Lost PR status after staying 4 year out of country

dsken

New Member
My brother lost his Permanent Resident status today while reentering the US after 4 years.
The immigration officer gave him a temporary GC and he has to appear in front of a judge to plead his case for regaining his PR status.
He won his GC through political asylum.
The reason he stayed out of the country for so long is that he got married and had a child at first, then he had major surgery done and other family health issues that prevented him from traveling.
He was also in bad shape financially.

How hard is it to regain your old status back in court if the reason for not entering the US in such a long time are health related?
Will the judge just consider the issues that impeded you from entering the US, or can he go back to the original political asylum case and make his decision based on that?

Thank you in advance.
 
Usually in such a situation, he would go to a U.S. consulate and apply for an SB-1 visa, since it sounds like it was due to events outside of his control. But since he's already returned to the U.S., I don't know what the procedure would be.
 
TheRealCanadian, he personally underwent major surgery and is still under heavy medication for his back. My nephew also has had serious health problems. You think the judge will not consider these as factors outside of his control?
 
TheRealCanadian, he personally underwent major surgery and is still under heavy medication for his back. My nephew also has had serious health problems. You think the judge will not consider these as factors outside of his control?

He might, but it depends on the chronology of events and if he can demonstrate the temporary nature of his absence when he left the US four years ago. Did he have return transportation? A job in the US, etc. etc.
 
He might, but it depends on the chronology of events and if he can demonstrate the temporary nature of his absence when he left the US four years ago. Did he have return transportation? A job in the US, etc. etc.

Im not sure if he had a return ticket when he left, he went to get married and spend a few months there so he probably did not.
At the time he was working for a friend of ours who has a construction company, the same job he will return to next week.
Any idea of how the process goes when he goes in front of the judge? Is there a prosecutor there or is it more like a hearing that the judge makes a decision on based on the evidence provided?
We contacted a lawyer today and faxed her all his documents. We will meet on Monday to discuss the options. However she made it clear that she had not pursued a case like this before as it is not a very common case.
 
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