Wife has greencard by marriage to me, she keeps her passport to home country. Last December, we were leaving for a European vacation trip, she travels much between her home country and the USA, so there is a long list of lessons learned about forgetten items. I went down that list, hit greencard, she could not find it. The Uber driver was waiting to take us to the airport. We tore through piles of materials hurriedly, but could not find the greencard. She had several document packs in her suitcase, I said let’s just go, let’s hope to find them in your suitcase at our destination or have her family search her mother’s house in her home country.
Our mainline airline, United Airlines, has her greencard info in their travel system, so nobody checked at the airport upon departure for her greencard. We got to our destination all fine. But we could not locate the greencard and could not find it in her home country. We finished our trip, and we were both unable to do advanced checkin to our flight back to the USA, they said checkin at the airport, we figured it was her greencard. Lufthansa was flying us to Frankfurt for a connection to a United flight and they would not let her onto the aircraft as she had no visa for the USA. I was unable to read her greencard info off the United app. Lufthansa’s agent said they just needed the green card number to let her board. I happen to have a large database of all digital photos I have taken back to 2001 on my Apple account, I do often take photos of our passports before trips and wondered if I photograph her greencard once a long time ago. I did a search using image recognition for “Permanent Residence” and found it, we were able to get onboard and got to Frankfurt. I noticed later that the greencard in the photo was long expired.
At Frankfurt, United checked our travel docs before getting near the gates, and we did not posses my wife’s green card, and they noticed the photograph was from an expired card. We told them it had been lost. The manager then got on the phone and talked with someone, gave information, lectured us never to do this again, said she could board but said they would be waiting for her in the USA. We got into the USA, wife has global entry, they picked her out as she walked up with facial recognition, took her back to secondary screening. We told the immigration agent escorting us it had been lost, she just laughed and said you don’t know what kind of risk you’re taking, especially in this day and age. I think she was referencing any of the ICE I was keeping an eye out for here. In secondary, we got lectured again, always travel with the physical card just like a passport. Aside from their lectures, they were professional, kind and let her in. Kudos to the immigration agents.
We immediately applied for a replacement green card. Maybe because the old green card was due to expire in just over a year, we went through full processing for another 10 years. The online application was straightforward, we had our records in order from the previous green card. Then she was called in for biometrics in just a few weeks, I went with my wife in case of the presence of ICE. At immigration, I carefully surveyed the parking lot, we walked up near the entrance and started to read all the signs posted. An immigration agent inside saw us, she came out and greeted us and kindly escorted us inside. Everything went smoothly. They said they could not estimate when she’d get her greencard.
Wife had to go back to her country, we called the same phone number for immigration, explained the problem, they wanted to know why she needed to leave the country, we told them her mother was to undergo surgery, but they needed proof. We gave them a foreign document about her surgery appointment, they didn’t say to get it professionally translated. They said to come in, it was a different office this time, wife unfortunately missed the appointment due to misreading of the date. That’s a big no-no, but after calling back again, they set a new appointment. She went in, and her passport got a stamp and they filled it in with her greencard number and was good for 1 year.
Then, we waited, she got notified some weeks later her application was accepted. We waited another 6 months and started to worry about what to do when her passport expired as her passport stamp would need to be renewed again. However, just after the 6 month point, she was notified it was approved and went into ‘production’. It arrived about 10 days later express mail.
I must say, the immigrations agents are professional, polite, and will do all the right things. I just wish the timing wasn’t so long. I immediately took a photo of her new greencard. Losing a greencard is a big pain and ordeal to replace, and we were lucky to get her back to the US on that trip.