Reentry Permit for Green Card Holders
United States Residents Green card holders may travel out of the country multiple times and re-enter the country, as long as they don’t intend to stay out of the U.S. for 1 year or more. If a green card hotel stay abroad for more than 6 months this may already cause suspicious of intent to abandon U.S. residency. The travel out of the U.S. must be temporary and the green card holder must be able to prove that he didn’t intend to abandon his US Legal Permanent Residence. If a green card holder stay outside of the U.S. for 1 year or more, or if the immigration officer believes that a green card holder is living out of the U.S. permanently, then the green card holder may be found inadmissible and be denied entry into the U.S. Some exceptions may apply for people temporarily living abroad because they or their immediate relatives work with the United States armed forces abroad, or are civilian employees of the U.S. Government stationed out of the country due to official orders. In this type of cases, the spouse or child of the government or armed forces employee must not have relinquished residence, and be preceding or accompanying the member or employee, or be following to join the member or employee in the USA within a few months of his return to the country.
Even if you have a valid unexpired green card, you might be considered out of status, for example if you abandoned your residence in the United States and moved away to another country abroad; also the opposite may happen, you may have an expired green card, but still have a valid status as a legal resident of the United States.
Re-entry Permit
Green Card holders that need to travel out of the country and stay abroad for a long period of time may apply for a re-entry permit before leaving the U.S. This is important to avoid having your immigration status as a resident removed. Not being able to prove your temporary stay abroad may result in losing your green card. Order this guide to learn how to apply for a reentry permit to live temporarily stay abroad with a valid green card.
Green Card holders must fulfill certain residency requirements in order to apply for the US citizenship, and the time spent abroad does not count towards this requirement. However, some residents are eligible to apply for the “Application to Preserve Residence for Naturalization Purposes”.
Some Green Card holders decide to live out of the U.S. temporarily due to personal, business or employment reasons, and some of them just leave the country and move out of the U.S. believing that their resident status will be valid indefinitely, but when coming back to enter the US they are asked to give up their green card by the immigration officer at the port of entry to the United States. This individuals lose their resident status or green card, and when wanting to travel to the U.S., they would have to obtain a non-immigrant visitor visa. If in the future they want to live again in the U.S., they will have to go again over the complicated process of applying again for a new green card, in some cases the condition that helped them to apply for a green card won’t be valid anymore, so they won’t be eligible to apply for a new green card. However this difficult situation can be avoided in most cases if the green card holder intend to come back to live in the U.S. in the future, there is special immigration permit that can be obtained to live out of the US temporarily and keep a green card or resident status valid, it is called the reentry permit and is usually valid for a maximum of two years. The green card holder can apply for a new permit after the current permit expires. Several green card holders are not aware of this immigration re-entry permit or aware of the fact that they will lose their green card if moving out of the U.S. and end up losing their green card or resident status permanently.
For more information about how to obtain a Green Card Reentry Permit, download the “Reentry Permit” Immigration Package.
CLICK HERE to download the Green Card Reentry Permit Application Information Package FAQs, including instructions and application forms.
Order this immigration guide to learn how to apply for a reentry permit, how to obtain immigration application forms, instructions, and more information about how to live temporarily abroad without losing a U.S. resident status. It is very important to take into consideration that to apply for a reentry permit you need to be physically present inside the United States. You can not obtain a re-entry permit abroad. US embassies or consulates don’t issue reentry permits. Reentry permits are only available for green card holders with the intention to go back to live in the U.S. before the expiration of their reentry permit.
Frequently Asked Questions that will be answered when ordering this immigration guide:
Description of the Reentry Permit
For how long can I live outside of the United States and still keep my green card valid?
May I renew or replace my green card if I am outside of the United States?
I had a green card that expired a few years ago and now I live outside of the U.S., can I renew it or obtain a new green card?
Application forms and instructions
How to apply for a reentry permit
How to apply for an SB-1 returning visa.
How to prove that I intend to comeback to live in the U.S.?
Download this Guide to learn more about the application process to renew an expired Permanent Resident Card (Green Card) and to have access to many Answers to Frequently Asked Questions including application information, how to eFile, instructions, and forms to renew your expired Green Card.
Product Type: Download in PDF format
Delivery Time: Online Download
More Green Card Reentry Permit Information:
What is U.S. Citizenship
U.S. Citizenship Information
Immigration Guides
Immigration Packages
Immigration Forms
