Out of the last 5 years, I've been living in the US for 19 months continuesly. I left in June 2012 and will return in November 2012. Then will leave again in December and return to the states in April 2013. After my arrival in April, I will stay until I have spent a total of 30 months living in the US. So 30 months minus 19 months = 11 months left. I originally got my green card in 2000 as a refugee status. Left the US in 2005 and re entered again in 2010. I was out 5 years and returned witha visit visa, and received my GC back after almost a year in the States.(November 2011). Do you experts see any problem? i'm sure u do :-(
I don't know what I'm asking really, I just want to make sure I do things the right way, I've had to leave, there was no choice, but like i said, I will return in November, So i wouldn't stay out for 6 months or more.
So I wouldn't loose the 19 months I already spent there, how long am I allowed to stay out of the US? What should I be careful of? What do i need to know?
I have 3 children and they are US citizens. 2 were born abroad.
It is interesting that even after having lost GC status once you are still thoroughly confused about your obligations as an LPR.
There is no magic number X such that sating out of the U.S. for less than X months is "OK" but for more than "X" months is "not OK".
Moreover, there are two distinct issues for you to worry about:
1) maintaining valid LPR status (i.e. retaining your GC).
2) preserving your eligibility for naturalization (if you plan to file N-400 at some point).
It is easier to maintain LPR status than to preserve the continuous residency for naturalization purposes, but ultimately you are at risk on both fronts.
Your basic obligation as an LPR is to maintain permanent residence in the U.S.
In principle, after ANY absence from the U.S. the CBP agent that processes your re-entry into the U.S., when you go through immigration and customs control upon arrival to the U.S., may question you on that score.
They look not just at the length of your last absence, but at a much broader variety of factors (about which they may question you in detail), such as your pattern of travel, what exactly you were doing abroad, whether you continued to rent/own housing in the U.S., whether you maintained a job in the U.S., whether your immediate family members remained in the U.S., whether you took on a job abroad, whether you rented/own housing abroad, whether your immediate family members stayed abroad, what your main source of income was, and so on.
All of the above factors are also relevant in determining if you have preserved continuous residency for naturalization purposes, except that the standards there are more stringent than simply for maintaining LPR status. If the IO determines that a particular absence broke continuous residency, your naturalization eligibility clock resets to zero from the moment of returning from that trip.
Typically, for the first couple of extended absences from the U.S. you get a free pass (simply because the CBP agents at the passport control don't want to hold up the line of passengers behind you), then you get a warning and get flagged in the CBP computer system. Eventually, if they see a long chain of extended absences from the U.S. spaced relatively close together, they will send you to secondary inspection, and from there your case will be forwarded to the immigration judge for revocation of GC and deportation proceedings.
Your post provided none of the relevant information listed above about the nature of your absences except for their length (the reason for those absences, job, income, housing, family members etc info). So it is not really possible to give you substantive advice based on the information you provided thus far.
But, based on the fact that you did lose your GC status in the past because of a long absence, you may well already in the CBP system with some sort of a red flag, so you'll probably get less of a slack than others and will be questioned/given a warning sooner. So you need to be quite careful.
