Lawful permanent residents and travel abroad

Lawful permanent residents of the U.S. are allowed to travel abroad and reenter the U.S. as a lawful permanent resident upon presentation of their "green card" and a valid passport. However, some LPRs can run into trouble if their trip abroad exceeds 12 months or if other evidence suggests that the LPR may have abandoned his or her residency.

If you are an LPR and plan to be abroad for more than 12 months it is critical that you apply for advanced permission to return to the U.S. If you fail to do this before you depart you may find yourself in removal proceedings the next time you return.

For new LPRs it is important that you actually establish your residency in the U.S. I have seen several cases where foreign nationals obtained a "green card" and then simply traveled abroad on an ongoing basis and never truly established a home in the U.S. In these cases, eventually, the immigration officials will catch on and determine that the LPR never established residency in the U.S. and therefor the residency was abandoned.

In either case, if you are a U.S. lawful permanent resident it is important to make sure that you take the proper steps to maintain your residency as it can be revoked.