Legal Question in Immigration Law in California

Re: Green Card

The law in this area is somewhat confusing. However, a few general principles can be stated. A permanent resident can return from a trip abroad of one year or less and be re-admitted by displaying her green card. If she thinks the trip will be longer than one year, she has to apply for a reentry permit before leaving. If she doesn't have one when she comes back, the green card will not be sufficient to get her back into the US. A lot of headaches will then result. We can help her apply for a reentry permit.

The info you received from the "non-professional source" on the 6-month is misleading because it pertains to a different issue: continuous residence for US citizenship purpose. If your lady friend wants to become a citizen, she has to reside continuously in the US for a period of at least 5 years immediately preceding filing for naturalization (at least half of that time must have been physical presence in US). An absence of six months or more but less than one year breaks this continuity unless she can give a reasonable explanation for the absence. An absence of one year or more automatically breaks the continuinuity unless she takes steps ahead of time to preserve the continuity. So, coming back from a trip of more than one year, even with a reentry permit, will break the continuous residence even though she'll be readmitted. This isn't a problem if she has been

In any case, she should maintain her US address, US bank accounts, and carefully document the family situation to show why she needed to be abroad.

Liem Doan, Esq.