when can a new green card holder leave US for over one year

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veenaKa

New Member
my mother-in-law received her green card in mid January, 2010. she needs to apply for a re-entry permit to go back to her home country for about 1-2 years and maintain her legal US PR status.

does she need to be within US for at least 6 months after being granted green card before she can leave US? can she leave US before the final approval of her re-entry permit (but after submitting her biometric requirements for the application)?

any kind of reply is appreciated. Veena
 
She can leave before the final approval of the re-entry permit.

What is the end-state intention of your MIL. It she intends to file for citizenship some day, it is better to stay in US for 3+ months to indicate to CIS that her residency is established. There was a case recently where a person left US soon after getting GC, and CIS said they will not count his residency (continuous residence part) until he returned to establish a home here. If CIS takes this stand, it pushes out citizenship by 2 or so years ... but they are not known to be consistent on this aspect.

If the intention is just to maintain LPR, no sweat. Carry on.
 
for the short term, my mom-in-law just wants to maintain her LPR status.
thanks very much for the reply.
 
veenaKa said:
for the short term, my mom-in-law just wants to maintain her LPR status.
thanks very much for the reply.
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But if she can stay 90-100 days, it will make her future requirements in terms of citizenship a bit easier. However, I know the hurry some parents have to get back to their familiar surroundings.
 
what is the reason you will give for reentry permit. will they give you this if you are simply leaving to go back home. something seems not right here.
 
currycrab said:
what is the reason you will give for reentry permit. will they give you this if you are simply leaving to go back home. something seems not right here.
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It depends on ages. I see quite a few parents or parents in law who got GC thru their children spend
majority time outside USA and often stay outside USA for 2 years without re-entry permit but come back
without trouble. They mostly treat their GC as multi-entry tourist visa and do not care too much
if their GC is revoked or refused entry at border. Life do not last forevery anyway so they, in their age,
do not care that much. Their attitude towards border control and USCIS is: "If you let me in, I come
and spend money to help your tourist industry. If you take away my GC, then I go bacl and stay in my
country". But I do not see they ever get into any trouble

Maybe USCIS or CBP does not care about old people doing this either. The attitude is mutual.
 
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i get what you are saying. i know of some ppl who do that but they dont really stay out for more than 3 months. If you do that, it maybe ok i guess. what is this thing about staying 3 months on 1st entry. is that a must or just a good thing to do to minimise any trouble with GC. how does it work with kids also, if i want kids to finish school and then move permanently.
 
currycrab said:
i get what you are saying. i know of some ppl who do that but they dont really stay out for more than 3 months. If you do that, it maybe ok i guess. what is this thing about staying 3 months on 1st entry. is that a must or just a good thing to do to minimise any trouble with GC. how does it work with kids also, if i want kids to finish school and then move permanently.
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as i mentioned earlier, 3 months is not required to protect your GC if you are expecting your RP. 3 months advice is only to make sure your residency has officially started as there are some cases where IO did not count the residency till the person returned to US to stay longer than 90 days.
 
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