Green Card holding parents out of US for two years

J

jainsahib

New Member
Here is my situation :

My parents got the green card in 1995. Since then they have been in and out of US taking extensions. Last time they left US was in August of 2006. So it has almost been two years. They did not file for any extension this time.

My assumption is that because of this, their green card is no longer valid. Is that assumption correct? or can the green card be re-instated?

Now, if my assumption is correct, I would like to understand how I can have my parents back in US. Here are the options that I see

(1) Surrender Green card and at the same time apply for a 10 year multiple entry visa.
(2) Surrender Green card and a few months later apply for the 10 year multiple entry visa.
(3) Surrender Green card and I apply for their Green card again (BTW, I am a US Citizen)

So first question, are there any other options.
If yes, what are those.
If not, which is the best option among the three above. My requirement is that they come to US in October or before of this year. If option (1) is the best, what kind of documents do I need to send to my parents? Is it the usual letter, proof that I can support? Is there anything else?

Please guide.

Thanks.
Jain Sahib.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Answer this question first:
Do your parents want to visit the USA for 1-6 months a year or they want to come and live in the USA permanently?

Either way step (1) is surrender GC.

If visit, apply for visitor visa.
If live here, re-apply for GC (once it has been surrendered).
 
My parents have not decided if they want to come on a visit or green card yet. The important requirement right now is that they be in US around October. If they when through the re-apply of green card process would that not take longer than October to complete?

If yes, then I guess they would go for the visitor visa route.

The question I had on visitor visa was should they apply the visitor visa at the same time as surrendering the GC or should they apply at a later time?

Also, would the same paperwork need to be done for the visitor visa as any regular visitor visa (going through the process of setting up appointment, etc.) or would they only need to tell the USConsulate that they just want to surrender GC and would like a visitor visa instead.
 
There is no way that the re-applying GC process would take less than 8-10 months... so that is a NO-GO.

But yes, they need to surrender the GC and apply for a visitor visa like everybody else, appointment and everything.
 
jainsahib said:
My parents got the green card in 1995. My parents have not decided if they want to come on a visit or green card yet.
Click to expand...

13 years is a heck of a long time, more than enough to decide whether they are visiting the US or are living in the US.
 
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