Thinking of abandoning Green Card for now and re-applying in future

[Alder Evergreen]

My wife got a green card through marriage. Long story short we are living abroad now and plan to for the foreseeable future. If she was to abandon her GC (properly), what is the procedure like if we ever decide to put roots down permanently in the USA in the future. Is it basically just me petitioning for her GC and jumping through all those hoops again? Or would we have to do something extra?

[UScitizenFilingforspouse]

My wife got a green card through marriage. Long story short we are living abroad now and plan to for the foreseeable future. If she was to abandon her GC (properly), what is the procedure like if we ever decide to put roots down permanently in the USA in the future. Is it basically just me petitioning for her GC and jumping through all those hoops again? Or would we have to do something extra?

I would not abandon the green card. If you are employed by a federal agency, military, not for profit that furthers the interest of the US, she may qualify for citizenship without having to meet the continuos presence requirement.
If she left without a re-entry permit, she could apply for a SB-1 returning resident visa, when you decide to move back to the US. The process is similar to applying for an IR-1 (Immediate relative) but you skip the I-130 Petition for alien relative. https://travel.state.gov/content/tri...-resident.html

If you're able to, she could fly to the US, and apply for a re-entry permit and then leave.

Here is a good article for you. https://cliniclegal.org/sites/defaul...R%20Status.pdf