Permanent resident, just got divorced after 1 year of marriage and am moving back to Germany. Do I need to notify USCIS or take any additional steps?

[kmoves 0]

My green card is valid for about one more year, but I am moving back to Germany tomorrow and got divorced last week. Are there any steps I need to take as not to screw up any future possibilities of coming back?  I'm scared of messing things with USCIS up. We signed the papers last Thursday, and I had called them before, but nobody on the hotline could help me.

Also, my wife and I are separating on good terms, we don't want to split, but we have to because of reasons beyond our control. We want to keep the possibility open to get back together sometime in the future, be it in the US or Germany. Could I keep my permanent residency and potentially come back in, lets say, half a year and get remarried or would we have to start the whole process from scratch?

[Roel 7,192]

1. If you plan on pernamently living in Germany then you should go to the US embassy and give away your green card. 

2. If you want to keep your green card then I suggest file for reentry permit. So you don't loose it by abandoning US residency. 

3. You still need to file for RoC or your green card status will be considered abandoned also. I'm not sure they will grant you ROC thought if they see that you're not living in the US. (I assume you have 2 year conditional card). 

[Boiler 45,729]

File the I 407 and take it as it comes.

[AdilB 15]

13 minutes ago, kmoves said:

My green card is valid for about one more year, but I am moving back to Germany tomorrow and got divorced last week. Are there any steps I need to take as not to screw up any future possibilities of coming back?  I'm scared of messing things with USCIS up. We signed the papers last Thursday, and I had called them before, but nobody on the hotline could help me.

Also, my wife and I are separating on good terms, we don't want to split, but we have to because of reasons beyond our control. We want to keep the possibility open to get back together sometime in the future, be it in the US or Germany. Could I keep my permanent residency and potentially come back in, lets say, half a year and get remarried or would we have to start the whole process from scratch?

You must not be out of the country more than six months at a time to maintain the residency status. If you are in good terms with your ex, remain with her as you await your Citizenship, and that should not stop you from traveling to Germany. Otherwise, just lose your Green Card altogether. Good Luck.

Edited March 19, 2018 by AdilB

[little immigrant 801]

If you consider US citizenship remember to file for Beibehaltung 

 

Make a decision regarding your GC now and file either i-131 or i-407. Good luck 

[kmoves 0]

It is completely out of the question for me to stay here, due to reasons that are beyond our control, as I said. If I go back home and keep my greencard for 6 more months, will that cause me any problems? Can I just let it run out and abandon my permanent residency without running into any problems that way?

Another thing is that my in-laws are feeling very negative towards me, to put it nicely. Is there anything they could do to potentially mess with my chances for coming back? They signed my affidavit of support.

Edited March 19, 2018 by kmoves

[Roel 7,192]

No they cannot. If you don't need your green card just file some paperwork and officially give it away. Sure you can keep it for 6 more months and then what? Going back to the US for short time then back to Germany? You won't keep your residency by using your green card as a torusit visa. 

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

1 hour ago, AdilB said:

You must not be out of the country more than six months at a time to maintain the residency status. 

Wrong. It’s 12 months.

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

59 minutes ago, kmoves said:

It is completely out of the question for me to stay here, due to reasons that are beyond our control, as I said. If I go back home and keep my greencard for 6 more months, will that cause me any problems? Can I just let it run out and abandon my permanent residency without running into any problems that way?

 

You need to officially give up permanent residency to get yourself off the hook of having to file tax returns with the irs every year. 

 

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

I assume that you have a conditional (2-year) Green Card. The condition is that you stay married to the petitioning US citizen spouse and live with her in marital bliss under one roof. Once you got divorced, the condition of your conditional Green Card no longer exists, and you'll have to file for Removal of Conditions right away,  no matter the expiration date on your Green Card. So it's a "whatever comes first" scenario.

 

In addition, once you establish, or re-establish, residency outside the United States, your Green Card also becomes invalid after the fact. So if you move back to Germany, have a residency (Wohnung + Meldebescheinigung) there, you are reestablishing residency outside the US.

 

Of course, you could just "visit" Germany, and when you return within 6 months or so, you *may* slide through the cracks and be "admitted again." It's just that when the CBP officer ask you what you've been doing there for so long, and how you could afford a vacation without having to work, you'd need a pretty good answer. If you work in Germany, you'd be doing it as a resident (a Kraut can't get a work visa for Germany), and you also would have to declare that income on your federal US income tax return. That would basically document that you voluntarily abandoned your US residency.

 

But all of this is secondary. If you wish to continue to live in the United States, you need to file the I-751 now. If you want to move back to Germany, none of this matters.