Moving abroad while wife is on green card

A

anndruu12

New Member
Good afternoon,

I am a US Citizen, and my wife is a Mexican Citizen who currently holds her green card/permanent residency through our marriage. She has held the card for about 2 years now and we have lived in the United States that entire time.

I have recently been offered a position in Mexico that could be temporary or permanent, but would be good for my career. If I were to accept, and we moved to Mexico for an unknown amount of time, would this void all the work we have done to get her her residency? If we lived in Mexico longer than the 1 year mark, when we decided to come back, would she be illegal and we would have to start the process all over again? I haven't discussed this with our lawyer yet, I wanted to try and get some opinions here first. Thanks so much for your time.
 
Generally, staying outside the US for a year would result in loss of permanent resident status, but there are options to avoid that loss of status.

One option is to apply for a reentry permit, which would allow staying outside the US for 2 years. But the application must be filed within the US (including when USCIS receives it), and it is necessary to show up at a USCIS office a few weeks after filing to give fingerprints, but it is OK to leave the US in between those points in time.

Another option is expedited naturalization under Section 319(b), if your employment meets the criteria that would qualify her for that. See http://www.ilw.com/articles/2006,0525-mehta.shtm
 
Thank you for your reply. The expedited naturalization process seems like it has a possibility to work. It is a US based company, so it seems it would come down to whether the type of business falls within their guidelines. I will look into this. The reentry permit i'm unsure about because I can't say for sure we would be back within the two year deadline. Thanks again!
 
Also, is your wife on conditional green card, or regular green card? If she is on conditional green card, then you guys need to make sure to remember to file for Removal of Conditions at the proper time, which will require her to come back to the U.S. for fingerprinting and maybe the two of you for the interview if there is one (although she can be outside the U.S. at other times).
 
She is on her conditional green card which is due to expire towards the end of the year. We already have set up time with our lawyer to remove the conditions. We won't let it slip by.
 
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