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I am a permanent resident based on asylum, a green card holder, citizenship is Russia. I was advised not to use my national passport with the US immigration as it may signal my willingness to accept benefits of the country from which I was granted asylum in the US. I currently possess a valid Russian passport.

  1. When I want to go travel to a certain country that has a visa waiver for Russian citizens, would it be okay to present the Travel Document on the way out of the US and enter the destination country on the national passport?

  2. If I decide to travel to a country for which I need a visa as a permanent resident asylee, would it be okay to travel to neighboring countries presenting the national passport to avoid receiving visas as a Russian citizen and subsequently return to the US from the country of the initial arrival presenting the Travel Document upon arrival to the US?

Details for Q2. The nature of the question is about a potential issue of not having all of the arrival/departure stamps in the same document. To clarify, I do not intend to travel to Russia. To paint the picture better, let's say my itinerary is USA, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, USA. A visa would be obtained only for Thailand and placed in the Travel Document.

Note: this is related to I have two passports/nationalities. How do I use them when I travel? but not the same as in this case there is one passport and one nationality.

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KettleFour
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1 Answers1

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You claim you fled Russia ~14 years ago. You claim that your Russian passport is still valid. However, the validity of the ordinary Russian passport was limited to 5 years back then (10 years now). It appears to me, that you have got a new Russian passport, during last 9 years. That alone can get your asylum green card stripped away, without even travelling on the valid Russian Passport.

So, 1. no 2. no

I strongly advise against attempting to trick USCIS/CBP/DHS in your new home country. It is not worth it. Get US Citizenship -if you can - and travel anywhere you want. It is another question as to whether you will get caught... at least one site suggest to exercise caution even after obtaining a green card Here is more authoritative source from USCIS

I have anecdotal evidence of Belarus refugees using their travel document to travel to Russia and grilled mercilessly about it during their citizenship interview for suspicion they used their refugee travel document to enter Belarus. (Technically, in regard to border control, Russia and Belarus are a part of the Union State, so entering one you can enter another without any passport controls)

PS. Technical note. I-131 is not a proper name for a refugee travel document. This is the name of the form you use to apply for one. The document itself is i-571. (You are also eligible for I-327 - Reentry Permit, ask your lawyer for details)

mzu
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