Are you in the United States on a green card and you’re considering traveling abroad? Check out this video to find out what it means to have a green card and what you have to do in order to come back to the U.S. when you’re done traveling.
Hey everybody, my name is Barry Zlotowicz. Welcome to the LawFull Channel. On this channel. Today I’m here with immigration attorney Alen Takhsh to talk about traveling while you’re here on a green card. To learn more about Alen, check out his website at
First Alen tells us what it means to have a green card. It means that you are a legal permanent resident of the United States.
There are two types of green cards, one is a conditional green card and the other is a permanent or non-conditional green card. The conditional green card means that you can stay in the United States for two years. The permanent green card is good for ten years.
So if you’re in the United States on a green card and you want to travel outside the United States, there are rules that you have to follow especially if you’re going to spend more than 6 months outside the country.
If you spend five months and 29 days abroad, then, generally speaking, you can return to the U.S. without having jeopardized your LPR status. However, if you spend anywhere from six months and one day up to 11 months and 29 days abroad, then that raises a rebuttable presumption that you have abandoned your legal permanent residence. In other words, the government will presume that you no longer wish to be a Green Card holder. However, that presumption is rebuttable, meaning you can present evidence to show that you never intended to abandon your permanent residency.
Now if you spend even a single day over 12 months abroad, then you will be presumed to have abandoned your LPR status, i.e. with no opportunity to rebut that presumption. Meaning, your green card is dead.
People who are in the US are hoping to become a naturalized citizen. So if someone is here on a green card and they travel abroad, the travel could have an impact on your efforts to become a citizen.
This applies mainly to the time requirement – meaning you have to meet a continuous residence criteria and the physical presence criteria.
In other words, any time spent abroad cannot, except in limited circumstances, be counted toward the required number of days in the U.S. for purposes of filing for U.S. Citizenship. Generally, in order to become a Citizen, one must have spent at least half of the last 60 months (five years) in the U.S. – or 36 months (three years) if married to a U.S. Citizen. Time spent abroad may disrupt the “continuous residence” and “physical presence” requirements.
The best way to avoid being deemed to have abandoned one’s LPR status is to apply for a re-entry permit by filing Form I-131. You must file for the re-entry permit while in the U.S. This will allow you to spend up to two years abroad without abandoning your legal permanent residence in the U.S.

For more information on what it means to have a green card or on traveling outside the US on a green card, reach out to me. If I can’t help, I’ll find someone who can. Info@legalvlogger.com

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