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Family of 4 persons, all green card holders from February 2011, had planned to move to the U.S. permanently in July 2011, but forced to remain living abroad(Israel) by reasons beyond our control - severe illness of one of the children, which may prevent us from moving to the U.S. in the coming months, and maybe even longer. The question is how we will keep our current status of green card holders if we forced to stay in Israel for the next e.g. ½ year? Year? Or two? And who will be our point of contact in this situation – USCIS, local embassy/consulate, else? Thanks a lot.
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Hi poganko,
According to law you have to maintain your residence in the US.
So legally, your GC becomes invalid as soon as you take residence somewhere else, regardless of the time you are out of the US.
If you are outside the US for less than a year and more than 6 months, you may need to show that you did not abandon your residency, e.g., by owning real estate, having a bank account in the US, etc.
If you are outside the US for more than 1 year, you automatically loose the GC, unless you have a re-entry permit, which increases the limit to 2 years.
For that you need to file Form I-131, travel document.
This will show the time you were out of U.S. It valid for 2 years.
If you stay outside US longer,if you can convince the US consular officer then still you maybe allowed to reenter US.
Please check with the closest US embassy or consulate ASAP.
Good luck
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I'll do it ASAP as suggested, many thanks.Comment
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