travelling outside the US with a greencard

[bazil 0]

can someone help me. if i got my green card in April and traveled to my country of birth in May where i have a young daughter and a sick grandfather who i grow up with. then i travel back to the US end of September and was pulled off the line after i collected my baggage and was told by an officer that if i stayed outside the us for this amount of time again i would loose my green card. i was out for about 4 months and the welcome note said that i could stay out for any period under a year. i had already planned to return to my birth country in 2 weeks? what do i need to ensure that i'm granted entry when i come back?

[Little_My 464]

Yes, the general rule of thumb is that a GC holder can stay abroad for up to 12 months without a re-entry permit. However, CBP officers have the right to question you upon re-entry if they think you've spend considerable time abroad. They have the right to deny you entry if they think you've abandoned your residency - even in cases of shorter absence than 12 months.

When are you planning to remain in the US? If it looks like you have to spend considerable time abroad, you should apply for a re-entry permit to make sure you won't run into trouble at POE when returning from your next trip.. You'll have to be in the US to apply for the permit, and to have your biometrics done - so I would get that application going ASAP.

[DaveE 178]

Basically the officer is looking at your record. You had the green card for one month, and then left for four months. Then you come back in September and plan to go back in two weeks. That pattern does not indicate someone who intends to reside in the US. You have to remember, the officers at point of entry hear every excuse in book. Many of them may be true, but they have no way to know, If he pulled you out of line the last time, you can bet you are now in the system to be looked at every time you return to the states.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,235]

The Green Card you received is the permission to live and work in the United States. Many people look with anticipation to the day they receive their Green Card (I did). You got your Green Card and only a month later left the U.S. again. You had a good reason (your daughter and grandfather), but you were outside the U.S. four times longer than you were inside, and CBP does not like that at all.

There is no firm rule for how often and how long you can be outside the U.S, aside from the absolute maximum. It helps to apply common sense. If CBP feels that you are not really residing in the U.S. they can pull the plug on you at any time. Now you are mentioning that you are planing on leaving again. See, most people have to work for a living. Thus, they cannot afford vacations that take four months, come back for a bit, and then leave again. Those who do not work are usually married, and it's also not "normal" that one spouse lives in the U.S., while the other one spends most of her time in a foreign country. You can't really blame CBP for giving you a formal warning. You should be grateful for this.

Since it's possible that CBP made an entry in your A-file, I would suggest for you to take the residency requirement serious. Reside in the U.S., permanently, take one or two vacations per year, but not vacations that take several months, if you don't want to risk losing your Green Card.