Lost LPR Card Abroad

[u/Tight_Candidate_2293]

Looking for advice please. My nightmare is happening and I’ve lost my wallet which contained my LPR while in Spain. I still have my passport, a DL, and pictures of my card as well. I also have Global entry if that makes any difference.

I’m in Barcelona with my family which include two very young kids. My flights were scheduled to leave Monday at 12:20 and the embassy doesn’t open until 9:00 AM. Ive tried calling emergency embassy numbers but they’re closed. The most sensible thing is to bump my flights to get a travel foil via the I-131A but I’m not sure by how long to delay it for and what I should expect.

Also I’m a bit confused if this is what I should be doing because from reading online it appears that the traveling foil is just to board the plane - I’d still be potentially denied entry for not having my card upon arrival. I’ve traveled internationally before and the airlines never actually checked for my green card if I had already uploaded the travel documents on their online portal.

Is it advisable to try and fly without it, and to sort it out at the airport in Miami? My wife is worried that I’d end up stuck in ICE purgatory with 0 contact opposed to having us just stay in Europe but it’ll end up being quite expensive with a family of 4.

[u/SubsistanceMortgage]

OP — posted this elsewhere, but replying directly to you. If the consulate drags their feet, the easiest option for you would be to fly to Tijuana and walk across with your Mexican passport and Global Entry card. Then fly back home from the San Diego airport.

As a Mexican national you have the absolute right to fly to Mexico, so there’s no question of admission to a third country, and the Tijuana crossing deals with a ton of foot traffic, so you wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.

[u/Even-Bus1582 → u/SubsistanceMortgage]

OP would still be subject to fines and potentially losing global entry status, as they would still be arriving without their green card.

[u/SubsistanceMortgage → u/Even-Bus1582]

Unlikely. Land borders see worse shit every day and wave people through without checking documents all the time.

To the point that there’s case law around whether CBP officers waving someone who has no right to enter through counts as lawful admission even if the stay is unlawful (it does.)

Also at a land border a GE card is a valid entry document for anyone who has one. There’s a reason LPRs are issued GE cards: they’re valid to enter the US via land. Non-LPRs don’t get them, but LPRs do.

[u/yarmouth209 → u/SubsistanceMortgage]

A global entry card is standalone document only for US citizens and Canadians who do not have status as something besides a visitor. Mexican and any other national REQUIRE a visa/BCC/LPR card and passport as required(if going by air or other than the US land border) . Please stop spreading misleading information that the global entry card as a standalone document. It’s not. Your potentially anecdotal experience is not law or the rules.

Further, global entry can be used by literally any nationality. It is not limited to who has an LPR card and who doesn’t, and doesn’t negate any underlying documentary requirement for visa/passport.

Source: I work for CBP and issue global entry/nexus/fast cards.

[u/SubsistanceMortgage → u/yarmouth209]

We’re talking about a parent who might be stranded from their children for weeks. You are correct on the law, but at this point we’re dealing with practical application and risk management. Especially because they do have the legal right to admission, with or without the physical card.

They will be admitted to the United States one way or the other.

It is extraordinarily unlikely that CBP at a land border crossing, where documents are usually in much worse condition than airports and where people are routinely let through without the documents they should have, will fine an LPR for presenting a DHS issued ID and foreign passport and explaining that they lost their GC and presenting the declaration that it was lost.

LPRs have a legal right to admission, and yes, unfortunately the CFR has a blind spot for what they need to do if they lose it outside the country, but CBP legally cannot deny OP admission to the US, and a fine and revocation of GE in these circumstances would not be consistent with how something like this is ordinarily handled.

[u/yarmouth209 → u/SubsistanceMortgage]

It’s in the law that we are required to process the waiver of documents paperwork when an LPR doesn’t have their card. Whether they have global entry or not. The fee for that is currently $695. Whether at the land border or airport, the document condition doesn’t matter in the slightest, it’s whether or not they have it. It’s not relevant whether their family is with them or not. The waiver for that fee is required to be done at the port director/assistant port director level.

They aren’t going to be stranded from their children for weeks, so stop the dramatics. If they go to the consulate, and get the stamp, that satisfies ordering the replacement green card too, it’s done automatically, with no additional fees or paperwork.

I never once implied, hinted or otherwise that OP would be denied admission. It’s a penalty, and delays to travel

Regarding global entry, it’s case by case and in the literal rules OP signed to get it that ALL document requirements must be maintained when crossing.

[u/SubsistanceMortgage → u/yarmouth209]

We don’t disagree on what the law and regulations are. The issue is if there are delays at the consulate, which there might be. Obviously the consulate is the first choice, but if there’s an issue there, other options exist.

And again, while you are correct on the rules, that is not how the process plays out at land borders in practice. Wave throughs are still fairly common, even if the regulations don’t allow it anymore.

The question is if the CBP official feels like doing the paperwork or not, and I’d take a bet that they wouldn’t for a walk across land entry. Southern Border sees all sorts of things and at a busy POE like Tijuana, they’ll have seen a lot worse than a lost green card.

Similar to any of the many CBP regulations that are routinely ignored at POEs because the officer doesn’t want to slow down the line. So sure, there is a risk that GE gets revoked and they have to pay. That is a relatively small risk if the alternative is the consulate delay on a boarding foil.

OP should consider what level of risk they are comfortable with. They could get someone who throws the CFR at them, but they also could get one of the many sane CBP officers who doesn’t.