I got my conditional green card in Oct. 2007, and we may move overseas for my husband's new job after we remove my conditional in July 2009.
I'm just wondering do we need to be living in the States for 3 whole year before I can apply for my citizenship?

And what may happen with my green card if we move overseas for a few years?


Does anyone know? Please help!

Yes, you need to have resided 3 years with abscenses not surpassing 6 months and less than 1 year since they might disrupt the minimum stay to apply for citizenship or even to keep your green card. The only reason why this can be overlooked is if your husband is part of the armed forces, government etc and it's not a personal decision to move to another country but an order.

If you want to move overseas for a few years, first; if it's more than a year, you will need a waver to re-enter the country and since the main purpose on getting a Permanent Residence is to "reside" in the US. Second; it means that the moment you reside most of the time overseas, your GC can be canceled because it doesn't fulfils its purpose, what is the point on applying for an American Permanent Residence if you are not going to live in the USA?

Wait for citizenship 3 yrs from now and then you can do whatever you want...

Also moving over for a few years not only re-sets your entire citizenship clock, but you are seriously jepordizing your Green Card status as well and very well could have that abandoned. Which means you would have to start back from the start all over again to be properly re-admitted into the US, apply for a new Green card etc. So you'd be looking at having to re-do what you have just done.

If he is working for a US company overseas, then you could possibly file another form (can't remember) which could possibly preserve your status, though I think that is only good for a year and he has to be working for a US company and be sent over there by them.

At any cost a few years most likely will revoke your Green card and you would have to re-apply from the begining like you had never been in the US before. If you got lucky and they (rarley unless there is major supportive information that you were trying to maintain US residency) then the least would be you would have to re-set your immigration clock but still have at least the Green Card.

You must be living in the US as well to apply for citizenship, so you have potentially a serious problem here if you leave for a few years. The only safe way is what the previous postetd said and that is to wait to get your Citizenship and US passport first before trying anything like this...

Thanks for the info! It helps a lot!