Working outside US with conditional 2 yr green card

[CraigAndCourtney 0]

I have a question that i am hoping someone will be able to answer.

Having been successful in obtaining my conditional 2 year green card, i have found it near inpossible to get a job in my related field. I have been trying now for 6 months and all I have got is one phone interview. All i ever hear is that I do not have "American experience", even though i have worked for half my career with US companies in London. Therefore, financially, it was neccessary for my to come back to London to get a temporary job as my wife and I had eaten into our savings.

So, I have now found a job in London, with another major US company, and its going really well. So well in fact that they have now offered my the job permanently. And here is the dilemma, i could take the job in London, and risk losing my green card as by taking a permanent job as I would obviously be out of the United States for more than the conditional 12 months, or i leave after my contract finishes and go back to the US, eat more of my savings and be unemployed until I find a job if I can, but not know how long that will take.

So my question is this: If I stay in London and take the permanent role, and am outside the US for longer than the allowed 12 months, is there any stipulation that allows for financial reasons for me to be outside the US for more than the US without losing my green card. And if I do lose my green card, is there any penalty to which if I choose to move back to the US, I can not re apply for another green card.

I have also thought maybe, that as it is an american company i work for, is there any way that the US parent company can employ me, the place me in the London arm, but as a employee of the US parent. I can imagine that if you have a conditional green card and your employee wants to send you overseas, there must be some stipulation that allows for you to move outside the country without losing your green card, as you are still married to my american wife?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

[JoannaV 174]

You might be able to keep your green card by flying over to the US sporadically (and you could combine that with efforts to find US-based work). But when it comes time to do Removal of Conditions I'm not sure that would work. It might depend on what evidence you have that you actually moved to the US permanently in the first place, and how well you can convince them that your current stint in the UK is temporary. If you were able to get a job offer in the US then that would solve that problem too.

It would be great if one of the companies you've worked for, or currently work for, could get you a job in their US-based side. Other than that they can't do much for you though. The only allowance for overseas-employed green card holders is when they or their spouse is abroad working for the US government or military. Working abroad for a US-based company doesn't count. (Although, could maybe help you at POE when you are visiting the US.)

If you lose your green card you can apply for an IR-1 visa at any point. There is no penalty for doing that. There is also the Returning Resident Visa, which could work for you if you are away for less than 2 years.

Some people find they have to do Walmart-type jobs and live very frugally for a year or two or even more, if America is really where they want to be. I don't know what the job market in your particular field is like right now, but is the "American experience" really something important that they seriously mean, or is there just a great competition for jobs right now?