AP Timeline Experience

I know people are freaking out, rightfully so. And for everyone who is scared of doing AP. Do it now. You should have submitted your application yesterday. Regardless I wanted to give my experience doing AP first time going to Mexico.

I applied on May 31 2024, with my reason being humanitarian, i had a letter for my sick grandfather with the letter saying he was requesting for me to see him and stating what diseases/what he was sick of. I did not do this application myself, I had a local dreamer group help me out and I payed about 200 dollars. If you want to it yourself, do it, there are resources out there for you, but I just wanted to be sure since this was my first time. Other things included in application were birth certificates showing my relation to my grandfather, which were my certificate, my mom’s and my grandfather’s. The letter and birth certificates had copies included and also had to be translated to English.

I received notification on June 6, 2024 that my application had been received and that a receipt had been sent. Got it in the mail a few days later with it stating biometrics would be reused.

On October 11, 2024, I got an update that my document had been produced. There was no tracking number provided, you will not get one. Keep checking your mail everyday. I finally got my document in my mail box on October 19. I was approved for the days between October 11 - November 19, with one entry. Yes your AP dates start when the document is produced, even though I didn’t get it until 8 days later. Do not try to come back close to the last days of your AP, you could get hit with things out of your control that could cancel your flight. Also, make sure you have enough money saved for flights, we do not get the benefit of knowing when we will actually be approved, you can try to gamble and pre book flights but be prepared to shell out cash if you don’t want to risk it.

I booked with Delta since I had seen people had good experiences with them here, I traveled with my younger brother, under 18 who is a US citizen. I flew from Las Vegas to Atlanta on November 1st. This was the easiest part, I simply provided my real Nevada ID and passed through TSA. In Atlanta, the international and domestic terminals are not separate, once I arrived I simply stayed in the security area and did not have to ever show my Mexican passport once during my journey. After Atlanta, I flew to Tulum International airport, to board the plane to Mexico there was no issue, I simply walked up and Delta has a device that takes your picture, and you go ahead and board, no pass board or boarding pass was shown.

Experiences might be different in other airports but this is what happened to me at Tulum. At Tulum there is no separate line for Mexican citizens and foreigners, so everyone just went into the same line, I simply provided my passport to Mexican immigration and they stamped me and my brother’s. We passed customs and had bags scanned and then we were out.

I spent 5 days in Mexico, between November 2 to November 6. It was amazing seeing my grandparents and all my cousins, uncles and aunts that i have never gotten growing up. It had been 20 years since I had left, I was barely 2 and it was very bittersweet to finally meet them. I was too young to remember anyone so it was like meeting for the first time, and for them, they had lost the chance to see me grow up. Other than just seeing my grandfather, I did manage to explore several beautiful ruins, beaches, cities and my pueblito in the Quintana Roo coast.

Sadly we cannot stay forever, and my flight was scheduled for Nov 6, 3:15pm with my return flight to Atlanta. I could not check in online on the delta app, my brother was able to check in. I was given a pop up to check in person 3 hours before my flight. Tulum is a much smaller airport so I didn’t abide by the 5 hour rule people here usually give. I arrived at the Tulum airport at about 11:40am and waited in line at the delta counter. There were no delta workers that appeared until 12:30pm, but I was first in line for when they got there. This was the scariest part that I was dreading the most. That I wouldn’t be handed my boarding pass or that the worker might not know what AP is. Tulum international is a much newer airport so there was 0 posts here about experiences there. I walked up to the worker and he asked for my passports for me and my brother. Mind you he is asking me everything in Spanish. He then asks for if I have my visa document, I reply that I have a document permit called AP which allows me entry to US and hand it to him. I have my EAD card with me and he asks me what that is, then he asks if he can see it too. He then typed some stuff on his computer and printed my boarding pass and my brother’s. He gave back my AP document and EAD card, he stated that you are good to go and said when boarding the plane, you might need to show your AP document again, I was not asked for it again in but that was a heads up by the delta agent. I said my goodbyes to my family that came to see me off and walked to security, I handed my passport and boarding ticket to the guardia nacional. They checked it and let me through. In the security area, there were delta agents walking around asking people nearby the departure gate if they were traveling to Atlanta. They checked our boarding pass and put a green delta security sticker on me and my brother’s passport. I do not know what these are and had never seen anyone mention them before here. When boarding finally started, me and my brother walked up, I handed the agent my boarding pass and passport, they checked if my brother and I had that green security sticker, then said welcome aboard. My stress finally massively decreased once I got on the plane and was sat in my seat.

When we arrived to Atlanta, everyone is directed in a long hallway after deboarding to go straight to immigration and customs. In Atlanta there is a split for connecting flights and Atlanta bound passengers. We went the connecting flight side and then there was another split with foreign visitors and Canadian/US citizens. My brother and I went the foreign visitor side. I arrived there at about 6:30pm in Atlanta and there was virtually no one there. I waited about 5 mins in line until I was called up to have my passport stamped. I handed over my passport, EAD card and advance parole document. The worker took my picture then said he needed to take fingerprints. He then called a worker over and gave them my documents and that second worker said to follow them. Me and my brother were allowed in the cuartito, and at this point my eyes were already watering. There were 0 people in the cuartito. The second worker handed my documents over again to another worker and they told me to sit down. I was sat for about 10 seconds until they called my name over and returned my passport, stamped, and my EAD card, I asked if that will be all and he said yes you’re good to go. I walked out, no one asked any questions and went down the escalator, at this point I started crying, I had made it. I passed through TSA, you always have to do this from international to domestic flights. I only had to show my passport. And after that I went on my connecting flight back to Las Vegas.