US citizen working abroad married to LPR

[mike312c 0]

Hello all, 

 

I would like to ask a few questions about the following hypothetical situation. 

 

Let's say I am a US citizen working abroad as an expat for a company, and my wife is a legal permanent resident (LPR). Here are my questions: 

 

1. How long can my wife be out of the US and retain her citizenship? 
2. How often must she return to the US to maintain her LPR status? 
3. Would the years that we spend living abroad while I am working as an expat count toward her years required for applying for citizenship?

Thank you for your time and help, much appreciated!

Mike

[jken 2]

If she's l.p.r., She's not a citizen. No the time out of the country does not apply. I am almost 100% sure if this. Good luck

 

[geowrian 22,335]

1. She has no US citizenship...she can leave the US for up to 1 year technically, but any cumulative time over 6 months outside of the US within a year can raise suspicion of abandoning LPR status, so a re-entry permit (I-131) is recommended. A re-entry permit is valid for up to 2 years.
2. There is no fixed amount of time, but she must maintain her permanent residence in the US to maintain her LPR status. Generally, this is interpreted as spending over 6 months of a year within the US. But it's really up to the CBP officer to make the determination. Again, a re-entry permit can be used to help establish that residency is not being abandoned (albeit it's not a guarantee).
3. Years? Legal permanent resident (LPR) status is not for traveling to the US while living abroad. That is likely to get LPR status revoked. Anyway,  travel outside the US for over 6 months of the year can be be counted as not qualifying for citizenship requirements. See: https://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-naturalization/continuous-residence-and-physical-presence-requirements-naturalization