How long can Perm. Resident stay out of the US?

[dragonness 0]

Hi,

Hope you'll welcome me in your midst. I have a question about my mother's Green Card.

I'm a naturalized US citizen and my mother got her Green Card in March of last year. She then came to the US for a full year and left recently for Croatia to take care of some family affairs, among others selling her house there. Her plan is to come back, but the house sale is taking a while.

What's the longest she can be out of the United States before her Green Card is compromised? Also, is there a way to request an exception?

Many thanks for your help, and apologies if you've seen this question a thousand times!

Edited June 9, 2010 by dragonness

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

trouble can start as yearly as 6 months and at one year most people are going to get seriously questioned about their intent. You need a re entry permit for stay great than a year. Long stays also affect your timeline for applying to citizenship.

[Chazzie 1]

Hi,

Hope you'll welcome me in your midst. I have a question about my mother's Green Card.

I'm a naturalized US citizen and my mother got her Green Card in March of last year. She then came to the US for a full year and left recently for Croatia to take care of some family affairs, among others selling her house there. Her plan is to come back, but the house sale is taking a while.

What's the longest she can be out of the United States before her Green Card is compromised? Also, is there a way to request an exception?

Many thanks for your help, and apologies if you've seen this question a thousand times!

If she's a Green Card holder (lawful permanent resident or conditional permanent resident) and will be outside of the U.S. for more than a year,she will need to make special preparations for her re-entry, before she leave the U.S. LPR's are encouraged to have continuous residency.If she plans to leave the country the safest is not to exceed 6 months.

hope that helps.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

Given your mother's specific situation as you described it, she won't have any problems up to 6 months as the "default" assumption up to this point is in her favor. In regard to a later naturalization, at exactly 6 months her residency clock stops and will start ticking again where it stopped once she returns.

From 6 months up to 1 year the default assumption supposedly switches, meaning the CBP officer may question her on whether or not she intended to keep -- and has kept -- her US residency. If she can explain and support that she was absent in order to sell her house, she should be fine.

At exactly 1 year absence the stopped residency clock resets to zero. That means the day she returns is the first day of her residence for naturalization purposes, so she would have to wait another 5 years until she can become a US citizen.

More important, an absence over a year (up to 2 years) requires a reentry permit that needs to be applied for from the US before the applicant leaves. For all practical purposes that means she should not be absent longer than 363 days, although even that might cause some eyebrows to be raised.

Absences over 2 years are dealbreakers. An LPR who is away for over 2 years with an reentry permit or over 1 year without a reentry permit, needs to get a 'Returning Resident visa' from the consulate abroad.

[dragonness 0]

Given your mother's specific situation as you described it, she won't have any problems up to 6 months as the "default" assumption up to this point is in her favor. In regard to a later naturalization, at exactly 6 months her residency clock stops and will start ticking again where it stopped once she returns.

From 6 months up to 1 year the default assumption supposedly switches, meaning the CBP officer may question her on whether or not she intended to keep -- and has kept -- her US residency. If she can explain and support that she was absent in order to sell her house, she should be fine.

At exactly 1 year absence the stopped residency clock resets to zero. That means the day she returns is the first day of her residence for naturalization purposes, so she would have to wait another 5 years until she can become a US citizen.

More important, an absence over a year (up to 2 years) requires a reentry permit that needs to be applied for from the US before the applicant leaves. For all practical purposes that means she should not be absent longer than 363 days, although even that might cause some eyebrows to be raised.

Absences over 2 years are dealbreakers. An LPR who is away for over 2 years with an reentry permit or over 1 year without a reentry permit, needs to get a 'Returning Resident visa' from the consulate abroad.

Wow, thank you so much for that detailed explanation, and also thank you to the others who have replied.

I have a much better sense of the rules now! I'm so glad I came here with my question!