Immigration is going to think my Mom's a clown..

[Stephie Dee]

10 years ago, my Mom lost her green card for staying out of the US for 6 months and one day! She had no idea.

Since then, she has re-applied and was waiting for immigration to give her further instructions but they were also waiting to hear from her so they abandoned the proceedings.

A year later, she finally re-applied for a green card and just got accepted. She must go to the US before April 2013. The problem is that she will be at the retirement age in June 2013 (2 months after leaving her country of origin). This means that she will only receive 50% of her retirement rather than the full 100%, simply because she had stopped working 2 months before the law stated (at the age of 65).

From the information on this forum, I gather that my Mom needs to go back to the US, and then apply for a re-entry visa? Or she can simply enter and leave the country? And all this is going to be expensive. Can't she just ask for a delay of 3 months so that she can work on her retirement benefits?

I would really like some advice because given her history of having lost her card, having been perceived as abandoning proceedings, I'm afraid immigration is not going to be very understanding...I'm afraid they will lose their patience and cancel the whole thing altogether.

 

[Hannah7]

10 years ago, my Mom lost her green card for staying out of the US for 6 months and one day! She had no idea.
...

How can anyone on Earth loose his/her GC solely by staying out of the U.S. for 6 months and 1 day. Isn't there anything else you want to tell us?

 

[Jackolantern]

From the information on this forum, I gather that my Mom needs to go back to the US, and then apply for a re-entry visa? Or she can simply enter and leave the country? And all this is going to be expensive. Can't she just ask for a delay of 3 months so that she can work on her retirement benefits?

She can enter and leave right away. A reentry permit is not necessary, unless she plans to stay outside the US for over a year. So all she needs to do is officially step into the US for a minute, then she can go back for a few months to finish up her work.

But there has to be more to the story about losing her green card. It can't be solely for staying outside the US for 6 months and a day. Either that 6 month trip was preceded by other long trips, or she did something else wrong.

 

[Stephie Dee]

She can enter and leave right away. A reentry permit is not necessary, unless she plans to stay outside the US for over a year. So all she needs to do is officially step into the US for a minute, then she can go back for a few months to finish up her work.

But there has to be more to the story about losing her green card. It can't be solely for staying outside the US for 6 months and a day. Either that 6 month trip was preceded by other long trips, or she did something else wrong.

Well that's a relief! But is there a way of just extending the date from April to June, or would that be testing their patience?

I'm also surprised by all of your similar reactions. What you mostly found relevant was that her green card was taken away after 6 month and 1 day. Well, at the time, neither my Mom nor the rest of my family knew about the 6 months obligation to remain in the country. We naively thought that once granted, she would have it for life (how naive now that I think back on it). And she was going back and forth between seeing me in Europe and my sister and brother in the US. She hadn't realized it had been 6 months, let alone 6 months and a day. She was lingering in Europe because I had bronchitis and she was just worried for me. I know she didn't purposely do anything "wrong", I think your suggestion that the "6 month trip was preceded by other long trips" is correct.

I don't remember correctly but she was also given an ultimatum in which it would be quite possible that she would be denied entry into the US altogether if she didn't sign a paper that said she gave up her card. Well, I don't remember the details, I would have to ask my Mom.

Anyway, that was a long and vague explanation and I'm afraid that most readers will forget my question so let me just remind you that I'm wondering if her entry for April could be altogether delayed until June?

 

[TheRealCanadian]

I don't remember correctly but she was also given an ultimatum in which it would be quite possible that she would be denied entry into the US altogether if she didn't sign a paper that said she gave up her card. Well, I don't remember the details, I would have to ask my Mom.

Ah, they bullied her into a "voluntary" renunciation of permanent residency.

 

[Jackolantern]

Well that's a relief! But is there a way of just extending the date from April to June, or would that be testing their patience?

There is, but not really. If the 6 months has already expired or is about to expire, she can apply for an extension, but granting it is at their discretion and they won't grant it unless they're convinced that compelling circumstances prevented her from traveling to the US within the 6 months. I don't think they would consider her work situation to fit that criteria, and she shouldn't depend on their discretion when she doesn't have to.

All she has to do is arrive in the US sometime like February or March, which satisfies the 6 month limit of the initial visa, leave the US the next day, then return to the US by August, to avoid staying outside the US for more than 6 months as a green card holder.

While there is no hard and fast rule that requires green card holders to keep their international trips to under 6 months, there is a rule that requires keeping trips under 1 year (unless a reentry permit is obtained). However, there is a more subtle condition regarding 6 months -- after an absence of 180 days, the green card holder is classified as "seeking admission", which increases the chances of being harassed at the port of entry, and exposes the individual to being refused entry for reasons that could not be used if the trip was under 6 months. In addition, a trip of 6 months is grounds for denying citizenship, if the trip took place within the past 5 years.

Note that they also look at the overall pattern of trips, not just the latest trip. If she wasn't traveling back and forth so much before that 6 month trip, she probably would have been admitted with nothing worse than a warning.

You also mentioned that she didn't realize she was gone for 6 months. If she's interested in citizenship she should write down every trip taken as a green card holder, because the citizenship application requires one to list every international trip of 24 hours or more. Passport stamps cannot be relied upon because sometimes they don't stamp passports of green card holders who arrive in the US, and in Europe they usually don't stamp the passports of EU citizens.