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Maintaining your Geen Card Part 2: Living Outside the US

Maintaining your Geen Card

Once you acquire your green card, you need to fulfill a number of conditions in case you want to maintain it. First, you should not go against immigration laws or commit criminal offences. This includes the law of notifying the immigration department of your change of address within 10 days. You must also not abandon the United States.

Living Outside the United States

Many people have the wrong impression that to maintain your green card you just need to be in the United States at least once in a year. By The fact that you go out of the United States with the purpose of making a home in another country, makes you surrender your residency to the United States. The officials at the border will investigate any signs that show that you are not an American resident.

The common rule is that if a person stays outside the United States more than 12 months, he may have difficulties in entering the United States again. This is because the long absence from the United States can be interpreted as a possible abandonment of your residency to the United States. To avoid a full inspection from the relevant authorities, it is advisable to return within six months.

Remaining outside the United States, however, does not necessarily imply that your green card will be cancelled. In case your absence from the U.S. was initially intended not to be permanent, for instance if you went for a holiday and had a critical injury that made you forget your identity for more than 12 months, you may argue on those grounds to retain your permanent residence. You will, however, not be able to use the green card as your entry document to the United States; you will have to get a reentry permit. The other option is to make an application at a United States Consulate to get a special immigrant visa for immigrants returning to the United states.

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