US Greencard Holder Going Back to Work in China

[easternwest]

Hi guys,

I am currently in college in the states and I have a U.S. green card. I have had it for 5+ years now so I can apply for naturalization.

I have a very tempting job offer in China with a major international company. The job would start in June/July next year. I graduate in May. I can push it to early August, but no later than that.

I have done a good bit of research and the bottom line is that I want to take this job and not lose my U.S. green card. I basically grew up in the states (been here for most of my life) and have a good portion of my family here and I want to go to business school in the states in the future; having a green card definitely makes visiting family and applying to school much easier in the future.

I know I can apply for a re-entry permit, which will allow me to leave the U.S. for up to 2 years without losing my green card. Has anyone actually done that before? My thinking is that I can take the gig for 2 years, return to U.S for business school and go from there. Or should I hope for the best on the timing and apply for naturalization straight away and hope that works out?

THANKS

John

[crazy-meiguoren]

This State Department web site might help you. Click here

Ultimately, your best advice might come from an immigration attorney. If you can get naturalized while your job offer still stands, that would be great.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

[889]

There are exceptions, but generally an absence of more than a year will break your continuous residency period for naturalization purposes, even though you have a re-entry permit. (You can look at the instructions to Form N-470 to see whether you might qualify for one of those exceptions. http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/n-470instr.pdf )

Note too that you'll lose your green card if you ever abandon your intent to permanently reside in the US.

As suggested above, you should get some professional advice as to the best strategy to follow. You've too much at stake to rely on web board advice.