Traveling Outside the U.S. as a Conditional Resident

There are limitations on the travel rights of conditional as well as permanent residents.

By , J.D. · University of Washington School of Law

If you're an immigrant to the United States with conditional resident status (which expires after two years unless you take further action) you have, during those two years, the same rights and responsibilities as a U.S. permanent resident. In fact, the popularly used term "green card" is often used in reference to the identity document held by both conditional and permanent residents. Among the rights enjoyed by green card holders is that to travel outside the U.S. and more importantly, be allowed back in afterward.

However, there are limitations on the travel rights of conditional as well as permanent residents. For example:

  • By spending too much time outside the United States, or giving up your home base here, you could lose your green card based on having "abandoned" your U.S. residence.
  • With any trip, you could be barred upon return if you've become "inadmissible."
  • If you got your conditional residence based on marriage to a U.S. citizen and you'll be spending a long time outside the United States while your U.S. spouse stays behind. Such long separations might make it difficult to prove, as a condition of converting from conditional to permanent resident status, that your marriage is the real thing.

We'll discuss all these issues here.

How Much Travel Outside the U.S. Is Too Much?

The U.S. government expects that green card holders will truly live, that is, make their primary home in, the United States. In the government's eyes, someone who just wants to jet back and forth between international destinations and not really settle here does not deserve a green card.

That conflicts with the desires of some immigrants, who operate on the myth that as long as you return to the United States at least once a year, you can keep your green card. That isn't true. In fact, technically speaking, you can lose your right to a green card after one day outside the United States, if you left with the intention of establishing a home elsewhere. This is referred to in legal terms as abandonment of residence.

Short trips rarely produce such extreme results, of course. A person returning to the U.S. after a few days isn't likely to face a lot of questions from the U.S. border official who who would have to raise this issue. But the importance of your intentions, and in some cases being able to prove them, is worth bearing in mind as you make travel plans.

In fact, trips of up to six months don't usually raise many questions. However, if the trip lasts longer than six months, the questions you'll face upon return will get more probing. And if the trip is longer than a year, you'll raise a legal presumption that you've abandoned your U.S. residency, and will have to work hard to convince U.S. immigration authorities otherwise.

It's best to be able to show that you were kept away longer than expected by forces beyond your control, for example by a medical problem or the death of a family member. (Bring documentary proof of such events.)

Are There Other Reasons You Might Be Refused Reentry to the United States?

Any time you, as a green card holder, leave the U.S., you take a risk. Upon return from any trip longer than 180 days, you could be found "inadmissible" and refused reentry. The grounds of inadmissibility found within the U.S. federal immigration law include things like having certain medical problems (namely tuberculosis), appearing likely to become a public charge (receive government assistance), and having committed certain crimes. (In fact, in order to receive your green card in the first place, your admissibility was evaluated; that's why you took a medical exam, had to prove financial capacity, and had to provide fingerprints.)

The list of things that make you inadmissible is longer than is found within the grounds of deportability. These are things that could land a green card holder in removal proceedings without having left the U.S. first. So if you've become inadmissible, you can often avoid trouble by staying firmly put within the United States until you can apply for U.S. citizenship.

How Extended Travel Could Delay Your U.S. Citizenship Prospects

If you got your conditional residence based on marriage to a U.S. citizen, then you enjoy an advantage that many other green card holders don't. You can apply for citizenship (to naturalize) after three years, rather than the usual five years after getting your green card. (This assumes that you stay married to, and continue living with, the U.S. citizen all that time.)

If you got your conditional residence as an investor (category EB-5), however, you'll still be subject to the five-year wait.

In either case, though, your wait to apply for U.S. citizenship could get longer if you spend a lot of time outside of the United States. That's because of the requirement for naturalization that, during the three or five years leading up to your application:

  1. you have been physically present in the United States for at least half of the time
  2. you have lived in the district or state where you are filing your application for at least three months, and
  3. you have not spent more than a year outside the United States.

If you can't prove all three, you'll need to wait longer to apply, until all three are true.

Complications of Spending Time Apart If Your Residence Is Based on Marriage

If you gained conditional residence as a result of marriage to a U.S. citizen, you'll need to prove, at the end of two years, that the marriage is still intact and bona fide. The usual ways to do this involve submitting (along with the required USCIS Form I-751) copies of documents showing that you live together, share financial accounts, and so forth.

But if you're spending a lot of time in different countries, this task will get harder.

It's not an impossible task, but you'll need to be aware of the immigration authorities' likely concerns, and collect documents proving your ongoing marital relationship. For example, you could show that you made phone calls and visits to each other, set up joint investment and retirement accounts (other than the separate bank accounts for daily, local use), had children together (that's always pretty convincing evidence), and so forth.

When to See a Lawyer for Help

If you are a conditional resident who needs to travel for a long period outside the U.S., you risk losing your status if immigration authorities deem that your required residence was abandoned. Before you travel, consult with an immigration attorney about how best to preserve your status, including possibly applying for a reentry permit.

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