Maintaining green card while living in canada temporarily

[percycat]

Hi,

My wife and I will be moving to Canada while I take a temporary job for two years. I am a US citizen; she is a Canadian citizen and has a green card. She has lived in the US for over 20 consecutive years. Before we move to Canada, does she need a reentry permit (even though we will be coming back to the US at least a few times a year)? Can she apply for US citizenship before we leave for Canada so that she does not have to start over with the consecutive residency requirement?

[Harry Callahan]

Yeah I had several years of experience with a Canadian PR card and US green card at the same time, which is even worse than what you're doing.

If you can clearly prove that your job in Canada is temporary and you will be there for only two years, then it's totally fine. Maintaining a US street address, driver licenses, bank accounts, utility bills, and car insurance (if you can) will help a lot. Always file US federal income taxes and file with a US address if possible. Do not stay out of the US for more than six months at a time under any circumstances. For any trips under six months, they have to prove that you abandoned your US residency. That's hard enough that they won't bother. Once you exceed six months in any one trip, the tables turn: now you have to prove that you maintained your US residency. Good luck with that. I was very careful never to exceed six months (longest trip was 157 days).

After about two years it becomes increasingly harder to claim that your residence abroad is temporary. At this point you would need to apply for a re-entry permit. On paper you're supposed to apply for a re-entry permit before you go abroad for two years. In reality, I would wait as long as possible before applying, since the re-entry permit is a limited resource (they won't renew it for you indefinitely). Applying for and/or renewing a re-entry permit can only be done from within the US.

Applying for US citizenship takes 5 to 9 months for routine applications, depending on where you live. That's from the day you apply to the day you take the oath. Practically speaking, you have to be in the US for the entire period of time that your application is pending (very short trips abroad are OK; anything more looks very bad on your application). Look up the processing times for your city at https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/processTimesDisplayInit.do Unfortunately, you can't move to another city to apply faster; moving resets the three-month timer (you must live in one USCIS district for three months before applying).

The continuous residency requirement is only reset if you spend more than six months (probably) or one year (almost definitely) outside of the US. As long as you return at least once every six months, you won't break the residency requirement. You'll still have to satisfy the physical presence requirement though.