Important Question for the GURUS---Just received the Green Card

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captainv1234

Registered Users (C)
I have just received the green card last week. I have couple of very simple questions, I will be very happy if someone can answer them. The last question is the most important one... Your expertise on these topics are greatly appreciated

1) I am planning to leave for my home country in about 2 weeks for a 1 MONTH vacation. Do I need to only take my physical green card and passport with me ? Will they be enough for my reentry?

2) Do those kind of 1 MONTH vacations dangerous such that I can loose my permanent resident status?

3) MOST IMPORTANTLY, 1 year from now I will go to my home country for a 9 month period... However, I will come to US every 3 months and stay here like 2 weeks to 4 weeks each time...The reason of my visit is that I am a professor here and I have the right to take a leave of absence (in academics we sometimes have this right) and would like to spend this leave of absence to go to my home country and teach there for two semester (even less than 9 months actually)... But then I will come back and resume my professorship for the following years semesters.

Does this have any consequences???
Do I have to take a Reentry Permit???
Will it be a problem at the border such that the officer takes my card and deletes my Permanent Resident Status???....


Just one more info... Even when I leave I will have by bank accounts active and I may even have an apartment lease on my name although I may sublet it..

Thank you very much for your valuable responses in advance.
 
captainv1234 said:
I have just received the green card last week. I have couple of very simple questions, I will be very happy if someone can answer them. The last question is the most important one... Your expertise on these topics are greatly appreciated

1) I am planning to leave for my home country in about 2 weeks for a 1 MONTH vacation. Do I need to only take my physical green card and passport with me ? Will they be enough for my reentry?
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Once you have the GC things change - you can re-enter into the United States just with your passport and GC. The GC is the evidence that you are known from the USCIS, and they can verify your immigration status (Legal Permanent Resident) at the border point.

captainv1234 said:
2) Do those kind of 1 MONTH vacations dangerous such that I can loose my permanent resident status?
Click to expand...
From a long-term point of view (i.e. over a period of 5 years or more), most countries consider that you are a resident of the country when you spend at least 50% of your time in the country. If you regularly spent year after year after year significantly less than 50% of your time in the United States and/or more than 50% of your time in your home country the USCIS would legitimately wonder whether you really are a resident of the United States.

For a period of one month this is not an issue - everybody has vacations and spends some time overseas just to visit friends and families.
 
One month vacations aren't a problem (as long as you don't take multiple ones each year). The long stay of of the country can be. You need to do all you can to indicate the temporary intent of your visit back to your home country. In addition to bank accounts, credit cards, cell phone subscriptions, a US residence and filing US Taxes, this can include letters from your employer (before you go) that talk about how your sabbatical is temporary.

In addition to the re-entry permit, there is a form that can be used to "preserve your residence" for naturalization purposes. I'm not sure that an out of country sabbatical fits the requirements for this, though.

Boatbod (one of the regular contributors here) has all the details about this - and in particular about how regular "visits" back to the US do nothing to preserve residence. Search for some of his recent posts.

By the way, my advice to new GC recipients is that they start a "travel diary" the day they get their GC. Get a hard cover book in which you record the dates and details of every trip outside the country (the same way I used to keep all of my lab observations when I was a graduate student).
 
captainv1234 said:
3) MOST IMPORTANTLY, 1 year from now I will go to my home country for a 9 month period... However, I will come to US every 3 months and stay here like 2 weeks to 4 weeks each time...The reason of my visit is that I am a professor here and I have the right to take a leave of absence (in academics we sometimes have this right) and would like to spend this leave of absence to go to my home country and teach there for two semester (even less than 9 months actually)... But then I will come back and resume my professorship for the following years semesters.
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The trips back to the US are largely a waste of time if you are only making them in an effort to avoid resetting your continuous residence clock. Its probably more believable to an IO if you are honest and simply say you took a 9 month sabbatical.

captainv1234 said:
Does this have any consequences???
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Potentially yes, although the long term implications really depend what you do after your trip is over. The simplistic answer is that you effectively break continuous residence when you take a trip over 6 months duration, however, you may be able to prove otherwise if you (a) have good documentation that the trip itself was temporary and (b) don't make a habit of taking these long trips ever year or two.
captainv1234 said:
Do I have to take a Reentry Permit???
Click to expand...
Not unless you envisage your trip lasting longer than 1 year. The only advantage of having a reentry permit is it gives you one more piece of evidence to support your trip being temporary.
captainv1234 said:
Will it be a problem at the border such that the officer takes my card and deletes my Permanent Resident Status???....
Click to expand...
Unlikely. Typically officers at PoE are fairly lenient when it comes to letting people back in the country after a longer trip. (If over 6 months, you may get secondary inspection, but even that is not guaranteed.)
 
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