UK citizen w/green card in US returning to UK w/ US wife

Hi -

I am married to a UK citizen who has a US permanent resident green card.  We live in the US.  He has been here for the last five years since he came over for us to be married.  We are now contemplating moving to England to spend time with his family now that we have a son.  I believe that there is a 2 year restriction for him to be out of the country and not lose his green card.  I am planning on coming over on a spousal visa which should allow me to work as far as I can tell.

Just wondering if anyone has found themselves in this position and had any recommendations/warnings for us.  I am also curious if there are any special things that my husband may need to do since he has been out of the country for so long.

Thanks in advance.

I'm in the same boat (I'm the UK husband), though I don't have my green card yet, and it's not certain that we will be moving back (it depends whether my wife gets a teaching contract in the new school year).  I will be particularly interested in hearing the stories of anyone who e-filed for their spousal visa through the New York consulate, since that's the route we'd probably take.

You can remain outside of the US for 1 year and come back to the US without a reentry permit, 2 years with a reentry permit.  But as soon as you leave they can deny you entry (with out any sort of time restriction) if they feel you've abandoned you US residence.  (I got all this off  uscis.gov ).  If you permantly move to the UK he will most likely lose his green card.  He's had his green card for a while, why doesn't he become a US citizen and then have dual citizenship?  I believe the wait time from application to ciitzenship is 6 to 9 months right now.

I believe the wait time from application to ciitzenship is 6 to 9 months right now.

It depends whereabouts in the country you are. If you are in South Carolina, like me, it is more like 2 or 3 years.

We are in a similar boat.  I am US citizen comtemplating moving to London with my UK husband  We have applied for and are waiting for his permanent green card with the conditions removed. 

Here's a link that talks about what's required as part of keeping permanent residency.  I think the biggest thing is making sure that you look like you are still maintaining ties to the US-- keeping US bank accounts, keeping US id (driver's licenses up to date, if possible), and continuing to file taxes in the US.  That last one is a big one, as friends of ours in the similiar situation found when they moved to England for a couple of years and then returned to the US.

http://uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/PermRes.htm [nofollow]

DW had a green card for 6 months before we made the move to England 3 years ago.  We had originally applied for her greencard in Arlington, VA, boy was it a pain to go there!

Our move to England was permanent, so after her 1st or 2nd trip back to the States they took it away from her.  We said we didn't live in the US, didn't have a residence there and they took it off her on the spot and entered lots of stuff in the computer system and said if we did come back to live in the US then there would be records - I guess the immigration officer was suggesting it might be used to regain her greencard more easily? dunno.

Where we were it was potentially more than a year to get citizenship, something she wasn't sure about getting anyway so that idea was abandoned and now I'm getting my British citizenship on Wednesday!

Matt