Over the past several months there have been numerous reports of change of status (COS) and adjustment of status (AOS) cases being denied because the applicant had purchased an airline ticket for travel outside the U.S.
What is happening is the Immigration Service now has access to all airline tickets purchased for flights outside the U.S. When a person files a COS or AOS application, and the applicant’s name is inputted into the Immigration Service’s system, any airline ticket for travel outside the U.S. automatically is provided to the Examining Officer.
In turn, some Officers, apparently without proper training, have adopted the unusual idea of “implied departure” to deny the COS or AOS application. In other words, if the airline ticket is for a date prior to the adjudication date, the Officer assumes that the applicant has departed from the U.S. and therefore has abandoned the COS or AOS application.
There are obvious flaws with this reasoning, including the fact that many people depart from the U.S. while their AOS application is pending using their Advance Parole, but the real problem with this development is that the Officers are making a series of assumptions based upon data which is being supplied from a variety of different, irrelevant sources.
The airlines affected by this as well as the American Immigration Lawyers Association have notified the Immigration Service of this new practice and we have been advised that additional training will be made available to the Officers who have created this new “doctrine”.
In the meantime, be careful if you are purchasing an airline ticket for travel outside the United States and you have any type of application pending with the Immigration Service.