Question:
My friend hold a greencard and went
back to visit Vietnam for 2 weeks.
On his journey return to U.S., he
arrived in Taiwan for connecting
flight. At the ticket counter, the
ticketing-man did not give him a
boarding pass because he did not
have a passport, but only a U.S.
green card. The man said he need
a reentry permit. Based on U.S.
law, a reentry permit is required
only if he go out off border over
1 year! My question: Is an reentry
permit required for green-card holder
who go oversea for lest than a year
(2-3weeks) ? How can I prevent this
from future happening if foreign
county do not know U.S. law well?
Answer:
If you do not have a passport, then
you can use a re-entry permit. A
re-entry permit is used by people
who are unable to get a passport
from their home country. (It is
also used for re-entry beyond a
one year absence) The re-entry permit
is in an internationally recognized
format and contains room for visa
stamps, etc. A green card is not
an internationally recognized document
for this purpose. If traveling with
a green card, you need a re-entry
permit or a passport
For the record,
until a recent RWL discussion, I
did not know you could use it in
place of a passport, if you could
not get one. I have seen immigrants
who are permanent resident in the
U.S. travel over sea without passport
and able to return to the U.S. The
INS web site stated that reentry
permit is for who travel over a
year. His nationality's passport
has expired. And yet, foreign counties
does not know about U.S. green card
can be like a passport and cause
delay.
The green
card is not a substitute for a passport.
It is more like a substitute for
needing a visa than the passport
itself. If he had only a passport,
he would need a visa to enter the
US (for those who are nationals
of countries that are not part of
the visa waiver program). If he
has a green-card he doesn't need
the visa. He still needs a passport.
Passports get things like stamps
in them, papers attached to them,
etc. etc. Greencards can't be stamped
or stapled
