Green Card status living outside US

[krk17]

After being in the US for a little over 5 years with a GC (8 total), I returned to Canada due to a family emergency. I am currently looking at potentially working in the US and commuting from Canada. I have been in Canada for a little more than a year, and I am looking at remaining in Canada and commuting across the border. Due to the family emergency, I was unable to file for citizenship before returning to Canada.

One option is to turn in the GC and apply for a TN visa - since the position is eligible for one. This is probably the simplest route to take right now. Besides abondoning the GC status (which may have already occurred), does anyone know of any potential problems this could cause?

Another option is to convert to commuter status. This aritcle :
http://www.centa.com/articles/alien_commuters.htm

indicates there may be exceptions being out of the US beyond 6 months. Does anyone have experience with this? How long does it take to change the status given that you have to have a job in the US first? The people I spoke to in the CIS office said this process takes up to 6 months or more and I would not be eligible to commute across the border for employment purposes until this completes.

Finally, two people - 1 person I spoke to on the phone from the Consulate in Montreal and a separate CIS officer I spoke with from one of the bridges stated that the family emergency would allow me to apply for citizenship even though I am not currently living in the US (my children are American citizens). They said a letter explaining the emergency (i.e. why I left the US) would need to accompany the citizenship application. This said with this letter, along with proof that I was employed fulfilled the 5 year residency requirement would allow the CIS to take this "into consideration".

If anyone has experience with any of the above options I would be interested in hearing what you had to go through to have the case process.

Thanks.

[curiousGeorge]

Originally Posted by krk17

One option is to turn in the GC and apply for a TN visa - since the position is eligible for one. This is probably the simplest route to take right now.

You can try, but you have a very high chance of being denied TN status since you've already shown immigrant intent in the past. although you have nothing to lose. If you are denied, you can still try exploring one of the other options you mentioned.

[krk17]

Thanks for your response.

After reading some of the other threads in this list it appears that after being out of the US for over a year I have abandoned PR status, and furthermore if I am planning on working in the US and living in Canada, the only option at this point may be to apply for a TN visa.

It appears that any attempt to restore PR status could take months, and is not at all guaranteed to succeed.

Do I have to turn in the green card, or is it enough that once being out of the US for a certain period of time the status is considered abandoned - provided I don't try (which I wouldn't anyway) to use the card to re-enter the US again? If the TN is denied for this reason (i.e. seeing there is already immigrant intent in the past), is there anything that can be done? What type of information would I need up front to prevent a TN application from being denied for this reason in the first place?

Thanks!!

[rajmash]

my 2 cents..

from what u have wrote - you wanted to work in US and live in canada and commute!!

Instead of you deciding if u have lost ur GC or NOT! why dont you go to border and tell them the truth
scenaro 1: if u tell them u have lived more than one year outside then the will take away ur GC.

scenario2: if u tell them u r planning to wrok in US or for some reason- they might just allow u back in US.

both scenarios are ok for you...
since you can apply for renentry permit while in US - tell the truth you would want to live in canada!

and keep applying reentry permit untill you want to move back to US or they deny you telling its too many times or untll you get a US citizenship

again u can tell the truth everywhere - since either outcome is ok for you

if they take away GC - then you can still apply for TN ! (or there is no difference whether u voluntarily give ur GC vs they take away ur GC)