Anyone stayed > 6 months and returned without REP

I

I140helppls

Registered Users (C)
Has anyone stayed outside of the US for more than 6 months while on GC and returned back to US without having applied for a re-entry permit.
 
re:

My lawyer has been saying that it is 6 months, so i am a little confused. Even the form says 'apply for it only if you are going to be away for more than 1 year'. It would be nice to know if there are people who have been able to use GC to return for trips abroad for more than 6 months.
 
Visits under 6 months --> no problem.
Visit between 6 and 12 months --> USCIS has the burden of proof if they accuse the GC holder of having abandoned their status
Visits over 12 months --> Burden of proof on the GC holder to prove that his/her GC status is still intact


I140helppls said:
My lawyer has been saying that it is 6 months, so i am a little confused.
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I was out for almost 6 months (like one week less) and the immigration guy asked me for REP. I had it.

I agree $385 is quite a lot of money, plus you have to waste time going for the fingerprinting,
but my advice would be to just get one so you don't have to worry about what may happen when
you reenter the country.
 
I was in India for almost 7 months and didn't have REP. The guy at EWR didn't ask me a single question. If the trip outside USA is less than an year and if it's a first long trip outside, I believe it should be ok to travel without REP.
 
re:

The problem i have is that i am currently in India,i had left in Feb, so i would need to make a special trip back with family to get the REP done. Seems like that is the way to go if i want to avoid any hassles when i actually return back (in about 10 months)
 
If you are returning back in 10 months, you don't have to have an REP. You need it when you are away for more than an year. It's clearly mentioned on http://www.welcometousa.gov/ (welcometousadotgov). I don't know why people have this misconception that they need an REP for a trip longer than 6months. When I came back after 7 months, an elderly lady sitting next to me on a plane told me matter-of-factly that my green card would be revoked as soon as I would land and they would stamp tourist visa on my passport. Nothing of that sort happened. I was only told 'Welcome back'.
 
re:

Based on my research it does seem like that 6 months is the timelimit that is more commonly used for REP. I had a couple of people mention it in the forums, the 1 year is mentioned clearly on the form but i am not sure is widely popular. The big question for me is - whether i am willing to take the anxious route, my first gut is probably no and i might be back in US before 6 months to apply for the REP. what do you guys say"?
 
If you can afford to (both time and money-wise) bring everyone here and apply, then go for it. It's definitely proof of your intent to retain permanent residency. Just remember that you'll have to wait for the biometrics appointment letter and go for that BEFORE you return to India.
 
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Don't forget that although 6+ months but <1 year doesn't require a reentry permit, a trip of 6+ months puts you in the category of "seeking admission", which opens you up to additional scrutiny and provides additional opportunities for refusing you entry. So if you're traveling for more than 6 months, it helps to have every little bit of extra evidence to support your position.
 
And if you stay more than 6 months you need to prove the residency status in US while applying for N400. That might be the reason for the lawyer's comment.
 
re:

I am not so concerned about citizenship since i will eventually get it. What i am not looking forward to is returning after more than 6 months and being questioned for the validity of my GC. The lawyer did mention 6 months as for GC also, and my company lawyer said that it is 1 year. I am confused since i havent heard many people come out and say that they have stayed more than 6 mths without a re-entry permit. Thats why i am hesistant to take a chance.

If i could get a letter from the INS etc, that would be great but i dont think that is feasible. Looks like i will have to spend 5k + for a rep including tickets etc.
 
(sorry about the long post - but some people may find this helpful)
From my ten years of experiences with border agents (both land and air) under student, work and now permanent visa, I have learned one thing: there is no way to predict how an individual border agent will interact with you. Although I have heard many horror stories about friends being harassed unnecessarily, personally my worst experience was when a border agent at the US-Canada land entry asked me when I was going to finish my PhD (jokingly of course, but for grad students that's a taboo question :) )!

More relevant to this topic - my wife recently came back to the US after >6mo without re-entry permit - and in summary, we still have our GC and there wasn't much problem at the time of re-entry.

Details below.

A bit of background first: we got our GC last August via Consular Processing. At that time, we were living in Australia due to my wife's job (she was still employed and being paid in US by the US GC sponsoring company - she was the primary applicant). I was working for an university in Aus. After CP, we came to the US for 10 days in October and left so that we could finish our respective projects in Australia. We wanted to get a re-entry permit - and our lawyer advised us to get one even if we were coming back within a year - but due to the issue of biometrics we did not have time to get it done.

I came to the US for a conference this Feb (~4 months absence), expecting to be questioned. But the agent at LAX just said 'welcome back' - did my fingerprints and photo and that was it. I was a bit lucky possibly, as I noticed another border agent question each and every person in details about how long and even why they had been away. I went back to Australia after 12 days that time.

Both me and my wife came back to the US earlier this month. I had been away for 3 months and my wife for 8months. We were ready to be questioned and kept a few documents in hand (proof of bank accounts in US, payment of taxes, letter from wife's company stating her project overseas was over, proof that we owned a house in US etc). This time the agent at Newark airport asked us why we had been out for so long. Unfortunately, I had stupidly given my friend's address in the customs form (where I was forwarding all my mails) instead of our home address in US - which are in separate states! This raised a bit of suspicion as well. But we explained why we were away and that we were going to stay in the US from now on. It took about 10minutes of random questions - where we work, how long working etc, but he let us go without asking for a secondary inspection, or even asking to see any paperwork.

However, do note that he had a record of our entry and exits for the last year on his computer as well as immigration history - previous H1/H4, F1s etc. In fact, the guy seemed more excited by the fact that he could actually pull up all that data and play with it, rather than deeply questioning us !

So going back to the original point - it is possible to re-enter without the REP but YMMV. Be ready all documents and answer questions confidently is my advice.

Also FYI, during both my re-entries, I was asked for fingerprints for only my right hand, while regular visitors were being asked for all ten fingers. Also, LAX had a separate line for GC holders (apart from Visitors and US Citizens); Newark had that too - but the GC line was closed and they told us to use the Citizen's line (immigration area was quite empty then).
 
biopundit said:
However, do note that he had a record of our entry and exits for the last year on his computer as well as immigration history - previous H1/H4, F1s etc.
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Were you able to see his computer screen? Or was it the way he asked questions which made you figure out that he had this mass of information at his fingertips?
 
Jackolantern said:
Were you able to see his computer screen? Or was it the way he asked questions which made you figure out that he had this mass of information at his fingertips?
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I could not see the screen. But he looked at the screen and quoted dates of exit accurately (without having taken a look at say entry stamps of other countries in our passport). He also quoted our most recent non-immigration status (again without looking at the passport).

Not sure how else he could come up with these information quickly and accurately unless they were on the screen (or perhaps he was just clairvoyant?).
 
I was out for nine months and didn't have a problem, although I only admitted to being out for 4.
 
plasm said:
I was out for nine months and didn't have a problem, although I only admitted to being out for 4.
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That lie may be caught if/when you apply for citizenship, when they have more time to do additional database searches to verify your travel dates.
 
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