How many times can you obtain reentry permit?

K

ketanco

Banned
Hello,
How many times after getting green card, can you obtain reentry permit? Is there a limit? Assume that you are still coming and going to us in less than every 180 days but this situation is going on for years. But reentry permit is good for 2 years only. After two years, can you get another reentry permit and keep goig like this, so you at least keep your green card, even if the situation is risky for naturalization? When you do like this all the time, even if u have reentry permit, can they not let you in after so many times?
 
The reentry permit application asks how many years you spent out of the US.
You may get a second permit, but it may be limited to 1 year (then again, you may
be lucky and get 2 years).

There was a case when somebody had their green card taken away from them even though they had a reentry permit in hand. The court determined that they simply did not live in the US.

So basically, sooner or later you have do decide which country you want to live in and act on that decision. That's what I have just done.
 
sotiredofwaiting said:
The reentry permit application asks how many years you spent out of the US.
You may get a second permit, but it may be limited to 1 year (then again, you may
be lucky and get 2 years).

There was a case when somebody had their green card taken away from them even though they had a reentry permit in hand. The court determined that they simply did not live in the US.

So basically, sooner or later you have do decide which country you want to live in and act on that decision. That's what I have just done.
Click to expand...

So you are saying getting the reentry permit is limited to two?
 
ketanco said:
So you are saying getting the reentry permit is limited to two?
Click to expand...

There is no limit. As tired said, it is discretionary. I would say the discretion depends on the politics of the day. For example, they were giving ample H1s over the years, but last year there was heavy scrutiny of employers. Similarly, I heard anecdotal stories of people earlier getting permits without issues, but some restrictions imposed last year so that the permit is given only for 1 year. Of course, it could be statistical noise, but the sense I get is that the level of scrutiny can be dictated to the bureaucrats and this helps them control a whole lot of things. You never know what the situation will be 2 years down the line ... US might have come back to 5% unemployment and they might take it easy on everyone, or they might still be at 10% unemployment and going really hard on people "who don't belong here".

Of course, this is all very speculative. Apologize in advance if it offends your political sentiments.
 
There is a rule (it is in the I-131 instructions) that says if you have spent a total of more than 4 out of the past 5 years outside the US, the next reentry permit will be limited to 1 year.

But aside from that, they still have discretion to grant one year instead of two years for the second permit.
 
ketanco said:
So you are saying getting the reentry permit is limited to two?
Click to expand...
ketanco, I hope you realize that if you really need to know what the max limit of Re-Entry Permits is, you'll open yourself up for much more scrutiny in your future naturalization interview. The point of the natz residency requirements is to establish your ties to your new home country. Re-Entry Permits are merely an escape hatch, USCIS/congress realized that we future citizens have real lives that can force any of us to leave the US for an extended but limited amount of time to take care of urgent personal situations.
Eventually it comes down to the advice sotiredofwaiting gave below: any one of us need to decide in which country we want to live in and then stick with that decision.

(Obviously, I don't know you personally nor should I second guess your situation, maybe you're only curious and want to understand the deeper wrinkles of immigration procedures?)
 
Hi
I am trying to understand how the re-entry permit works.

I have my GC. Do I need a re-entry permit to travel overseas for 1 month over the Xmas holidays?? I thought I did not need anything to do some short time travel out of the US but the GC.

Sorry for the confusion.
 
Smirk said:
Hi
I am trying to understand how the re-entry permit works.

I have my GC. Do I need a re-entry permit to travel overseas for 1 month over the Xmas holidays?? I thought I did not need anything to do some short time travel out of the US but the GC.

Sorry for the confusion.
Click to expand...
You're good, pure vacation trips of just a couple of weeks have no impact and need no special permit. But don't be surprised to answer questions why you travelled at POE upon return, most IOs do that (even when I travel with my GC to Canada for a weekend of skiing).
Reentry Permits are only required if your stay outside of the US is longer than 1 year, see International Travel as a Permanent Resident. If you're interested in naturalization, you'd need additional forms to preserve your permanent residence, see N-470.
 
DavidSEA said:
You're good, pure vacation trips of just a couple of weeks have no impact and need no special permit. But don't be surprised to answer questions why you travelled at POE upon return, most IOs do that (even when I travel with my GC to Canada for a weekend of skiing).
Reentry Permits are only required if your stay outside of the US is longer than 1 year, see International Travel as a Permanent Resident. If you're interested in naturalization, you'd need additional forms to preserve your permanent residence, see N-470.
Click to expand...

Thanks DavidSEA for making it clear. :)

Merry Christmas by the way.
 
I want more details about the case where the court took the alien green card with a reentry permit in hand. Was the alien filling taxes?????
 
GCman2005 said:
I want more details about the case where the court took the alien green card with a reentry permit in hand. Was the alien filling taxes?????
Click to expand...

http://www.visalaw.com/print/5jun403.html (scroll down to the second half of the page for the summary quoted below)
Zeba Moin, a native and citizen of Pakistan, was admitted into the United States as the unmarried daughter of a Legal Permanent Resident (LPR). Two months later, she left the U.S. to return to Pakistan. For the next four and a half years, Moin made several trips between Pakistan and the U.S. Her total stay in the U.S. was about six months. In 1996, she returned to the U.S., presenting her permanent resident card and Pakistani passport to immigration officials. She was referred to secondary inspection to process her son for admission. The secondary officer deferred her inspection to the INS District Office in Houston because of the amount of time she had spent outside of the U.S. An INS inspector determined that Moin had abandoned her LPR status and was therefore inadmissible to the U.S. An immigration judge agreed with the INS inspector and ordered Moin and her son to be excluded and deported from the U.S., and the BIA affirmed the opinion of the immigration judge.
...
The court responded that first, “ ‘temporary visits’ are not defined in terms of elapsed time alone.” Also, having a reentry permit does not guarantee that an alien will be found admissible upon seeking return to the U.S. The Saxbe case involved alien commuters who lived abroad but returned to the U.S. for work either on a daily or seasonal basis. “Alien commuters have established business affiliations in the United States that demonstrate their ‘intent to return…within a relatively short period.” Moin did not have such business affiliations.
...
Moin also had a husband and child living in Pakistan and while she owned property in Pakistan, she did not own any property in the U.S.
Click to expand...
Full court decision is at http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/5th/0260449p.pdf
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top