US Immigration from Germany

Hi,

I (Philippine citizen)obtained a green card but left US since July 24, 2022 because my husband (US and German citizen) decided to settle back in his country and I also found work.

Since a year has already passed, I believe GC is considered abandoned.

My husband and I want to visit (for leisure) US on January 2024. I still have the GC with me and it will expire May 4 2024. My questions is, what is the best route to take?

1. Formally surrender my GC by mail to USCIS mailbox and apply for tourist visa as soon as I get an official confirmation of the abandonment? But the processing time here will play a big role because I have read experiences where it has been 3 months and they have not yet heard anything from USCIS. THe problem here, is I might not be able to apply for a tourist visa on time if I don't have the confirmation since I will still be considered as LPR in their system.

2. Travel with my GC and at the CBP, submit my green card along with the i407 and request for Form I-193 Application for Waiver of Passport and/or Visa to re-enter US for my desired travel. Con here is I am not sure if they will grant me re-entry just on that basis of 407 + 193. Although here in this article https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-3671?language=en_US, its pretty straightforward.

Has anybody tried to enter US by doing the option number 2 above?

Your experience and tips would be very much appreciated!

On 2/9/2022 at 5:40 AM, Greencardchicago said:

I am from the Balkan, they do require 2 police documents (criminal and penal background). That's what I got and We'll see, I am still waiting for an update.

Hello,

We just got an update for one of our documents that it was rejected, I was wondering if you know the specific name for the document that we need to obtain. It says for Bosnia "Both the Policijsko Uvjerenje o nekaznjavanju and Opstinski Sud are required for immigrant visa purposes.", we submitted the

Police Certificate "Policijsko Uvjerenje o nekaznjavanju" issued by the Ministry of Interior and that was accepted, but the other document that we also submitted under Police Certificate from the Minicipal Court (Opstinski Sud) was rejected. So I was wondering what second document you uploaded from the court if you know the name for it in Bosnian? Because apparently we did not receive the correct document from the Minicipal Court.

Hi there,

I'm hoping someone here will have dealt with the same...

To give some background:

- Received EAD mid-February 2022 with an expiration date of 02/15/2024

- Applied for a Hawaiian driver's licence in March 2022 after as I was approaching a full year in the US at that point and I wouldn't have been able to legally drive on my German licence for much longer (HI gives you a year essentially) - expiration date of limited-term licence is therefore the expiration of my EAD 02/15/2024

- Received conditional GC mid-April 2022 with an expiration date of 04/18/2024

So to summarise, I'm a Hawaii resident & conditional LPR. HI allows you to renew your DL 6 months prior to expiration. As we will be moving states literally the week after my DL is set to expire in February 2024 I wanted to get ahead of this to ensure there will be no lapse in validity (so I can do an out of state transfer at our new location eventually).

This morning the HI DMV turned me away because whenever they run the Save Check (or whatever it is called on the DMV side of things) it only pulls up the expiration date of my EAD (02/15/2023). Nothing about the April expiry of my conditional GC according to them. They told me to contact USCIS/DHS to get my info corrected and to get lost essentially.

Went back to the car and spent almost two hours on the phone to USCIS (who confirmed my info is all correct on their end based on my A number) and gave me another number of someone dealing with SAVE/e-Verify to follow up. This next guy told me it's on the requesting agency (HI DMV) to initiate a 2nd level verification and that there is nothing that I can do as a person to fix this.

Went back to the DMV and told them what both USCIS and the SAVE/e-Verify guy had told me. Even got the supervisor involved, who ended up on the phone to someone for a good 20 minutes trying to figure this out, but in the end we were just going around in circles. On the Save Check website I can see that the case was immediately returned to the DMV here so supposedly they cannot initiate a 2nd level verification of my info. They told me I need to fix this. The people on the phone specifically told me I CANNOT fix this myself.

So here I am. Lost, confused and frankly kinda annoyed. How can I get in touch with someone who can help me figure out what's wrong with my records and help me fix it?! Has anyone of you ever dealt with this by any chance?

Got my green card on Christmas of last year.
My husband works in Europe supporting DOD.
His contract might end may 2024 or might extend for a few more years.
In order to keep my gc while we wait to find out and living in Europe I applied for Reentry permit in may 2023. Got biometrics taken for the first time ever in June 2023.

It s now October and my case status hasn t changed from fingerprints were taken

Every google search result says something wildly different regarding the processing time. I have yet to find two sources that say the same thing. So I figured I d ask on here.
Maybe someone on here has gone through the same process before. How long does this take in your experience?
I am planning to apply for citizenship but I can t do it just yet. I ll have to wait until may. If we stay I can apply but if we come back to America I ll have to wait.
thanks in advance for any insight.

Hello everyone, my husband and I just got married in the US and I got back to my home country in Germany. We are now planning to apply for the CR1 visa, but I have so many questions.

First of all, we chose that I will change my last name to my husband's, which is also stated in our marriage certificate. In order to change my name in Germany I have to request a change of my last name which is apparently only possible if my husband will come with me to the german offices to sign the documents. But since he is still in the US, I was wondering what to do. Should we use my old name for the application, since my maiden name is still on my passport, etc. And if so, is there any chance to get my name changed while the process is ongoing or is it just gonna cause confusion, I heard the name on my Greencard has to be the same name as on my passport. So just stick with my last name for now?

I am avoiding to wait for husband to visit me in Germany to change my last name with him because this might take another few months and we wanted to start applying asap.

Or do I have to change my last name first because it is on the marriage certificate?

I really appreciate your time and hope you can help me!