US to UK to US oh my

Not that this is an issue in the foreseeable future but I was wondering....

We are going to the UK to live for a while.  My husband has his permanent residence card good for 10 years.  So he obviously loses it since we will be out of the country for longer than the one year. . .

So what happens if and when we want to come back to the USA?

Has anyone had experience with this?

I think we are in a similar situation. My US wife came over to live in the UK and a year after arriving she wants to go home. The process isnt too complicated, just time consuming. You will have to fill out forms and send them back, then get some more forms sent to you and fill those in and send them back and so on. The only thing that take a bit of extra time is getting a "Police Certificate" for the UK spouse, this is essentially his/her criminal record and usually takes a week or two to be sent to you. Also the US citizen needs to provide his/her last 3 years of tax returns.

Once all of the forms have been sent off, you will get an interview date (mines tomorrow ) they will be taking blood from me, giving me shots and interviewing me. Hopefully everything will be in order and if it is (touch wood) , from the moment I leave the embassy ill be allowed to go and live in america. I've been married less than 2 years, which means i can live and work in the US for 2 years i think, after then i have to apply for permanent residence. if you have been married longer then you get permanent residence immediately. Here is a good website with plenty of information on the kind of things you will need to get together:

                  http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_web/visa/iv/ivindex.htm

Thanks KingBeast.... thing is...will they not readmit him knowing we already lived in the USA and then moved to the UK and then want to go back to the USA?  He went through a lot of those certificates and tests when he got the fiance visa to move to the USA three years ago. 


I just worry that they will say, "I'm sorry the USA was not good enough for you the first time so no you can't come back."

I wish he had had enough time to get his US citizenship, but that would mean a whole year or more and my University will start in September.    Not enough time . . .

Oh sorry, I was being stupid!    Hmm in that case im not sure what to tell you. Though it would seem rather petty of them to take that kind of attitude wouldnt you think? My gut feeling would be that he could still go through the process again. Maybe it would be given a lower priority though? Perhaps someone else will know the answer to this one...

Oh you were not being stupid!  Just helpful!

I think I found the answer, but any personal accounts are appreciated too!

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_web/visa/iv/returningres.htm

I think basically we would have to reapply and do the whole thing all over again.   

We would not be able to prove that we stayed due to circumstances beyond our control so . . .   

Wish this were easier!

I understand that your husband already has his greencard. I think Ive heard of cases before where greencard holders who are out of the country more than one year or have the intention of being out of the country for more than one year may apply for a travel document, which entitles the holder to entry. You may want to look into the travel document route or contact your local service center or embassy. Dont think about having to apply for ANOTHER greencard - focus on trying to keep the one you've got active. There must be preventatitve measures for people who have to do simmilar temporary moves for family or business.

Also keep us posted. Martin got his green card in february and we've been out of the US since 2 weeks after his arrival into the US (greencard day). We're quickly coming up on the 6 months out of the US mark and we're getting concerned about the survival of his greencard. So this might apply to us too.

Best wishes,
Sarah

Just found a post that relates to this one - http://www.talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=4374.0#msg46036

Here's the link that celtic provided re: absence from the US and maintaining one's greencard. I found it extremely helpfull : http://www.jcvisa.com/keepyourgc.htm

There must be preventatitve measures for people who have to do simmilar temporary moves for family or business.

There are not unless you are a member of the military or other government type employee or some one in the UK is deathly ill or dying.

Moving as we are simply with the intent of residing in the UK for 3 to 5 years is considered a violation.

When we had our meeting at INS to get the conditions removed from his Greencard (okay is was his meeting after being detained at the airport for having an expired green card -their fault- with only a "travel document" from the US embassy in London to get him in...not something I recommend) I asked under what conditions he could lose the card. I told the lady hypothetically speaking if I went to school then we came back could he come back in with the green card.  She looked at me and said, "No that would not qualify as a reason to be out of the country for the purposes of maintianing residence."  I thought I had better not push it and ask too many questions since she was going to remove the conditions on the card and I did not want to make her think we were leaving or they might have just deported him right then and there.

They might issue you a "travel document" in London but be forewarned that it does NOTHING!  All it does is free the airlines from paying a fine for transporting a person with iffy paperwork to the shores of the USA.  It is up to the immigration officer at the port of entry in the USA to determine whether or not that person gets into the country.  In our case they deferred the case by two weeks, took his greencard away and sent us home. After letting us know that they had the power just to put him right back on a plane to London and how dare we leave while this was pending.  Two weeks later we had a nice immigration man ask why on earth they had even bothered to send us to him and he then took our entire file upstairs and got someone to look at our paperwork (they had had it for well over a year in Texas) and finally after showing some wedding pictures and a tax return for 2003 they approved a removal of the conditions.

We now have a new greencard good for 10 years...  but from everything I have read he will lose it.  So we have to go through the whole REPAT thing when we ocme back....  

Can you tell I am just a LITTLE annoyed with INS at times?

Thing is with all the new rules and Dept. of Homeland Security it has just gotten even more insane.

It is scarey that so much depends on the guy or girl on the front line at the Airport and they are told to be stern.

So.... not sure if I answered anything, but I just want people to be warned that the Travel Doc is mostly crap. We thought it was all we needed to get back in. That's what we were told by London and by a person on the phone in the USA. We landed in London -got the doc. in two  sealed envelopes and were happy he could get back in. Not so.


I hope you guys are able to get back in easily Sarah and that the house sells soon.....I'd still get him back there asap.  Is he conditional permanent or permanent permanent?

Thanks for trying to sort it all out!

And thank you for your warning! I appreciate it. It sounds like you had such a sh*t time and Im so sorry you'll have to do it all again if you end up going back to the UK for a while. Maybe it'll be easier a second time - you'll know what all the pittfalls are!

In answer to your question, Mart SHOULD be perm perm but for now he's conditional perm. The Immo officer that gave mart his (stamp) green card said we should truck right over to the service center in Houston to have his status changed to perm perm asap. we never got around to it on our trip. we only had two weeks.

fingers crossed for both of us eh?