H1 to Green Card

[vtianjin]

My husband and I taught in the U.S. for 9 years, gave birth to our daughter in the U.S., received a SSN, filed separately for a green card in 2005, and purchased a home. We left the states and moved to China for personal reasons thinking that our green card would never come through because it had taken nearly 6 years, but still rent out our home. We just received notification that my husband's green card was approved and is in the mail. So, my question for you is will having been out of the country for the past 20 months affect his green card, even though it has been mailed? When he goes to the states, will there be issues for him when he lands? If he remains outside of the U.S. and continues working at the American International School which he currently teaches at, how will that affect his green card? How long can he be out of the country and how many times must he enter the U.S. for it to remain current.

Now, about me, I also applied for the green card, moved to China with my husband 20 months ago, but had to apply for a visitor visa for a conference that I was to attend in California. I received a 10 year visa, but never actually used it because our school couldn't afford to pay for the conference in the end. How will this affect my green card application? Did applying for the 10 year visa mess up my green card application? If it did, can I still benefit from being a dependent on my husband's green card?

Thank you for your advice

 

[Jackolantern]

I assume both your green card applications were employment-based, not family based?

Did he have Advance Parole or H1B/H4/L1/L2 status when leaving the US? If he left without any of those, or neither was still unexpired when his green card was approved, that means the green card was issued in error (because of USCIS not checking that he left the US), and could be revoked when USCIS discovers the mistake. That realization may occur at the port of entry itself -- they could notice the departure 20 months ago without a record of any other entry to the US since that departure, and refuse entry after he is unable to convince them of having any entry since that departure.

However, there may be some hope for your own green card. If your (former) employer has not revoked your I-140, you could get them to file I-824 to transfer your case to a consulate in China. Then sometime after they cross your priority date, you would interview at the consulate for an immigrant visa. Your husband could be added as a derivative if he surrendered his green card before then. But then upon returning to the US with the immigrant visa (and thereby receiving permanent resident status) you would have to return to work for the employer who sponsored the I-140, or your green card would be vulnerable to future revocation.