Can a US greencard winner re-enter alone or can extend of family members visa enter time after 6 month is over?

Question

As a greencard winner(diversity visa 2018) family father, all members got visas but 6 months time is over for my family members except me. Let me explain details.

• I bought fly tickets to all of us. I entered in July 2018. and planned family members to enter 2 months later (6th September 2018)

• To find a Job and arrange a home, I flew and entered alone to San Francisco and stayed 2 months.

• I flew back 1 month ago and faced some economical and mom's healthy problems. My plans went wrong and 6 month time is out 10 days ago. (first entering within 6 months allowance is ended)

I have two 2 qquestions for now:

1- For me and my family members, Can I extend the time by getting Healthy tests report and re-applying for an appointment to local US consular ?

2- If not,Can I re-enter to US without my family and withot greencard in my hand? (My Greencard is delivered. but for some reasons of my friend I forgot to take it from him. and phoned him to send it me via mail. he said he may able to mail the My Greencard to me. so I am able show it to Border Officers. Or passport is enough ?)

Answer 1

1- For me and my family members, Can I extend the time by getting Healthy tests report and re-applying for an appointment to local US consular ?

Normally derivative beneficiaries can "follow to join" the principal beneficiary at any time after the principal immigrates, as long as a visa number is still available for the principal beneficiary's priority date and category, and the principal beneficiary is still a permanent resident.

However, Diversity Visa immigrant visas (principal or derivative) can only be issued until the end of the fiscal year. Fiscal year 2018 was from October 2017 to September 2018, so it has already ended. So your derivative beneficiaries who did not immigrate can no longer get immigrant visas as your derivative beneficiaries.

You can separately petition them to immigrate under family-based immigration immediately at any time (even if you haven't gotten your physical green card yet). Spouses and unmarried under-21 children of a permanent resident is in the F2A category, with about a 2-year wait for visa numbers. You would start by filing I-130, and use either your green card, or your immigrant visa stamped upon entry, as evidence of your permanent residency.

2- If not,Can I re-enter to US without my family and withot greencard in my hand?

Yes, when you entered the US with your immigrant visa, it ceased to be an immigrant visa and automatically turned into an I-551 (equivalent to a green card, which is also an I-551) valid for one year from the date of entry. The immigrant visa has text on it that says "upon endorsement serves as temporary I-551 evidencing permanent residence for 1 year" (the "endorsement" is the entry stamp you got when you entered with it). So you can just use your passport with your immigrant-visa-turned-I-551 on it for entry up until July 2019. The "expiration date" of the original immigrant visa is irrelevant, as the immigrant visa is void anyway (immigrant visas are single-use); it's the I-551 that that immigrant visa has turned into that allows you to enter, and that I-551 is valid until July 2019 (one year from your date of entry).