Being outside US

[brokensemaphore 0]

This is probably a dumb question, but here goes:

My UKC husband and I want to travel to England for a few months (probably four or five) to see if it's somewhere we'd ever want to live. During that time, he would be working, probably a temporary job), and we'd have a short-term lease on a flat. If we did this before he applied for US citizenship, would that be abandoning his green card? We'd continue to pay taxes in the US (he has a job here currently, but would be leaving it to travel), but we live with my parents, so we have no lease, utilities, etc.

I'm guessing that this would be considered abandonment of his green card, especially since we'd really have no way of proving otherwise, right? If we wound up staying in England and years later decided to re-do his green card and return to the US, would having abandoned it the first time around affect the process negatively? If so, is there any way to avoid that (legally, I mean-- is there any way to notify USCIS that he's abandoning his green card rather than just doing it? That just seems rude and sneaky to me.)?

I understand, of course, that the better option would be to wait until he's applied for and granted citizenship, but I'm asking hypothetically if he weren't to wait. Many apologies if a similar question has been asked and if so, I'd really appreciate a link to the post, as I couldn't find one.

[brokensemaphore 0]

Bump! Anyone have anything for me?

[brokensemaphore 0]

Surely someone knows something!!!!