Immigration Forum / USA Marriage Base / April 2005

If your a citizen, then you can go for however long you like.

If your a LPR, then if you abandom your residency, you risk lossing the
card, but you can apply for a re-entry permit if you were to go for a
while for work reasons etc...

Yup, what Bob said, basically. :)

There are steps a GC holder can take to ensure PR status is maintained
if out of the country for a longer period of time.

Once you're a citizen, you're just like every other USC, you can come
and go as you please, however long you please....and have to file US
taxes from overseas if you go live somewhere else.

Reme

Hi:

Lawful permanent residence can be abandoned.  Although the law provides
that an I-551 is a valid reentry permit for an absense of one year and
that one year absense in a break in the continuity of residence for
naturalization, the law only requires that the absence be "temporary" --
a departure of five minutes that is not "temporary" will cause
abandonment.  A departure of 20 years that is not "temporary" will NOT
be construed as an abandonment.

Myth:  you can keep LPR status by returning to the US once a year for a
short visit.  Again, this is a MYTH which, for some reason, refused to
die -- and creates a level of income for this immigration attorney.

Citizenship -- there USED to be a requirement that one of the
qualifications for naturalization was a promise to reside permanently in
the US.  There was a presumption that being outside the US for a year
within five years of naturalization showed that the promise was not
honestly made, so was a ground of denaturalization.  However, this is no
longer in the law.

From 1952 to 1976 there were certain "retention" requirements for
certain US citizens at birth who had been born abroad -- you had to be
live in the US for at least 2 years to retain citizenship.  This was
repealed in 1976.

Residence abroad has NEVER been a ground of expatriation.