Key Takeaways:
- You may remain outside the U.S. for up to six months without affecting your lawful permanent residence.
- If you anticipate staying outside the U.S. for six months to a year, you should apply for a reentry permit, which lasts up to two years, before departing the U.S.
- If you leave the U.S. for over a year without a reentry permit or over two years with one, the U.S. government typically assumes you have abandoned your LPR status.
Many noncitizens have reasons to return to other countries, sometimes for extended periods. Usually, lawful permanent residents (LPRs) may depart the U.S. and remain outside for up to six months—the green card 180-day rule—without penalty. LPRs may keep their green cards and leave the U.S. for up to one year without advance permission and up to two years with it. Leaving for more than two continuous years typically places your status at risk.
In this article, we explore traveling on a green card. First, we address whether and when you may leave the U.S. on a green card. Then, we explain how long you may leave and what consequences may occur. Finally, we cover your options to protect your legal status.
Can you leave the U.S. with a green card?
As a green card holder, you may come and go from the U.S. with few restrictions for up to 180 days at a time. Typically, you should ensure your green card will remain valid beyond your expected return date.
If your green card is close to expiring, apply to renew it from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) before you depart. After USCIS receives the application, it should send you a receipt notice. Your permanent residence doesn’t expire even though green cards do. If you have to travel, you may present your expired card along with the receipt notice to prove your LPR status remains active.
How long can you leave the U.S. with a green card?
To maintain your LPR status, you typically shouldn’t leave the U.S. for more than one year without a reentry permit or two years with a reentry permit. Whether leaving the U.S. can affect your status in other ways depends primarily on how long you stay away:
- Six months or less—may interrupt your physical presence requirement
- Six months to a year—may interrupt the naturalization continuous presence requirement
- One to two years—usually interrupts the naturalization continuous presence requirement, may abandon LPR status
- Two or more years—usually abandon LPR status
Whether you maintain your presence or abandon your status are the two biggest potential consequences to your status.
Physical presence requirement
You generally have to prove a certain amount of actual physical U.S. presence before you may naturalize. Usually, you have to show physical presence for at least half the continuous presence period, which is typically five years but sometimes three. You must have 30 months of physical presence for five-year periods and 18 months for three-year periods.
Continuous presence requirement
The continuous presence requirement states that, before becoming a naturalized citizen, noncitizens must continuously reside in the U.S. for at least five years for most green cards and three years for green cards based on marriage to a U.S. citizen.
You generally accrue continuous presence for every day you maintain LPR status unless you interrupt it. You may interrupt continuous presence by leaving the U.S. for over 180 days. You automatically interrupt it if you stay away for more than 365 days.
Pro-tip:
Continuous presence isn’t a precise science. Depending on your intentions, settling somewhere else but spending time in the U.S. regularly may not qualify.
Abandoning your LPR status
You may abandon your LPR status by departing the U.S. and demonstrating that you don’t intend to return. You may officially abandon your status by notifying USCIS or through your conduct.
Whether you abandoned your LPR status through your conduct depends on:
- The length of time you spend away
- Why you left
- Your intentions to return to the U.S. (or not)
- Your ties to the U.S.
These factors tend to be interrelated. For example, the longer you stay outside the U.S., the more difficult it becomes to convince the government you intend to return.
Pro tip:
To become an LPR, you must have “immigrant intent,” meaning that you intend to settle in the U.S. permanently (or at least long-term). You may abandon your status by acting in ways that convince the government that you lack immigrant intent now, even if you had it initially. If it concludes you abandoned your status, the U.S. government may deny you reentry to the country, even on a still-valid green card.
How can you avoid the consequences of leaving the U.S. on a green card?
If you want or need to leave the U.S., you may protect your status and ability to naturalize by:
- Maintaining continuous residence
- Receiving a reentry permit
- Qualifying for a returning resident visa
If USCIS concludes you abandoned your status, you generally have to go through the entire application process again to be allowed to return.
Maintaining continuous residence
If you return before you’ve been outside the U.S. for a year, you may be able to maintain your continuous U.S. residence, even if your physical presence takes a hit. You may maintain status even if you remain outside the country between 180 and 365 days. You do so by demonstrating your continued intention to reside in the U.S. by, for example:
- Maintaining your job in the U.S. and not getting a job abroad
- Having immediate family remain in the U.S.
- Continuing to pay your lease, mortgage or other property bills
If you depart the U.S. for a qualifying employment purpose, you may preserve your continuous residence for naturalization purposes. Qualifying employment purposes include working for the U.S. government, U.S. research institutions, foreign relations firms, certain international organizations and certain religious organizations.
Reentry permit
You apply for a reentry permit by submitting Form I-131, Application for Travel Documents, Parole Documents, and Arrival/Departure Records, to USCIS—before departing the U.S. As of October 2024, USCIS is generally taking 14 months to decide Form I-131s.
If you need to travel sooner, you may submit an expedite request. USCIS recommends submitting your request at least 45 days before you need to depart.
The most common reasons USCIS may expedite your application for a reentry permit include:
- Risk of severe financial loss to a company or a person not caused by the person or entity that risks the harm
- Urgent humanitarian situations or emergencies
- USCIS delays or clear error
USCIS may also expedite based on a request from a nonprofit organization that furthers U.S. cultural or social interests or urgent issues related to the public interest, safety or national security. The government or the organization typically takes the lead on applying.
You generally submit expedite requests, along with supporting documentation, online through the USCIS Contact Center or USCIS’s AI assistant, Emma.
Returning resident visa
If you depart the U.S. and remain away for more than one year without a reentry permit or stay beyond your reentry permit’s expiration date, you may apply for a returning resident visa (SB-1) to return. You apply with the State Department—a U.S. Consulate or Embassy abroad. To qualify, you must show that you:
- Were an LPR when you left the U.S.
- Remained outside the U.S. for so long due to circumstances beyond your control
- Maintained the intention to return to reside in the U.S. at all times
Pro-tip:
If you’re already outside the U.S. and want to return, some legal statuses allow you to apply for approval of emergency travel after the fact. LPR status doesn’t—you need a returning resident visa.
Naturalization
If you want to leave the U.S. for over a year, consider naturalizing as a U.S. citizen first. U.S. citizens may live abroad indefinitely without losing their legal status. If your green card is close to expiring, you may apply for naturalization and present that application’s receipt notice as evidence that your status remains valid for travel purposes.
Maintaining your status while abroad
Navigating how long you may remain outside the U.S. while on a green card confuses many. In short, under the green card 180-day rule, you may be outside the U.S. for up to 180 days without penalty. If you’re away for 181 to 365 days, you may return but may have to wait longer to naturalize. And departing for one year or longer may result in abandoning your LPR status.
If you have a green card and hope to take an extended trip abroad, consider speaking with an immigration attorney first. Between the various timelines and different options based on different circumstances, consulting a lawyer may help you submit the right documents, maintain your status and stay on top of deadlines.
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