Ja5on

My daughter got a green card a year ago and had been planning on living some time here and some time in the uk. She has been accepted into a very competitive internship in England that will last 5 years. Then possibly stay there or move here.

she’s visiting for 2 weeks and they gave her an emergency document when she got her, luckily waived the fee due to her being under 18.

she was told to come back into the USA she will need her greencard. If she is leaving then she won’t be able to come back for biometrics without a reentry permit.

so the cost is a little over $1000 for both. She’s going to be out of the country way more than she’s going to be in the country at this point. I’m thinking of filing to abandon her greencard and she can just visit on esta like she used to.

I wasn’t sure if I have any other options. The mean robot when I call uscis won’t put me through to anyone and then hangs up.

porkedpie

Isn't this the key point? If she might want to move to the US in future then doing what's needed to maintain her GC will be worth it to avoid all the waiting, forms and $ in future.
However, I know that continuous absences of over 1 year can make that hard so I will defer to others with more expertise on if it is possible.

I suppose for 5 years she'd need 3 re-entry permits over the time, and to return between as I think they only last for 2 each.
Can she get citizenship before she leaves?

Ja5on

I don’t think she qualifies for citizenship because she’s never really lived here. Since getting her permeant residence a year ago she’s spent about 6 weeks here, over 3 trips. One of the requirements is that she lives with me and that I have custody. Me and her mother have never been to court for anything and still get along very well. There’s no legal documents and my daughter is 16. She was thinking of coming here for college but got her dream internship so she’s going to be completing her education there.

SanDiegogirl

What's the point of getting her a green card if she is going to be out of the US for the next 5 years - it will lapse after a year or so.
Sounds like a waste of time and money.

Ja5on

thats kind of my thoughts on it. Originally it was so she had the easy option of going to college here. Or if she fell out with her mother and wanted to move. She thinks she may have thrown it out by accident. It still may turn up at her house. But until we either abandon it or she finds it, she can’t visit.

we’re meeting up with her in Eastern Europe at the end of September. I may give it until then and then abandon it.

S Folinsky

The area of abandonment can be one of the more complicated areas of US immigration law. Although they may be old, the two “mother” cases on abandonment are Matter of Kane and Matter of Huang. Yes, these cases are clear as mud abandonment covers the ground (As per Harry Belafonte in , but I digress).

If you should seed legal advice, I think it is a good idea to consult with an attorney who has actually tried an abandonment case in court.

Ja5on

why would I go to court? Just file form I-407.

S Folinsky

An I-407 is affirmative abandonment. That said, it may be possible to preserve LPR status even during a long absence(s).

In fact, there is an unpublished BIA case where LPR was found to have survived filing of an I-407. Out of idle curiosity, what is the basis of your belief that an ESTA would be forthcoming after the I-407. I would like to know.
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newacct

How did the airline let her board the flight to the US if she didn't have her green card?

If she is still in the US, the appropriate procedure for her to get proof of permanent residency quickly, is for her to file I-90 to replace her green card (which costs $540), and then immediately call to make an appointment at the local USCIS office to get an I-551 stamp. If she has already left the US, then to come back she would probably need to file I-131A with a US consulate (which costs $575) to get carrier documentation for the airline to let her board for travel to the US, and she would still need to file I-90 to replace her green card (for $540). And if she is applying for a Re-entry Permit, that's another $660.

How did she get her green card? Are either of her parents US citizens?

If she doesn't plan to live in the US, then filing I-407 to give up permanent residency makes sense. Otherwise she would continue to be subject to US taxes on her worldwide income indefinitely. (She will probably be able to use the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and/or Foreign Tax Credit to eliminate most or all of her US taxes, but it is still a hassle to file the return, especially when foreign income is involved.)

Ja5on

im a us citizen. She stayed in England when I moved here with her mother. I married a us citizen here. She had an unexpired IR-2 stamp in her passport from when she first came and got her greencard. She also had an unexpired esta, which was cancelled by immigration when she went to secondary for not having her greencard. They filled out a form. It was i-9something. It was supposed to be around $500 but they waived it because of her age. I assume the airline either saw an active esta in the system or went by the unexpired visa. Immigration said that the IR-2 from her visa wasn’t valid because she had already been issued a greencard. Although the visa states that it’s valid for 12 months after it has been endorsed.

newacct

If you are a US citizen, and you are her biological or adoptive parent (not stepparent), and she is a US permanent resident (i.e. green card holder) under 18, living in the US in your legal and physical custody, then she is already a US citizen under INA 320, having become one the first moment that all of those conditions were met (e.g. if you were already a US citizen when she became a permanent resident, then she became a US citizen when she became a permanent resident if she was under 18 and living in the US with you at the time; or, if she was already a permanent resident when you became a US citizen, then she also became a US citizen if she was under 18 and living with you at the time; or, if she was outside the US, then she would have become a US citizen when she came into the US as a permanent resident to live with you while she was under 18). The tricky thing is the "residing" in the US part, as, despite the fact that she is in the US, it seems like she is only visiting, not "residing".

S Folinsky

Ah, some additional facts. You have now been told the issue. You may have misstated what happened at the airport; easy enough to do. Or the CBP people effed up; that happens

As an aside, my mother was born in a country later allied with the Axis during the Second World War. When the US entered the War, she was registered as an enemy alien. Our family lore was that Mom naturalized as a U.S. Citizen in 1943 a month before she married her sailor boy (aka Dad). When I examined her records for genealogy purposes I discovered that in the course of her naturalization application, Immigration ascertained that she had become a Citizen in 1940 when she was 17 and her parents naturalized. She was issued a Certificate of Citizenship reciting she had been a citizen since April 1940. In other words, she had never been an enemy alien.

karenkaren1

I would be doing whatever I could to try and maintain her permanent residence status. A 16 yr old (in my opinion) is too young to appreciate the repercussions and potential future difficulties to regain the status if she ever wanted to. Having a green card is way too valuable not to explore if there is an option for her to get permission to study out of the USA without losing status. When my teenage kids have travelled alone with their green cards, I am constantly on their back about keeping it somewhere safe. Hope she finds it!

S Folinsky

In a different context, the Huang abandonment case cited above discusses that issue. Not having researched it, I am not aware of any authority in the section 320 context.

The practice of flagpoling in many contexts is common.

Rete

Why does she now need to replace her green card? She entered with a valid green card and you are a US Citizen so she might have become a US Citizen the moment she entered the US with her IR-1.