#reentrypermit

Many clients who hold Legal Permanent Residency cards (Green Cards) ask me if they risk abandoning that status by spending more than 6 months abroad. The answer depends on many different factors and should be look at on a case by case basis, however generally the rule is an LPR who makes trips abroad who are not "temporary" loses his/her status. 

 The ninth circuit court of appeals has defined "temporary" as being: 

"we hold that a permanent resident returns from a “temporary visit abroad” only when (a) the permanent resident’s visit is for “a period relatively short, fixed by some early event,” or (b) the permanent resident’s visit will terminate upon the occurrence of an event having a reasonable possibility of occurring within a relatively short period of time. If as in (b), the length of the visit is contingent upon the occurrence of an event and is not fixed in time and if the event does not occur within a relatively short period of time, the visit will be considered a “temporary visit abroad” only if the alien has a continuous, uninterrupted intention to return to the United States during the entirety of his visit."

If you are an LPR and have stayed abroad for more than one year several options may be available. They include: (a) obtaining a valid reentry permit while you are in the United States; (b) apply at a U.S. consulate abroad for an SB-1 returning resident visa by convincing the consulate officer that your stay was "temporary" and that your stay beyond one year was out of your control; or (c) apply to a CBP officer at the port of entry for a “waiver” of the green card requirement by proving that the stay abroad was temporary and that there was “good cause” for not returning within one year.