Anonymous wrote:My understanding is that to enter the country, you need an American passport, foreign passport with a visa, green card, or advance parole pending a green card application.
There are two questions. Firstly, will the airline allow you to board without physical evidence of one of these? Secondly, can you get through immigration without one?
My own experience from some years ago was that the airline would not permit us to board the plane when we had forgotten that my son’s visa was in his expired passport, which we left at home. We had a photo of the visa but they would not accept that. In addition, they phoned the US immigration ‘hotline’ the airlines have access to. I could hear from their end of the phone conversation that his details were clearly in that system. Still, they refused him. They did not want to risk the huge fine levied on airlines if a passenger is rejected from immigration after they arrive at an airport in the US. I have known of another person of the same nationality in a similar situation where the airline did allow them to fly and they were able to re-enter the US. I know of a third person who went through this in spring break this year and they could not fly.
So you need to address the airline issue as much as immigration at the port of entry.
PP here. I totally forgot that when I was returning from Dublin for spring break this year, there was a family stuck at the airline desk for ages because the adult son had forgotten his green card. In the end, they had to go home to get it (guess they lived close by) and change the flight.
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