green_card_holder

New Member
Hi everyone,

I'm a foreign born Canadian Citizen who obtained US permanent residence through my father when I was a child, who received it through work. We then moved from the US back to our home country (not Canada) when I was 9.

In the span of a few years, my dad had his residency status canceled at the border on his second US visit, for obvious reasons. He had no intention of saving it. In this period, I visited the US once when I was still a child and my green card was valid without any trouble. My card has now been expired for several years.

I am now older and living in Canada. I'd like to move to the US when I finish my undergrad, mostly for job opportunities.

Is there any series of steps I can take to salvage my residency status? If I can, I fully intend to move to the US and not leave until I achieve citizenship.

I have family in the States, and a SSN, but besides that I do not have any other connections. I also haven't paid US taxes on my Canadian income all these years.

I'm hoping I can secure a full time job in the US and have that be enough to move there, where I can then renew my green card. Is this possible, or am I out of luck? If it is possible, how likely is it that I can pull this off? Could a border official cancel my permanent residence and then reject me from entering the States because I'm moving for work without a TN or H1-B? That would be the worst case scenario because I would likely be out of work.

I'm also wondering if staying out of the US until I am ready to move there is an important factor. If I, say, try to cross for a US internship or just a pleasure trip, is it possible that I can lose my residency just like that? Or at least make it more difficult to pull off this permanent move.

I'd like to know, because if saving my residency status isn't possible, then I think my best move would be to cancel it now. Then I can work in the US on a TN or H1-B (which I assume are not grated to green card holders).

Thanks for the help.
 
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