green card expiration
Jul 25th 2001, 11:28 pm
#16
Concierge
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 46,390
INS knowing has nothing to do with your filing taxes. There are Canadians here on the newsgroup who received notification from the Canadian government that they are now non-residents. All without them completing the official non-resident form. How did the Canadian government know? They know because INS told them.
If your wife applies for UK residency status, it is quite likely that the INS will know through a background check on her with perhaps the FBI. Will the UK send notification to the US Consulate that your wife is now a legal resident of the UK? Will the INS match up her name with your name on the computers and thereby know that you are now living and working in the UK?
Your residency is not immediately rescinded. It is when you reapply to enter the US by a re-entry that the issue might be brought up if you have applied for it after the move. If you have applied for it before the move, what are you putting down as the reason for the extended leave from US?
Remember Ameriscott is quoting passages from the I-131 and the INS website and I am quoting what I was told by my consulting immigration attorney and what I "preceive" to be the way of things.
Also there was a US/UK couple who were posters, the Johnsons, and they lived in the US for a while and then returned to the UK and then wanted back into the US. She, the UKC, had to reapply for a green card.
Rita
If your wife applies for UK residency status, it is quite likely that the INS will know through a background check on her with perhaps the FBI. Will the UK send notification to the US Consulate that your wife is now a legal resident of the UK? Will the INS match up her name with your name on the computers and thereby know that you are now living and working in the UK?
Your residency is not immediately rescinded. It is when you reapply to enter the US by a re-entry that the issue might be brought up if you have applied for it after the move. If you have applied for it before the move, what are you putting down as the reason for the extended leave from US?
Remember Ameriscott is quoting passages from the I-131 and the INS website and I am quoting what I was told by my consulting immigration attorney and what I "preceive" to be the way of things.
Also there was a US/UK couple who were posters, the Johnsons, and they lived in the US for a while and then returned to the UK and then wanted back into the US. She, the UKC, had to reapply for a green card.
Rita
Jul 26th 2001, 1:07 am
#17
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 717
<<Also there was a US/UK couple who were posters, the Johnsons, and they lived in the US for a while and then returned to the UK and then wanted back into the US. She, the UKC, had to reapply for a green card. >>
But that was after 11 years in the UK.
But that was after 11 years in the UK.
Jul 26th 2001, 1:19 am
#18
Concierge
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 46,390
Thank you ... I didn' remember the length of time outside of the US.
Rita
Rita
Jul 26th 2001, 11:20 am
#19
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 717
I've just spent ages looking at the code sections of the INS website to see if I could find out anything new.
I couldn't find a single reference to any restrictions about what you get up to when you are outside the US, apart from not being able to do things that would be against the US national interest and illegal activities (i.e. stuff that would prevent you from getting an immigrant visa in the first place). It does not say that you can't take up a job etc overseas, and doesn't mention anything about different rules in your own country of citizenship vs a third country. There is absolutely no mention of '183 days' (turns up nil on their search engine).
The only thing it says is that you have have been admitted as a LPR before you leave (which goes without saying if you are in possession of a green card), and that you have to get a re-entry permit before you leave the US.
Interestingly, it says that if you naturalise to US citizen, then leave the country to live abroad or a more-or-less permanent basis, this is grounds for expatriation. So it doesn't seem that naturalisation guarantees anything at all. Though I'm sure that it's good for a few years, especially if you do your tax returns.
This is totally consistent with the instructions from my immigration attorney - http://www.fragomen.com . It's also consistent with my own experience of being able to enter the US with my green card after an absence of 10 months, even though I *was* living abroad and had no intentions of re-establishing domicile in the US.
It is perfectly possible to have residences in two countries, and the case of a dual national couple, not that strange or unreasonable. Although we are living in the US, our home is in the UK. Should I not be entitled to my green card bacause I don't have long-term aspirations in the US, or rather should my USC husband not be allowed to live in his own country with his family? What do we mean by long-term? Is it not reasonable to want to spend time in each other's countries, for whatever reasons? Of course it is, and that's why there's no-questions-asked for the first year.
To Timiny, if I were in your shoes, I personally wouldn't worry about this. If I planned to return to the US within the year, I'd just go. If I planned to return within two years, I'd apply for a re-entry permit before I left. If I planned stay out longer than that, I'd just re-apply for a new visa at the London Embassy. I personally wouldn't bother with coming back to the US once a year just to keep my green card current. I don't think that is consistent with the intention of residency, and I don't think there's an awful lot to be gained, given that DCF is very straightforward in London. If it did turn out to be illegal to use a green card in this way, I'd have to assume that big brother would be watching with all the passport scanning that goes on.
BTW, after I had abandoned my first green card, I had no problems using the visa waiver.
One last thing re: departure/arrival procedures. I was in the UK in the last month. I don't recall anyone scanning my green card or passport on leaving the US, on entering the UK, on leaving the UK. I believe my passport was scanned on arriving back, but not the green card (I didn't even show it, funnily enough). My kids left and entered the US on US passports, and entered and left the UK on UK passports. This didn't register any reaction from any POE officer on either side.
I couldn't find a single reference to any restrictions about what you get up to when you are outside the US, apart from not being able to do things that would be against the US national interest and illegal activities (i.e. stuff that would prevent you from getting an immigrant visa in the first place). It does not say that you can't take up a job etc overseas, and doesn't mention anything about different rules in your own country of citizenship vs a third country. There is absolutely no mention of '183 days' (turns up nil on their search engine).
The only thing it says is that you have have been admitted as a LPR before you leave (which goes without saying if you are in possession of a green card), and that you have to get a re-entry permit before you leave the US.
Interestingly, it says that if you naturalise to US citizen, then leave the country to live abroad or a more-or-less permanent basis, this is grounds for expatriation. So it doesn't seem that naturalisation guarantees anything at all. Though I'm sure that it's good for a few years, especially if you do your tax returns.
This is totally consistent with the instructions from my immigration attorney - http://www.fragomen.com . It's also consistent with my own experience of being able to enter the US with my green card after an absence of 10 months, even though I *was* living abroad and had no intentions of re-establishing domicile in the US.
It is perfectly possible to have residences in two countries, and the case of a dual national couple, not that strange or unreasonable. Although we are living in the US, our home is in the UK. Should I not be entitled to my green card bacause I don't have long-term aspirations in the US, or rather should my USC husband not be allowed to live in his own country with his family? What do we mean by long-term? Is it not reasonable to want to spend time in each other's countries, for whatever reasons? Of course it is, and that's why there's no-questions-asked for the first year.
To Timiny, if I were in your shoes, I personally wouldn't worry about this. If I planned to return to the US within the year, I'd just go. If I planned to return within two years, I'd apply for a re-entry permit before I left. If I planned stay out longer than that, I'd just re-apply for a new visa at the London Embassy. I personally wouldn't bother with coming back to the US once a year just to keep my green card current. I don't think that is consistent with the intention of residency, and I don't think there's an awful lot to be gained, given that DCF is very straightforward in London. If it did turn out to be illegal to use a green card in this way, I'd have to assume that big brother would be watching with all the passport scanning that goes on.
BTW, after I had abandoned my first green card, I had no problems using the visa waiver.
One last thing re: departure/arrival procedures. I was in the UK in the last month. I don't recall anyone scanning my green card or passport on leaving the US, on entering the UK, on leaving the UK. I believe my passport was scanned on arriving back, but not the green card (I didn't even show it, funnily enough). My kids left and entered the US on US passports, and entered and left the UK on UK passports. This didn't register any reaction from any POE officer on either side.
