Dad in Costa Rica 3mo, he is a LPR

[jax85]

Hi! this forum has been very helpful. My question is for my Dad. He is a permanent Legal resident with a green card and SS#. He lives here in the U.S.
with me, but goes back and forth to Costa Rica (he is retired now) usually three to four months at a time, this time we went online to get his ticket back, but the price had gone up by over 100$us, so he may have to stay about 2 or 3 more weeks so we can come up with the extra cash, problem: this would mean he was out of the US for more that 6 months in a rolling 12 month period. By about 2 weeks. Not 6 months in a row, mind you, just 6 months cummulative. Will this present a big stink with his permanent residency? Thank you for your help and expertise.
(The reason he travels to Costa Rica is a whole other reason with his wife's application for immigration which we have been trying to clear up , they have been married for 15years!!) I read the section on returning to the US. It is not clear if they mean 6 months consecutive , we sure don't wan't to have to get a returning immigrant application with it's accompanying 400.00 fee, Thanks again.

[PraetorianXI]

If it is not 6 months straight he should probably be just fine. As long as he maintains residency in the USA (paying taxes, having a domicile, etc).

But, he may be breaking his continuous residency for naturalization purposes... what is the deal with his wife?

[jax85]

thanks for the info it was very helpful, I tried to reply about my Dad's wife , but for some reason I don't see it posted, Did you get my reply? ( i tried 3 times), Thanks

[jax85]

Well, I'll try again, here it is , a condensed version, My Dad applied for his wifes' visa and it was approved in 1993 I think, but the paperwork has been lost. They found it last year (2007) at the offices in Costa Rica, It had been there since 1995!! They fully admitted that they did not try to contact us because they say the mail in Costa Rica is unreliable. He had over the years repeatedly called and gone in person to these offices, but whoever was there always said they had no paperwork, were they just too lazy to look harder??? Anyway, since the approved paperwork was not picked up, we have to start all over!!! A lawyer will do it for $1500.00 .. too much for us now. Any advice to get this done quickly or at least cheaper. I appreciate your response. (please forgive the typos)