Waiting period between first entry and delivery of the Green Card

[alexisc568]

Hello all,

I am about to enter the US with my immigrant visa next week after an almost two year wait of consular processing. My visa will expire in a month so I have no choice but planning a trip to validate it.

I know that once the immigration officer lets me in, it should start the process of creating the actual Green Card and and they should mail it to my american address within 120 days.

However, my plan was initially to simply come for a visit of several weeks but to then return to my home country to close things down before moving for good. I still have a full time job and I can't just move overseas over night.

Do you think it would be okay for me to move back to my country after entering the US before I actually receive the real green card, and then have family safely ship it to me once they receive it so that I can re-enter the country with the real GC later? Or is it extremely recommended to remain in the US during that time?

Nothing that I read online seems to be clear about this, please help!

[newacct]

It's perfectly fine. Your family doesn't need to ship the GC to you and you don't need the GC to re-enter later -- your immigrant visa, stamped upon entry, automatically turned into an I-551 (equivalent to a green card) for one year from your date of entry. So say you enter in late June 2020. That immigrant visa turns into a temporary green card until June 2021, and you can use it for all purposes you can use a green card for (including working in the US, re-entering the US, etc.) until June 2021, even though the "expiration date" of the immigrant visa was July 2020.

[alexisc568]

Thanks for your answer newacct! That's exactly what I needed to hear. It's surprising that none of this information was given to me when I got the visa...
I will try to look a little deeper on the official websites, I will want confirmation before taking the risk of boarding a plane with no GC I suppose.

But thanks a lot again!