Maintaining Green Card Outside US

[Santos_Br 0]

Hi,..my wife and originally intended to move back to the US from Brazil and were able to do the DCF filing and get a green card. However, the job I was hoping for in the states fell through and the work situation improved here. So, we are still living in Brazil, but intend to move back in the next 12 to 18 months. We want to travel back for Thanksgiving, but are not sure if we are going to have problems. The US consulate here has been incredibly vague about whether or not we will have trouble. Anyone have a similar situation or now of one like this?

From what I understand is that you cannot leave for more than a year and you have to prove intention to actually live in the US. Other than what we say - ie, "we intende to live in the US shortly" - I am not sure how we can prove it.

Any recommendations?

Regards,

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

You never moved to the US and activated the visa? If you have not done that, you do not yet have a Greencard. Please explain the dates of visa issuance and all time spent in the US after that (if any).

[Penguin_ie 5,996]

When was the visa approved?

Have you travelled to the USA yet to activate your wife's greencard? If so, how long did you stay in the USA?

[Santos_Br 0]

Hi.. we were granted the entry visa/green card in Rio in August of 2011.

We traveled back to the US at the end of Dec/Jan and returned to Brazil in Jan. Therefore, we activated the green card. Only 2 weeks in the US.

The job that I had expected in the US fell through and my job here improved substantially.

We still will most likely move back to the US within the next 12 months, but right now we

are just planning on visiting family.

Love this forum.

Thanks,

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

The consulate has been vague because this determination will be up to CBP. A LPR is allowed up to one year of being outside of the US without abandoning residency, as long as they can show that the move was temporary. Your wife has been out for nearly a year, and she never established any residency in the US at all, she just activated the GC and left. Your wife is now using the GC as a tourist visa while living in Brazil. There is a good chance CBP will realize this and take the GC away, but you never know. They might understand that the plan is still to move to the US and giving up the GC just to apply for another one would be wasteful. Or, they might not understand that.

[Santos_Br 0]

Ok. If they take it away, would she be denied entrance to the US on the trip, or just lose the Green Card?

If the process were not so onerous, we would just turn in the Green card, get a tourist visa and go through

the process when we have more certainty. One would think that the 2 years they give you to establish residency

is for problems such as ours.

Anyone have this problem?

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

They don't give you 2 years to establish residency on a CR-1 visa. That used to be the case for a K-3 visa (the one you chose in your profile) but those have been unobtainable for many years. If your wife got her GC, then she doesn't have a K-3 visa. If you had a K-3, you could travel freely on the visa for 2 years, then once in the US for good you would need to apply for Adjustment of Status (pay $1070) and wait many months for the GC.

A K-3 would have been the perfect thing for you, but I don't think that is what you have (since they are mostly unavailable now). So what visa do you have?

[Santos_Br 0]

We have the CR-1.

It's not that we couldn't give it up and get a tourist visa, it's just that it is most likely that we will return and can't imagine having to go through the process again. Plus, I believe Brazil no longer does the DCF processing, which only took us about 3/4 months.

[benuk 18]

We have the CR-1.

It's not that we couldn't give it up and get a tourist visa, it's just that it is most likely that we will return and can't imagine having to go through the process again. Plus, I believe Brazil no longer does the DCF processing, which only took us about 3/4 months.

Hello there, I do believe that you will only find out the outcome once you travel to the US and face the CBP and just explain what exactly happened regarding your work prospect in the US etc...etc...!Boa sorte pra voces!

[Santos_Br 0]

Do you have any idea what type of questions they will ask? Are there any "trigger" questions/answers that would cause us problems?

Do you know of anyone who had trouble?

Unfortunately, we did very little to establish our ties to the US.

Thanks,