Entering US with Green Card after 5 years out of country

[big sky]

If a person has a green card and enters the US (from the UK) after a 5 year absence, I have 4 questions:

1) How would you answer, How long have you been out of the country?
2) What should they expect from immigration?
3) How can they continue to use the green card to travel in and out of the county in the future?
4) Should they bring proof of the details below? (I'm concerned that they have been out of the county for too long)

Details:
Green card issued in the 80's (no expiration date)
Person files US taxes each year
Person maintains US bank accounts.
Person has family members that are US citizens.

Thank you for your help.....

 

[cafeconleche]

Well, to be frank, the GC is not valid any longer. This person has ceased to be a permanent resident. He/she should go to the embassy/consulate and formally surrender it, and apply for a visit visa, or start all over again for another GC.

 

[baikal3]

If a person has a green card and enters the US (from the UK) after a 5 year absence, I have 4 questions:

1) How would you answer, How long have you been out of the country?
2) What should they expect from immigration?
3) How can they continue to use the green card to travel in and out of the county in the future?
4) Should they bring proof of the details below? (I'm concerned that they have been out of the county for too long)

Details:
Green card issued in the 80's (no expiration date)
Person files US taxes each year
Person maintains US bank accounts.
Person has family members that are US citizens.

Thank you for your help.....

You cannot use your GC for reentry after an absence of 5 years. For an absence of over a year but less than two years you'd need a GC and a valid reentry permit to re-enter the U.S. For an absence of over 2 years you'd need to get an SB-1 "returning resident" visa (assuming you qualify for it) at a U.S. consulate or embassy abroad, if you want to reenter the U.S. as a permanent resident.

See http://london.usembassy.gov/immigrant-visas/returning-resident-visas.html

Moreover, as cafeconleche said, with a 5-year absence you are almost certainly considered to have abandoned your LPR status, and your GC is no longer valid (regadless of the expiration date written on the card). So it is rather unlikely that you'd be able to get an SB-1 visa - although you could try.

Do not try to lie about the length of the absence from the U.S. at the port of entry. The CBP will look-up your arrival/departure record in their system and they'll see that you last left the U.S. 5 years ago. Being caught lying to the immigration officials would be worse than simply being denied entry.

 

[khodam]

Do they have all exit records in their system?

I have heard some people with green card been outside the US for 2-3 years or so, coming back without problem. At port of entry they always ask how long you have been out, but am not sure they really have all exit records. It seems they wouldn't ask if they really had the records! Does anybody know "for sure" the answer? How about Canada border? If somebody leaves US by air, then comes back through Canada border, would they have exit info at that border?
Please do not answer if you're not sure about your answer!
Thanks

 

[TheRealCanadian]

but am not sure they really have all exit records.

If you exit by air, or to Canada, they have exit records. Unsure about Mexico.

It seems they wouldn't ask if they really had the records!

People ask questions for reasons other than not knowing the answer.

How about Canada border? If somebody leaves US by air, then comes back through Canada border, would they have exit info at that border?

Absolutely.

 

[khodam]

If you exit by air, or to Canada, they have exit records. Unsure about Mexico.


Absolutely.

I am wondering how do you know?

I know a green card holder who left the US by air (not to Canada, but to European country) couple years ago, now wants to come back through Canada land border. How can they keep track of thousands/millions of exits every day and check somebody's records 2 years ago, particularly if that person comes through a land border?? All the data has to come from airlines; I doubt there is such a system to have all exits of all people for years readily available in all border computer systems... It just seems kind of impractical to me. I am sure they have the data and can access it if they want to, but it seems difficult to have such huge data readily available at every land border computer in front of the officer... How do you know this???

 

[TheRealCanadian]

I know a green card holder who left the US by air (not to Canada, but to European country) couple years ago, now wants to come back through Canada land border. How can they keep track of thousands/millions of exits every day and check somebody's records 2 years ago, particularly if that person comes through a land border?? All the data has to come from airlines;

You're correct - the best source of exit data comes from the airlines, since they need to supply passenger manifests before departure and have been required to do so for over a decade. This part's pretty reliable. I've been told that the Canadians share their land entry data with the US (and vice-versa, I imagine). Less sure about the Mexicans.

I doubt there is such a system to have all exits of all people for years readily available in all border computer systems... It just seems kind of impractical to me. I am sure they have the data and can access it if they want to, but it seems difficult to have such huge data readily available at every land border computer in front of the officer... How do you know this???

If there's one thing computers are good at, it's searching through large volumes of data. Why do you feel that DHS doesn't have access to this capability?

 

[khodam]

You're correct - the best source of exit data comes from the airlines, since they need to supply passenger manifests before departure and have been required to do so for over a decade. This part's pretty reliable. I've been told that the Canadians share their land entry data with the US (and vice-versa, I imagine). Less sure about the Mexicans.


If there's one thing computers are good at, it's searching through large volumes of data. Why do you feel that DHS doesn't have access to this capability?

Yes, one would guess so. However, interestingly it seems it's not the case! The US and Canada are currently doing a pilot project to exchange the entry/exit data of non-citizens between the two countries. This project is being done only at 4 ports of entry, started Sep 30 and completes in few months. Here's some text from their website:
"Routine biographic information will be collected between September 30, 2012 and January 31, 2013."
" By September 30, 2012, we will begin implementation of a pilot project exchanging the data of third country nationals, permanent residents of Canada, and lawful permanent residents in the United States, at 2 to 4 automated common land border ports of entry".

And this is from CBP website:
"Records of travel may not be complete if you had legal permanent resident status and traveled by car between the U.S. and Canada or Mexico."

Yes, you're right, computers can potentially do that. But the question is do they really do it? Imagine how many people exit the country every day, and how many millions every year. Now imagine, they have to keep all this in a central server, and every border computer be able to retrieve it from that server. That requires super-computers and amazingly fast connections to do it in a reasonable time at a busy border. Just doesn't seem easily practical.

 

[Jackolantern]

Yes, you're right, computers can potentially do that. But the question is do they really do it? Imagine how many people exit the country every day, and how many millions every year. Now imagine, they have to keep all this in a central server, and every border computer be able to retrieve it from that server. That requires super-computers and amazingly fast connections to do it in a reasonable time at a busy border. Just doesn't seem easily practical.

The Federal government has several supercomputers and high network bandwidth. A billion people could cross the border each day and they could still keep track of it.

Look at how Google is able to return search results in a fraction of a second from trillions of entries in their database. The Federal government has more computing resources than Google.