Hello all! First time poster.
A friend of mine was born in Scandinavia, but his family moved to the US when he was about 7 years old. He's in his mid-20's now. From 2001 until October 2014, he lived in the US. His family moved to the US because his father got a job there so the whole family was there on a visa. In 2008, they got their GC.
In October 2014, he returned to Scandinavia for medical reasons (free healthcare). Not knowing how long he would be gone, and also because he didn't know about it, he didn't apply for a re-entry permit. It's now been a little over two years and he is more than ready to come home.
What he needs advice on is the following:
Last May, he went to the US to visit his family, friends, and fiancée. He applied for an ESTA because the ticket cost him a lot of money and he didn't want to risk being turned away at PoE. He spent three months in the US and came back to Scandinavia. What he would like to know is, if in getting an ESTA when he visited last summer, he screwed any chance of using his GC to get back in this time.
He's aware that at this point, it's considered abandonment, so that point need not be made. However, he's also read mixed reviews on this forum. He's read about people who were questioned at PoE and given a warning, some who were simply let through, and others who were asked to sign a form (I-407 ?) in order to relinquish their GC. Not signing that form will get you a summons in front of an immigration judge who will then determine one's fate.
My friend thinks he could make a good case to a judge, should he end up in front of one, that his extended stay was medical in nature and that he therefore had no way of knowing how long it would take. That and the fact that he has spent the majority of his life in the US (13 years), has family there, friends, and a fiancée.
So my question is, does my friend have any chance at all at coming home?
Additional information: His passport expired while getting treatment, so he had to get a new one in order to visit his fiancée, family, friends last summer. The new passport has a Scandinavian address in it and a stamp with a "date in/date must be out by" from his last visit back home. Would getting a new passport reduce the amount of questions at PoE and increase likelihood of a warning, or would that just exacerbate things?
Also, while visiting last summer, he worked for a family friend in order to have some spending cash while visiting. This family friend is very above the table about everything and required SSN in order to gain employment. Because his family had moved to a new address five minutes down the road from their previous one while he was getting treatment, and not being able to find his SS card in any moving boxes, he decided to apply for a new one. He went to a government office, filled out all the paper work, used his GC as a form of ID, and wrote down his old SSN which he had committed to memory on the form. A few weeks later, a new SS card came in the mail with the same SSN on it. Does that bode well or is that inconsequential?
Thank you for any help.
A friend of mine was born in Scandinavia, but his family moved to the US when he was about 7 years old. He's in his mid-20's now. From 2001 until October 2014, he lived in the US. His family moved to the US because his father got a job there so the whole family was there on a visa. In 2008, they got their GC.
In October 2014, he returned to Scandinavia for medical reasons (free healthcare). Not knowing how long he would be gone, and also because he didn't know about it, he didn't apply for a re-entry permit. It's now been a little over two years and he is more than ready to come home.
What he needs advice on is the following:
Last May, he went to the US to visit his family, friends, and fiancée. He applied for an ESTA because the ticket cost him a lot of money and he didn't want to risk being turned away at PoE. He spent three months in the US and came back to Scandinavia. What he would like to know is, if in getting an ESTA when he visited last summer, he screwed any chance of using his GC to get back in this time.
He's aware that at this point, it's considered abandonment, so that point need not be made. However, he's also read mixed reviews on this forum. He's read about people who were questioned at PoE and given a warning, some who were simply let through, and others who were asked to sign a form (I-407 ?) in order to relinquish their GC. Not signing that form will get you a summons in front of an immigration judge who will then determine one's fate.
My friend thinks he could make a good case to a judge, should he end up in front of one, that his extended stay was medical in nature and that he therefore had no way of knowing how long it would take. That and the fact that he has spent the majority of his life in the US (13 years), has family there, friends, and a fiancée.
So my question is, does my friend have any chance at all at coming home?
Additional information: His passport expired while getting treatment, so he had to get a new one in order to visit his fiancée, family, friends last summer. The new passport has a Scandinavian address in it and a stamp with a "date in/date must be out by" from his last visit back home. Would getting a new passport reduce the amount of questions at PoE and increase likelihood of a warning, or would that just exacerbate things?
Also, while visiting last summer, he worked for a family friend in order to have some spending cash while visiting. This family friend is very above the table about everything and required SSN in order to gain employment. Because his family had moved to a new address five minutes down the road from their previous one while he was getting treatment, and not being able to find his SS card in any moving boxes, he decided to apply for a new one. He went to a government office, filled out all the paper work, used his GC as a form of ID, and wrote down his old SSN which he had committed to memory on the form. A few weeks later, a new SS card came in the mail with the same SSN on it. Does that bode well or is that inconsequential?
Thank you for any help.