Living Abroad during AOS Process

[lardbird]

My wife (a Brazilian citizen) and I (USC) are considering cashing in our home equity and many other assets following the birth of our first child next spring. We would intend to use this money to fund a 2 year sabbatical in Brazil. We were approved pending namecheck 8/4/05 and continue to "patiently" await that process, but we certainly do not want it to be a factor in delaying or cancelling our sabbatical.

Can any of you guys point me toward information regarding the affect of living outside of the US during this process? Can a GC be issued to an applicant who has moved abroad? Will our conditional GC period be extended? Can we be "transferred" into Consular Processing? Or in the worse scenario, will our application be considered abandoned?

I appreciate all opinions. I appreciate documented/substantiated information even more.

Thanks all,
Lardbird

 

[visaapplicant]

My wife (a Brazilian citizen) and I (USC) are considering cashing in our home equity and many other assets following the birth of our first child next spring. We would intend to use this money to fund a 2 year sabbatical in Brazil. We were approved pending namecheck 8/4/05 and continue to "patiently" await that process, but we certainly do not want it to be a factor in delaying or cancelling our sabbatical.

Can any of you guys point me toward information regarding the affect of living outside of the US during this process? Can a GC be issued to an applicant who has moved abroad? Will our conditional GC period be extended? Can we be "transferred" into Consular Processing? Or in the worse scenario, will our application be considered abandoned?

I appreciate all opinions. I appreciate documented/substantiated information even more.

Thanks all,
Lardbird

I do not have specific answers to any of your questions. Others with direct experience can add here.

I do want to point out that your wife who is in "AOS pending" status, will need an approved Advance Parole (AP) before leaving USA, otherwise the application may be considered abandoned. Also AP is usually granted only for a year which means that she will have to reenter during that year in case the name check has not cleared (and GC approved) by then. It is suggested that one should not stay outside USA for too long on AP.

Hopefully the name check clears soon followed by GC approval!