Maintaining LPR status by traveling to US every six months

jefkorn

Registered Users (C)
Hello folks,
Can you please share your thoughts on this? LPR travels to US from overseas and stays here in US for say 6 months or longer. I have heard from others who do this and consider this a "safe" way to still maintain LPR status. I'm asking this in order to learn what's the reality and what's simply just urban legend among immigration community. Please enlighten me :) Thanks!
 
6 months or longer on an annual basis (if I understand what you’re asking correctly) is fine. More time in the US than out is all that is really needed to establish residence.
 
Thank you for your reply! It's kinda straight forward for someone who actually moves here. But I'm curious to know what's really needed for someone who would be travelling and staying in the US as little as possible but still be able to maintain LPR status? Is it more time spent in US every year than they do outside the US?
 
Thank you for your reply! It's kinda straight forward for someone who actually moves here. But I'm curious to know what's really needed for someone who would be travelling and staying in the US as little as possible but still be able to maintain LPR status? Is it more time spent in US every year than they do outside the US?
Honestly, you’re missing the point. A green card is for someone who lives here. It is not for someone who wants to stay in the US as little as possible. You can do whatever you want technically but they can find you have abandoned your green card if you have made your principal residence in another country. More than 6 months a year in the US would presuppose by logic that the US is your principal residence.

https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/af.../international-travel-as-a-permanent-resident
Permanent residents are free to travel outside the United States, and temporary or brief travel usually does not affect your permanent resident status. If it is determined, however, that you did not intend to make the United States your permanent home, you will be found to have abandoned your permanent resident status. A general guide used is whether you have been absent from the United States for more than a year. Abandonment may be found to occur in trips of less than a year where it is believed you did not intend to make the United States your permanent residence. While brief trips abroad generally are not problematic, the officer may consider criteria such as whether your intention was to visit abroad only temporarily, whether you maintained U.S. family and community ties, maintained U.S employment, filed U.S. income taxes as a resident, or otherwise established your intention to return to the United States as your permanent home. Other factors that may be considered include whether you maintained a U.S. mailing address, kept U.S. bank accounts and a valid U.S. driver’s license, own property or run a business in the United States, or any other evidence that supports the temporary nature of your absence.
 
I understand the "normal" sequence of events for an adult who has kids, actually works in the US and plans to settle here. For older parents, it's somewhat tricky in that they may not necessarily want to spend as much time as possible in US. They would prefer to spend just enough time as needed to maintain status in the US and rest of the time in their home country because of the social ties, their age etc.

I wonder for an old age parent who plans to live with his married son (and not in a home of his own), what would constitute family ties? Assuming has adult children who are non-US citizens and live overseas as well as sponsor US citizen son who is in US? Would having such parent's name in the rental agreement in the US or on utility bills help even though he may not be living at the US address but would be away on REP?
 
I understand the "normal" sequence of events for an adult who has kids, actually works in the US and plans to settle here. For older parents, it's somewhat tricky in that they may not necessarily want to spend as much time as possible in US. They would prefer to spend just enough time as needed to maintain status in the US and rest of the time in their home country because of the social ties, their age etc.

I wonder for an old age parent who plans to live with his married son (and not in a home of his own), what would constitute family ties? Assuming has adult children who are non-US citizens and live overseas as well as sponsor US citizen son who is in US? Would having such parent's name in the rental agreement in the US or on utility bills help even though he may not be living at the US address but would be away on REP?

What is the reason for actually wanting a green card then, given the tax implications of it as well as the stress of maintaining it, rather than just visiting for a few months each year? Many parents of USCs happily settle into patterns of visiting for 4-6 months a year or something like that, this rather than trying to maintain green cards, often because of the kinds of ties in the home country you mention, often because of the prohibitive cost of private health care for the elderly where such parents will never have worked enough in the US to qualify for full medicare.
 
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