Regaining greencard after losing it

[Dutchiee 0]

Hello,

My husband and I got married last year, and in May this year I received my greencard. But plans have changed, and we are now thinking of moving to Holland, where I'm from. This means I'm going to lose my greencard. Now I was wondering, if Holland wouldn't work out for us and we would like to move back to the States, can I apply for a greencard again? I did some research but couldn't really find an answer, so hopefully somebody here can tell me.

Thanks!

[JohnR! 5,495]

Yes you can. So long as you stay married to a USC, he can always petition for you as the beneficiary. The process you will need to go through is CR/IR which takes approximately a year.

There may another alternative. Read the information in the link below and see if might apply to your case.

http://www.uscis.gov/green-card/after-green-card-granted/international-travel-permanent-resident

Good luck!

Edited November 19, 2014 by JohnR!

[Penguin_ie 5,994]

Yes absolutely. You'd need to go through the waiting again, and pay the fees again, but you can apply as many times as you want.

[Kajikit 65]

If you're voluntarily leaving the country, you're surrendering your greencard, not 'losing it' (which implies having it taken away). You can always apply again, but you go back to the beginning of the line and have to do all the bureaucracy all over again. If it was me, I wouldn't want to leave before I had citizenship since I'd come that far through the process already... but that was my personal choice. You're free to surrender your greencard and reapply later.

[JimmyHou 611]

If you think that you may move back to the US in the near term, you may want to consider applying for a reentry permit. That way you won't lose your green card (for a limited time) but your time abroad won't count towards the time needed to become a citizen. http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/B5en.pdf

If you decide to relinquish your green card, then you should formally abandon it.

Your green card won't officially be taken from you unless you return to the US and they decide that you've been gone too long... so if you just leave without abandoning your green card, you get into the tricky situation of not being able to apply for a new one (because you already have one) but also not being sure if the one you have is still valid after a year or two abroad.

Applying for a future visa for work or education would also first require you to officially abandon your permanent resident status.

If you do formally abandon your green card, as others have said, you can start the process over and get a new one.

Here's some more information on this, but note that it's from a legal advice website and not from USCIS: http://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/us-immigration/why-voluntarily-abandon-green-card-i-407.html

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

The reentry permit only prevents a Green Card holder from losing her residency automatically when being out of the country for a year or longer. Once she returns, she'll have to prove that she did not abandon her US residency. However, the US residency is automatically abandoned when a Green Card holder establishes or re-establishes residency outside the US. If Dutchiee moves back the Holland she'll establish residency there. That would be the end of it, reentry permit or not.

Dutchiee, unless you absolutley have to, I suggest you ride the train for 3 years until you can become a US citizen. At that time you can come and go as you please.