don't get impatient. I learned the officers are genuine human beings who seem to care what happens to people, like the little girl I mentioned.
Don't wait so long to travel. We wish we left earlier but flights were drastically more expensive and HK in August is supposedly hell, but it would've been worth it to avoid the stress and gut wrenching fear.
P.S
Thanks to everyone on this website who has written their experience. It helped us so much. And as a citizen myself who has the privilege to not fear for her livelihood I will always fight for you guys. Every DACA recipient I know are incredible people. You're all so smart, persistent and are the personification of what it means to be American and achieve the American dream. Thank goodness the climate on this issue is shifting and more people are on your side every day. I will do whatever in my power, through voting and other things, to make sure you all can stay and continue making this country great.
All Replies (4)
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