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Fee Changes for US Advance Parole Travel Document

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Advance Parole Travel Documents and some recent information that came to light wherein we believe that we are going to be seeing a change in the fees associated with Advance Parole Travel Document.

The first thing to understand is "What is advance parole?" Well generally, we see it in the context of the K-1 Fiancée visa wherein someone has gone to the United States with a K-1. They have married their presumably US citizen spouse and then they have sought what is called adjustment of status to lawful permanent residence, AKA they are seeking a green card. The process for seeking that green card takes some time. It has to be adjudicated and sometimes there is processing lag depending on the various caseloads at the various service centers that are handling these kinds of things.

So oftentimes what happens is in the interim a person is going to need an advance parole travel document. What is that? Well it is permission to leave while preserving one's K-1 status. If someone leaves the United States that has a K-1 Visa who has yet to be approved for what is called their I-551 or their Green Card, their lawful permanent residence, that individual if they leave prior that approval their status is essentially nullified. They no longer have any status in the United States. Therefore, basically the process begins anew. If that person is married to an American citizen and they wish to come back to be reunited with them then presumably an Immigrant Spouse visa such as a CR-1 or an IR-1 is going to need to be sought or depending on the circumstances perhaps a K-3 Marriage Visa would be an option under certain circumstances.

That being stated, the scope of this video is discussing recent changes with respect to the form associated with Advance Parole. It recently came to my attention via the Federal Register that there are new proposals for fee changes associated with the form I-131. That is the form that needs to be filed in order to seek Advance Parole; permission to leave the United States before one has finished processing on their Green Card. The current fee is US$575. The proposal is that that fee be raised to US$585. I suspected that that proposal will ultimately be approved so I think it is fairly safe to presume we are probably going to see the fees associated with the Advance Parole Travel Document form going up to US$585 in the relatively near future or it may have already come to pass by the time that this video is published.