On August 13, 2026, the Board of Immigration Appeals issued Matter of Delcarmen-Lara, 29 I&N Dec. 830 (BIA 2026), holding that a departure from the United States on a grant of advance parole is a “departure” within the meaning of section 212(a)(9)(B)(i)(II) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The decision overrules Matter of Arrabally and Yerrabelly, 25 I&N Dec. 771 (BIA 2012), a precedent that had stood for fourteen years.
Under Arrabally, travel on advance parole was treated as not triggering the unlawful presence bars, which made advance parole function as a safe harbor: someone with a pending adjustment application who had accrued unlawful presence could travel abroad and return without setting off a multi-year bar to admission. That protection is now gone. A person who has accrued more than 180 days of unlawful presence and then departs may trigger a three-year bar; a person who has accrued a year or more may trigger a ten-year bar.
The population most exposed includes people with more than 180 days of accrued unlawful presence who hold or are eligible for advance parole based on a pending adjustment of status or asylum application, an approved DACA grant, or Temporary Protected Status. USCIS itself flagged the change publicly on August 14, noting that the decision “may affect some people who plan to travel outside the United States using Advance Parole.”
Critically, the ruling applies prospectively. It does not reach back and penalize advance parole trips taken before August 13, 2026. That makes the timing of any future travel the decisive variable, and it means the question is no longer whether a trip is permitted but whether it is safe.
Two points are worth separating. First, unlawful presence is a specific legal concept — it is not the same as being out of status, and periods before age 18 or while a bona fide asylum application is pending generally do not count. Second, holding a valid advance parole document still permits travel; what has changed is the consequence on return. Anyone in these categories who is weighing international travel should get an individualized assessment of their accrued unlawful presence from an immigration attorney before booking, because the downside is now a bar measured in years.
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Source: Reddit r/USCIS