GC Holder and Reentry to US after 5 years

M

masoud309

New Member
First of all, I would like to thank you guys for such a helpful discussion forum. I have been reading through the threads for quite a while I find the information very useful. Here is my situation, I would really appreciate any input. Please keep it factual rather than subjective.

I am a permenant GC holder (permanent w/o barcode) since 1985. I lived in the US until the year 2000 at which time I had to leave due to family situation. I have not been back to the US since.

I renewed my Iranian passport last month and it is void of stamps as I have not travelled since the renewal. Since I did not file a reentry form before leaving the US, nor did I apply for a reentry permission from a US consulate, I am deemed to have abandonned my PR status by the INS. I would like to know the following:

1) Since I do not have any "Enter" or "Exit" stamps in my passport, does the officer at the PoE know how long I have been away?

2) Even in my absence, I have regularly filed my 1040EZ taxes. Do I need to have those with me?

3) Any other advice you might have that may help will be appreciated.

I do not have the time to go to Turkey or Dubai (we do not have a US Embassy in Iran) to obtain permission. I have to be in the US by July 12. So please keep this in mind.

Thank you in advance,

Masoud :confused:
 
I doubt if you will be granted admission. Your PR status is gone.

If you lie about being outside the US for the past five years, and CBP finds out, then you will be permanently barred from re-entering.
 
Thank you for your response. Yes, I understand. But how can they find out? or can they? What information do they have at the port of entry?
 
masoud309 said:
Thank you for your response. Yes, I understand. But how can they find out? or can they? What information do they have at the port of entry?
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Nobody in forum knows what info they have at POE. We can only imagine and speculate. However, it's a common practice for POE officers to ask how long the persons with LPR status have been outside USA. Lying to officer can land you in trouble. Even if can enter USA this time, but there is always a risk in future. I saw a posting in this forum where a person could enter USA after long absense (1+ year). Then the person lived in USA for awhile. But when he was traveling abroad again and tried re-enter USA, he was caught at POE. As he entered USA last time and lived in USA for awhile, POE officer considered that stay as "illegal stay" (as his LPR status was abandoned already). His entry was denied.
In my personal opinion, your best bet is to apply for SB1 visa (returning resident visa).
 
pralay said:
In my personal opinion, your best bet is to apply for SB1 visa (returning resident visa).
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I agree fully with the above posts. The SB1 visa is extremely difficult to obtain. You'll need to show that your extended stay outside US was due to causes beyond your control.
 
Just found that. May be it will be some help..

9 FAM 41.31 N15 LAWFUL PERMANENT RESIDENT (LPR) ISSUED NONIMMIGRANT VISITOR VISA FOR EMERGENCY TEMPORARY VISIT TO UNITED STATES (CT:VISA-701; 02-15-2005)

A lawful permanent resident (LPR) may, in some cases, need to get a visa more quickly than obtaining a returning resident visa would permit. For example: a permanent resident alien employed by a U.S. corporation is temporarily assigned abroad but has not necessarily remained more than one year and may not use Form I-551, Alien Registration Receipt Card (Machine Readable) (Green Card), in order to travel to the United States for an urgent conference and then return abroad. The alien has never relinquished permanent residence, has continued to pay U.S. income taxes, and perhaps even maintains a home in the United States. The alien may be issued a nonimmigrant visa for this purpose and Form I-551 need not be surrendered. The relinquishment of either of these forms shall not be required as a condition precedent to the issuance of either an immigrant or nonimmigrant visa (NIV) unless Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has requested such action.
 
cross the border without getting caught....j/k in reality u will have to got nearest us consulate as told by others.
 
How about some replies TO the question: What do they know at the POE? Can they verify my exit date from the US in 2000?

Thank you again.
 
masoud309 said:
How about some replies TO the question: What do they know at the POE? Can they verify my exit date from the US in 2000?
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Very few people outside of CBP actually know what data they can pull up. With a lot of the airline passenger manifest sharing that goes on, if you entered or left the US by air since 2003 your entries and exits are most likely tracked. If they verified your exit date in 2000, then you are sunk. You'll lose your GC on the spot and probably be sent back to where you came from.

If they have no record, then the CBP officer may get curious. He might ask you when you left the US. At that point, you get into a very interesting situation. Very, very interesting.

You see, if you tell the truth - you're sunk. If you don't tell the truth, then things are going to get interesting. Because depending on the answers you tell the inspector, he'll ask a few more questions and a few more. And if he catches you lying, then you're barred permanently. You see, to have kept the Green Card you will need to have left less than a year ago. If you left by air, there would have been an exit record. If you left by land, then the Canadians might have your data. If there's no record of your exit, then he'll be very suspicious.

Probably your only hope is that he looks at your Green Card, says welcome home and lets you in. I am NOT holding my breath, especially considering your country of citizenship.
 
In essence it would seem you are asking advice if you should choose to circumvent the laws and what are your chances of being caught.

From the discussions above you can see the risks associated with such an action and you need to weigh those consequences with the benefits you seek to have by maintaining your green card.

If you choose to circumvent the laws, as discussed above, no one here can tell you what the officer will or will not see when they bring it up.

However as someone said, if you choose to tell them you left recently, no info of your departure (recently) would certainly raise a flag to them as you could easily assume in light of security issues, their current records of departures must be accurate.

If this is the case and you are determined to circumvent the rules, the only logical position you could take to avoid such a high chance of being caught is to illegally sneak your way back into the country and run those risks for doing something illegal.

On the other hand you could be a terrorist looking for information for all we know. And being Iranian, if you get caught breaking the law, you could easily be construed to be a terrorist and find yourself in Gitmo or some place like that.
 
Everyone, thank you for your input. I contacted the US consulate in Dubai and decided to wait and get a reentry visa. It seems to be the most logical way.

Regarding "On the other hand you could be a terrorist looking for information for all we know. And being Iranian, if you get caught breaking the law, you could easily be construed to be a terrorist and find yourself in Gitmo or some place like that."- It's a shame people like you exist. That's why countries are in war. Do not generalize people by their country of citizenship.

Thank you again.
 
masoud309 said:
It's a shame people like you exist. That's why countries are in war. Do not generalize people by their country of citizenship.
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It's done all the time, especially by CBP. Get used to it.
 
masoud309 said:
"On the other hand you could be a terrorist looking for information for all we know. And being Iranian, if you get caught breaking the law, you could easily be construed to be a terrorist and find yourself in Gitmo or some place like that."- It's a shame people like you exist. That's why countries are in war. Do not generalize people by their country of citizenship.
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If you read what I said, "you could be a terrorist", and... "being Iranian, if you get caught breaking the law, you could be construed to be a terrorist"

I didn't say I thought you were, I'm just stating the facts of life that if you get caught sneaking into this country and trying to break the law and you are from Iran, you have better than sporting chance of landing in gitmo. After all why would someone want so desperately want to break the immigration law and sneak into the country?

So get off your high horse...it was you who were posing the questions to us as to what does the officer know and not know and see an not see. The inference is that given the chance you would break the law the law. And you clearly know the law about being away 5 years but you are weighing up your options - that is clearly showing intent. And in light of this you throw out this crap comment that's it's a shame people like me exist, what a joke you clearly show your serious contemplation of breaking the laws here - I mean get real.
 
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