Retention of green card when taking job abroad

[spinkycow 34]

It would have to be extreme extenuating circumstances for him to maintain his residence status without being a resident.  If i remember correctly he would have to spend no more than six months at a time out of the country, and he would have to have the reentry permit for returning, but even then it would be up to the officer at his point of entry if they let him in. I lost my greencard when we went to Namibia, after 11 months out of the country there was nothing they could do for me, I was made to surrender my greencard at the POE.  I would recommend finding a lawyer to see if you have any real options. 

Best would be if he could get citizenship before leaving, if you get stationed abroad he could apply without having to wait for the residency period to pass (under 319 B). Having gone through the green card process twice I would really recommend you dont do that. 

[Boiler 43,430]

This is not an area to be too specific, I know someone who was out for 4 months and was given a major grilling, I have come across people who have being doing the 6 months visit for years without issues, the latter not recently.

 

My suposicion is that unless your situation is particularly egregious  they will jsut give you a hard time rather than putting you up in front of an IJ. All we can talk about is averages, whilst of course the OP wants to know what would happen in her case.

[mlh 93]

One thing to consider if this move happens before ROC, as a resident he will still have to file his taxes, and while his income is outside the US, he will still have to show it as foreign income (depending on his salary level, he may or may not have to pay additional taxes), however, submitting copies of your tax returns shows proof of a bonafide marriage when you remove conditions, and they MAY look and see that he has foreign income and question that.

 

Also as another poster said, you have to provide your previous addresses for 5 years, and that foreign address would coincide with the foreign income, which they could argue that he's no a US resident, so doesn't need a green card.

 

Someone may come up with an argument against this, but just throwing it out there a food for thought...

[Nitas_man 3,100]

7 hours ago, C90 said:

You can stay out of the US for max 1 year with a Greencard. BUT once you're going to file for ROC they'll going to ask all the previous addresses in the last 5 years and I think also your jobs (not sure of that one tho). If they see that he lived abroad while having a conditional Greencard and had a job abroad, there is a very, very little chance the officer will grant ROC. ROC is ment for people that want to have a life in the US, not people that want 'easy acces' through a Greencard. So if he is already ready to give up his Greencard he can move, if he wants to keep it then he shouldn't take a job outside the US. Like other people said, he should start with a job that's a little under his 'level' to build up a resume here in the US so that he can get a better job later on.

 

Re-applying for a CR-1 will raise A LOT of questions. Why did he basically abandon his Greencard? Why did he move away so quick? Is he really going to stay in the US the second time while the chances are still there that he wouldn't find his dream job. I'm not saying it's impossible, in the end its up to the officer, but it won't be as easy as the first time.

 

Good luck!

Re-applying for a CR1 visa was smooth for us and no questions were raised.  Ditto on SB1.  They don’t care how many times you apply.

[Nitas_man 3,100]

9 hours ago, Michael2017 said:

REENTRY PERMIT BEFORE YOU LEAVE

Not on a conditional.  No point.

[CEE53147 559]

Your hubby will find this article interesting:

 

https://www.aip.org/statistics/whos-hiring-physics-phds

 

[mmsk 9]

1. Remove his conditional status.

2. Apply for Re entry permit. Usually it is valid for two years.

3. Comply to pay taxes while abroad. He may be qualified for some exclusion ( Avoid the exclusion using bona fide resident test. You may use the physical presence test instead).

4. Re apply for Re entry permit if he wants to extend his absence. Usually the second Re entry permit is valid for another 2 years. After spending four years or more out of US, the third Re entry permit may be denied or valid for 1 year only.

5. He should keep ties in US. You and your child is one of the ties plus bank account and etc.

 

I highly do not recommend to visit US every 6 months to maintain the green card. There is a legal way to maintain the green card by applying for Re entry permit. You pay for it but it worth 

 

*** he must be in US while filing for Re entry permit. He may leave after filing and come back for biometric test. 

 

good luck in your journey 

 

[Boiler 43,430]

I think the concept was for all of them to go.

[Nitas_man 3,100]

On 1/18/2019 at 2:55 PM, spinkycow said:

It would have to be extreme extenuating circumstances for him to maintain his residence status without being a resident.  If i remember correctly he would have to spend no more than six months at a time out of the country, and he would have to have the reentry permit for returning, but even then it would be up to the officer at his point of entry if they let him in. I lost my greencard when we went to Namibia, after 11 months out of the country there was nothing they could do for me, I was made to surrender my greencard at the POE.  I would recommend finding a lawyer to see if you have any real options. 

Best would be if he could get citizenship before leaving, if you get stationed abroad he could apply without having to wait for the residency period to pass (under 319 B). Having gone through the green card process twice I would really recommend you dont do that. 

You may have voluntarily surrendered your green card, but nobody can make you surrender a green card at a POE.

 

11 months out of the country is within the 12 months that is allowed without a re-entry permit.

 

A re-entry permit is for stays outside the US for more than a year.  

 

Something is fishy about this post and it does not reflect rules posted on the USCIS website or actual experience.

[spinkycow 34]

On 1/27/2019 at 3:12 PM, Nitas_man said:

You may have voluntarily surrendered your green card, but nobody can make you surrender a green card at a POE.

 

11 months out of the country is within the 12 months that is allowed without a re-entry permit.

 

A re-entry permit is for stays outside the US for more than a year.  

 

Something is fishy about this post and it does not reflect rules posted on the USCIS website or actual experience.

Yeah, this is why I recommend having a lawyer. I am sure if I had sought legal advice instead of just doing what they said it would have been different. I spoke with the people at the US embassy too before travelling and they said I would need a tourist visa as the green card was no longer valid. It was all quite stressful.

[Elrona 101]

On 1/19/2019 at 2:44 AM, Nitas_man said:

Not on a conditional.  No point.

Could you explain why not?

 

I planned to apply for re-entry permit myself to use it as a show of ties to US  as I probably will be out of US for 4-4.5 months because of work reasons.

[pyridine 11]

On 1/18/2019 at 12:18 AM, milimelo said:

Any re-entry permit received will match the expiration date of his green card - it certainly won’t be for two years. 

This is what I've come to understand...he'd basically not even be able to get 1 year on the reentry permit by the time this job likely started...blah. An update on it is he passed the phone interviews and now has an on-site interview next week, although at the Colorado office and not Glasgow. The job is still in Glasgow though, unfortunately. Everything local has fizzed out lately and I'm pretty furious it's coming down to this after the months I spent putting his CR-1 visa application together to get him the green card. 

[pyridine 11]

On 1/18/2019 at 3:28 AM, Nitas_man said:

Conditional?  Lol thats a pain.

We left in 2009, with a year and a half left on that one.  Stayed out 11 months, got chewed out by the officer when we came back in but he said go through.  Left 3 weeks later, filed to remove conditions, returned after 5 months to take biometrics to remove conditions, no problem at re-entry.  By then we had the extension letter. We left after biometrics, then got another letter saying the fingerprints were rejected.  We couldnt go back to retake them, so we filed the form and turned in the green card at the consulate.

A year later, I filed another I130 at the consulate, they processed it DCF, we got an IR1, went home, she got a 10 yr green card.

We lived in the US over 2 years.

We left again in 2014 with a travel document.  Didn’t come back until 2015, no issues after more than a year out.  We left 4-5 weeks later, the travel document expired 2016, but we just stayed out until we wanted to come home for good last year.

I was going to file another I130 but we applied and got interviewed for SB1 returning resident visa.  They ruled she / we maintained ties and granted her one, so we re-entered on that, left 3 weeks later to wrap things up over there, arranged our move etc, and came back in for good 3 months later.

We banked in the US, we had 2 registered/insured cars there, kept credit cards, health insurance, cell phones, US landline, retirement, kept taxes up to date, drivers licenses up to date, and basically did all of our business from US accounts.  

Note:  She was never allowed to work as my sponsored dependent and that might have been a factor.  She was accompanying me and I was the one working.  

So its a pain but you have to be prepared at anytime to re-file and start over if you have to.  As long as that’s acceptable then it doesn’t matter.

I'd be fine with starting over again but it means I'd have to follow him to be able to do DCF again (at least UK is a DCF country...they eliminated it most places now except with exceptional circumstances which meant in Denmark, I had to both have a job offer requiring short notice relocation AND enough money in the bank because of no proven US-based income yet). Problem is if I want to stay here, then we have to sit in line for 1+ year with an I-130 filing to the NVC...no thanks. So I basically have no choice but to join him in Scotland if we're ever going to be together in the US again. This is definitely a problem. And if I go, then there goes all the US ties so we'd really be throwing it in. Definitely can't afford to keep US abode, health insurance, etc if I don't have a job in the US.

 

He's now got an on-site interview for the Glasgow job at the Colorado office next week, so I'm not thrilled. I'm still holding out some kind of irrational hope that they'd somehow let him be based out of the Colorado office. I just don't see how Glasgow can work for us because of all this immigration mess, not to mention that we have a 6 month old?! 

 

So he's basically conditional until end of March 2020. If he applied for a reentry permit and was issued one until then, what do you then have to do? Can he come back to the US at that point and still remove conditions, then maybe apply for another reentry permit (yeah I know this is pushing it), or does it reset the clock? 

 

 

 

[pyridine 11]

On 1/18/2019 at 3:04 PM, mlh said:

One thing to consider if this move happens before ROC, as a resident he will still have to file his taxes, and while his income is outside the US, he will still have to show it as foreign income (depending on his salary level, he may or may not have to pay additional taxes), however, submitting copies of your tax returns shows proof of a bonafide marriage when you remove conditions, and they MAY look and see that he has foreign income and question that.

 

Also as another poster said, you have to provide your previous addresses for 5 years, and that foreign address would coincide with the foreign income, which they could argue that he's no a US resident, so doesn't need a green card.

 

Someone may come up with an argument against this, but just throwing it out there a food for thought...

I'm not too concerned about the tax returns. He was already earning foreign income while resident in the US this past year (from April-October on a remote part-time contract from his original employer in Denmark) and we just use foreign tax credit. Been doing this for years (albeit not while US residents) and nothing is directly reported to the US from other countries, I think you'd have to be audited for them to investigate any of it further. So we'd just continue to file jointly under the US address and file for the foreign tax credit on any foreign income. There's always a small possibility of cross-talk between the IRS and CBP, but I think it's rather unlikely.

[pyridine 11]

On 1/21/2019 at 10:01 AM, mmsk said:

1. Remove his conditional status.

2. Apply for Re entry permit. Usually it is valid for two years.

3. Comply to pay taxes while abroad. He may be qualified for some exclusion ( Avoid the exclusion using bona fide resident test. You may use the physical presence test instead).

4. Re apply for Re entry permit if he wants to extend his absence. Usually the second Re entry permit is valid for another 2 years. After spending four years or more out of US, the third Re entry permit may be denied or valid for 1 year only.

5. He should keep ties in US. You and your child is one of the ties plus bank account and etc.

 

I highly do not recommend to visit US every 6 months to maintain the green card. There is a legal way to maintain the green card by applying for Re entry permit. You pay for it but it worth 

 

*** he must be in US while filing for Re entry permit. He may leave after filing and come back for biometric test. 

 

good luck in your journey 

 

We have to wait until March 2020 before conditions can be removed. Can't wait that long.

 

We used the foreign tax credit while living in Denmark. There's no point to using the exclusion in higher tax countries generally, and there's also conveniently no physical presence test.

 

If he can get a reentry permit for the ~1 year until his conditional green card expires, return to the US for some time for removing conditions (not sure if allowed when he was away?), then get another reentry permit, it could work. The company is a US company with a couple US locations but the position he's interviewing for sounds like it's solidly in Glasgow, unfortunately. If he went, he'd be visiting much more often than every 6 months anyway, given that myself and our daughter will be holding out here. He'll be visiting as much as humanly possible...

 

We'll have to figure everything out if he gets a job offer. Interview at one of the US offices is happening next week now. Thanks for the tips.