Retention of green card when taking job abroad

[pyridine 12]

I'm an American citizen and my husband is from Hungary. We were living together in Denmark for over 5 years and came to the US about a year ago since I had a job offer with relocation. We went through the laborious and expensive process of getting him the CR-1 visa (used direct consular filing with exceptional circumstances, so filing the I-130 was very fast) and he is a conditional green card holder now in the US.

 

We both have PhDs and he has had a lot of trouble finding a job in our area. While there are probably other issues here with his ability to expand his job search to areas outside of his niche field successfully, and the job search was interrupted by having a baby, we've been here for 10 months and he still has nothing. He is depressed and has practically given up on finding a job here and has started applying to things worldwide in his niche area - these jobs are few and far between and scattered on distant parts of the globe.

 

He is now in the early stages of interviewing for a position in Glasgow, Scotland. I'm not keen on following him (and frankly think this entire situation is terrible...I worked my ### off to get him over here) and I've barely been in my position for a year. But feel I may have to at some point, but these are all things to work out. My question is how likely it is to retain is LPR status? Should he apply for a reentry permit before he leaves? Is establishing residency in the UK disqualifying for LPR if anyone finds out? He obviously will need to establish residency there to have health care etc. But can he maintain dual residency in the US?

 

There are two scenarios:

1. I stay in the US with our daughter and he works abroad until he (hopefully) finds a position in the US again. In this case he will still be on our apartment lease, car title, will be maintaining his drivers license, everything.

2. We follow him abroad, in which case most things in the US establishing ties will have to disappear (would a reentry permit still work for this case? I know this would make it easier to redo getting a CR-1 visa since we could do DCF again, but the cost of all the application fees and medical exam is far from negligible).

 

Thanks for any guidance!

 

 

[dwheels76 5,468]

7 minutes ago, pyridine said:

I'm an American citizen and my husband is from Hungary. We were living together in Denmark for over 5 years and came to the US about a year ago since I had a job offer with relocation. We went through the laborious and expensive process of getting him the CR-1 visa (used direct consular filing with exceptional circumstances, so filing the I-130 was very fast) and he is a conditional green card holder now in the US.

 

We both have PhDs and he has had a lot of trouble finding a job in our area. While there are probably other issues here with his ability to expand his job search to areas outside of his niche field successfully, and the job search was interrupted by having a baby, we've been here for 10 months and he still has nothing. He is depressed and has practically given up on finding a job here and has started applying to things worldwide in his niche area - these jobs are few and far between and scattered on distant parts of the globe.

 

He is now in the early stages of interviewing for a position in Glasgow, Scotland. I'm not keen on following him (and frankly think this entire situation is terrible...I worked my ### off to get him over here) and I've barely been in my position for a year. But feel I may have to at some point, but these are all things to work out. My question is how likely it is to retain is LPR status? Should he apply for a reentry permit before he leaves? Is establishing residency in the UK disqualifying for LPR if anyone finds out? He obviously will need to establish residency there to have health care etc. But can he maintain dual residency in the US?

 

There are two scenarios:

1. I stay in the US with our daughter and he works abroad until he (hopefully) finds a position in the US again. In this case he will still be on our apartment lease, car title, will be maintaining his drivers license, everything.

2. We follow him abroad, in which case most things in the US establishing ties will have to disappear (would a reentry permit still work for this case? I know this would make it easier to redo getting a CR-1 visa since we could do DCF again, but the cost of all the application fees and medical exam is far from negligible).

 

Thanks for any guidance!

 

 

I noticed you didn't mention filing for Removal of Conditions. You did file for his Removal of Conditions between May 2018 and his green card expiring in August?

 

[millefleur 5,046]

Him taking a full-time job in another country? Assuming this job requires him to live in Scotland, he has almost no chance of retaining LPR status. The entire point of LPR status is to live permanently the United States, regardless of being married to a USC or not.

 

Also, CR-1 visa you say? That means you have to remove conditions on the GC. It will be extremely difficult to do that down the road if he is physically living in another country.

 

As far as I know, there's no such thing as "dual residency" when it comes to US green cards. Dual citizenship, sure. Dual residency? I doubt it.

[EM_Vandaveer 2,408]

8 minutes ago, dwheels76 said:

I noticed you didn't mention filing for Removal of Conditions. You did file for his Removal of Conditions between May 2018 and his green card expiring in August?

 

According to their incomplete timeline POE was sometime in 2018 so they nowhere near ROC time yet.

[thatguyuknow 147]

This might be personal and I’m sorry in advance.

 

If he’s never worked in the US in any job that’s going to definitely take a tole on him mentally. I understand the amount of work he must’ve put in to get his PhD, but sometimes you’ve gotta start at the bottom. If he’s never worked maybe you could steer him to try a lesser position for a while and see how he feels? Especially with all the complications of starting a new family. 

 

I hope you work this all out

[Boiler 45,486]

He has a PHD so I assume he can easily work out the consequences, I can understand his situation, BREXIT may make that one more complicated and he he is right at the beginning.

 

He would basically relinquish his GC, I 407 and then if st some point you wanted to come back would start again.

 

 

[aaron2020 11,651]

1 hour ago, pyridine said:

I'm an American citizen and my husband is from Hungary. We were living together in Denmark for over 5 years and came to the US about a year ago since I had a job offer with relocation. We went through the laborious and expensive process of getting him the CR-1 visa (used direct consular filing with exceptional circumstances, so filing the I-130 was very fast) and he is a conditional green card holder now in the US.

 

We both have PhDs and he has had a lot of trouble finding a job in our area. While there are probably other issues here with his ability to expand his job search to areas outside of his niche field successfully, and the job search was interrupted by having a baby, we've been here for 10 months and he still has nothing. He is depressed and has practically given up on finding a job here and has started applying to things worldwide in his niche area - these jobs are few and far between and scattered on distant parts of the globe.

 

He is now in the early stages of interviewing for a position in Glasgow, Scotland. I'm not keen on following him (and frankly think this entire situation is terrible...I worked my ### off to get him over here) and I've barely been in my position for a year. But feel I may have to at some point, but these are all things to work out. My question is how likely it is to retain is LPR status? Not likely.  Should he apply for a reentry permit before he leaves? Yes if he wants to maintain his LPR status.  Is establishing residency in the UK disqualifying for LPR if anyone finds out? Claiming foreign residency would be a failure to maintain his LPR status.  He obviously will need to establish residency there to have health care etc. But can he maintain dual residency in the US?  No. An LPR must make the US his resident.  

 

There are two scenarios:

1. I stay in the US with our daughter and he works abroad until he (hopefully) finds a position in the US again. In this case he will still be on our apartment lease, car title, will be maintaining his drivers license, everything.  He would need a Re-Entry Permit.  

2. We follow him abroad, in which case most things in the US establishing ties will have to disappear (would a reentry permit still work for this case? I know this would make it easier to redo getting a CR-1 visa since we could do DCF again, but the cost of all the application fees and medical exam is far from negligible).  With a Re-Entry Permit, only time outside the US is not counted against him.  He must maintain ties. 

 

Thanks for any guidance!

 

 

Sorry that you are in this situation.

Here's the problem with having a niche Ph.D.  There are only so many places where he can find work.   He will need to choose between the work he wants and the green card.   

[thatguyuknow 147]

2 minutes ago, Boiler said:

BREXIT may make that one more complicated and he he is right at the beginning.

 

I wouldn’t worry about that lol. I’d put everything I own on it not happening. Plus they’ve already said they’d guarantee the right of EU citizens if the enter before the 29th of March 

[carmel34 3,626]

Tough situation that you face,  I feel for you OP and sincerely hope that it works out for both of you in time.  He's only at the early stages of interviewing for a job in the UK--no job offer yet so no decision needs to be made as he may not get the job.  Have you discussed relocating to a larger city/metro area in the US that would offer more opportunities for work for both of you?  If you are both looking for university/college faculty jobs, more and more search committees and department chairs and deans (my current role) are okay with and even encourage married couples to apply for two positions at the same university.  Or if one of you can find a job in a big city with lots of universities like Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or San Francisco, you can move there together and then the other will be more likely to find something, at least adjunct (part-time) teaching, or even a post-doc position.  It depends on how much you want to stay together vs the green card issue.  I totally understand the challenge of finding a job in a niche area--if it is a university faculty position he's looking for, it is truly a world-wide market and positions can be competitive and hard to find.  If your field is one in which jobs are more plentiful than in his area, maybe it makes sense to go where he can find a job, then you look for something in that city or region.  I recently hired a new faculty member who had been working in New York and her husband is here in the San Francisco area.  They had been living apart for more than a year and then she finally found a job here so they will be together in August when she moves here.  You knew about his niche area before you got married, so the challenges of him finding a suitable position should be something you understand and can empathize with.  Thankfully you have been together for most of your relationship so far, unlike many of us who have had months or years of separation while waiting for the long immigration process for our spouses to end.  This is a tricky situation, as it is for many dual-career couples, and I wish you all the best!

Edited January 18, 2019 by carmel34
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[pyridine 12]

3 hours ago, dwheels76 said:

I noticed you didn't mention filing for Removal of Conditions. You did file for his Removal of Conditions between May 2018 and his green card expiring in August?

 

We would have only filed for removal of conditions 2 years from his entry at end of March 2019, since he came on CR-1 (we weren't quite married for 2 years yet when getting the visa). My concern at this point was only keeping things as open as possible with retaining the green card, knowing also how difficult this would be.

[pyridine 12]

3 hours ago, millefleur said:

Him taking a full-time job in another country? Assuming this job requires him to live in Scotland, he has almost no chance of retaining LPR status. The entire point of LPR status is to live permanently the United States, regardless of being married to a USC or not.

 

Also, CR-1 visa you say? That means you have to remove conditions on the GC. It will be extremely difficult to do that down the road if he is physically living in another country.

 

As far as I know, there's no such thing as "dual residency" when it comes to US green cards. Dual citizenship, sure. Dual residency? I doubt it.

I knew someone in Denmark who had a US green card and was living permanently in Denmark and jumping through hoops coming back every 6 months in an attempt to keep it. His American wife wasn't living in the US either. He managed this for quite a few years before giving up. And of course he was a Danish resident...in the EU you can't really work there without holding residency. So I figured something might be possible if he maintained ties (especially if I stayed here and kept him on everything and he visited frequently), at least for a year or so...maybe? 

 

The concept of residency in the US seems distinct from the more fundamental concept of residency in the EU. In the US, it's just maintaining certain ties - no one really knows where you are.

 

We will be up for removing conditions next year, I guess you're right that this could be a complication if he's abroad. The green card has to be either relinquished or taken away from you at the border however, so if he does manage to play the game of trying to keep it, maybe it's possible? 

[pyridine 12]

2 hours ago, thatguyuknow said:

This might be personal and I’m sorry in advance.

 

If he’s never worked in the US in any job that’s going to definitely take a tole on him mentally. I understand the amount of work he must’ve put in to get his PhD, but sometimes you’ve gotta start at the bottom. If he’s never worked maybe you could steer him to try a lesser position for a while and see how he feels? Especially with all the complications of starting a new family. 

 

I hope you work this all out

Oh trust me I know...if I hadn't already exhausted this with him to death I wouldn't be asking here about this. It's apparently more important to him than I understood that he work in exactly this thing. He's had interviews for tangential industry roles where he at least has some core qualifications and after a few interviews with those (2 big on-site ones) that resulted in rejections, he feels he's exhausted these too and stands no chance. I search for jobs for him daily and have to admit we're kinda running out of companies. He's unwilling to go back to really basic stuff.

[Boiler 45,486]

I am sure you can fudge it for a while, how long is impossible to say.

[pyridine 12]

2 hours ago, aaron2020 said:

Sorry that you are in this situation.

Here's the problem with having a niche Ph.D.  There are only so many places where he can find work.   He will need to choose between the work he wants and the green card.   

So reentry permit...would this be a valid use of it, if he intends to come back? I feel like that's the only real shot at preserving LPR. 

 

Can he be both a US resident and a foreign one? My understanding is you either relinquish your green card or you have it taken from you when trying to re-enter the US. How would the US know about his UK residency? Responded to someone else about a green card holding Dane I knew in Denmark (definitely resident) who managed to keep it for years before giving up the charade. If I'm still here and he keeps all his ties here except his (presumably temporary) employment and visits a lot, it would be an easier thing than what that guy was doing anyway.

 

But yeah I understand the choice here. Just trying to probe what's possible (in another subforum was being told we couldn't do DCF so I don't necessarily believe everything I'm told).

[pyridine 12]

2 hours ago, thatguyuknow said:

 

I wouldn’t worry about that lol. I’d put everything I own on it not happening. Plus they’ve already said they’d guarantee the right of EU citizens if the enter before the 29th of March 

Still too early to worry much, he only just got through a recruiter screen today. We're keeping an eye on Brexit, but these jobs would sponsor...the main issue is whether there is even a system in place to sponsor in a couple months, should that be necessary. But yeah last of concerns at the moment.