Just to add to the visa vs ESTA subject, do remember that neither give you any kind of guarantee of being allowed in to the US. You will essentially be knocking on the door and asking them to let you in when you arrive, you can be refused entry. It's rare for somebody from a 'safe' country like the UK, but does need to be factored in if your son lives in the US and you may want to visit him from time to time.

If you wanted the right to enter the US anytime you needed/wanted to, then you'd need US citizenship - but I assume you're not eligible for that?

The suggestion of holding on to your GC for the time being until you've spent some time in the UK is a good one, there's also a re-entry permit if you wanted to keep your options open for a couple of years just in case.

Good luck.

You typically need to send in your I-407 and return your GC after you have already left the US as the form asks for the date of your last departure from the US. My letter was mailed to my UK address (you need to provide them with a non-US mailing address on the form) and I also received an email (I provided my email address on the I-407, and I also had an online USCIS account number which was attached to my email address.) The email confirming receipt was about two weeks after date received (which I knew because of info from courier company) and I got the formal notice of action letter in the mail a couple of weeks after the email.

So for clarity, in my case the sequence of events was:
- I left US and set up home in the UK (still had my GC)
- I returned to the US a few months later on a 6 week visit (entered the US using my GC)
- I returned to the UK after my trip, completed I-407 and sent to USCIS along with my GC

Thanks a million.

i could become a USC but never wanted to….never really felt like ‘home’. I feel I have contributed though, supporting my family as an artist and educator.

Fair enough, but it would give you guaranteed entry in the future, which you wouldn't have once you give up your green card. Might be worth considering?

Agreed. Personally, so long as a route was open to me, I would not want to be in a position of needing "government permission" (a visa, or even "preclearance") to visit my own family. And this concern has been brought into sharp relief by the operating procedures of the current regime in DC.

This is good advice if you think you will be making regular visits back to the US, and/or might in the future want to stay longer than the ESTA permits. Since your GC expires in a few months you need to move quickly if think you might want to go down the path of citizenship. As a starter you would need to get your GC renewed, then get a re-entry permit (must apply from within the US) to enable you to stay outside the US for up to 2 years without jeapordizing your LPR status. Doing that would at least buy you some time to try things out in the UK while keeping open the door of returning to the US to live if things don't work out. Sorry to give you something else to ponder......

But if you go down the "I'll hang on to my green card, with a view to possibly applying for citizenship" path, be aware that [1] you can technically only apply for citizenship while living in the US (in reality this isn't actually the case, but you'd need to be careful if you try to apply from outside the US, and would need a US address), and [2] potentially more problematically, when you apply for citizenship you need to have spent most of the most recent five years actually in the US (calculated by days present), so despite holding a green card you can lose the ability to apply for citizenship. And it may not be a simple matter of regaining eligibility if the oldest end of your "most recent five years" was two years of living in the US. If you return to the US to regain eligibility, every day in the US is only going to result in you replacing a day in the US that drops off the oldest end after five years. So even living in the US for two years would not add a single day to your calculated "time in the US".

Thank you for this info. The more time I spend on this forum the more I realise how little I knew before I made the move and how much less stress I would have had if I'd taken more time to ask questions beforehand. Every day's a school day.

What medical deduction. If you are not living in the US, you won't need to apply for Medicare so there won't be any deduction.

The plastic card expires, not her status. She is still a permanent resident of the US even if the plastic card expiry date is surpassed.