How do you prove you did not abandon your green card? Why would anybody think you've abandoned your
green card? Well, according to the law, if you've been outside of the U.S and you're a green card
holder then they presume that you've already abandoned your green card right if you're on
vacation you go out for three weeks why would you go out for a whole year did you even file taxes?
Those are the some of the considerations that officers have when you've left the
country for over a year and if you've been out for two three four years then
there's a high chance that they will consider you've already abandoned your green card. But
all hope is not lost, there's different ways to prove that you did not abandon
your green card. That's the purpose of this episode, let's get started
Hi everyone, this is Joseph Tsang. I'm the managing partner here at Tsang & Associates where we solve
legal problems with creative solutions! So the problem is because you've been
outside of the U.S. for over a year, immigration officers are going to presume
that you've abandoned your green card. So how do you prove that you did not abandon your green
card? You've read the regulations, you've watched these videos, you know you have to have a fixed
date, you have to prove that you y have the intent to come back to the U.S., that the U.S is your home
and the purpose of your trip is short. All of these things. But how do you go about doing it? What
can an attorney do for you? What we do during these strategy sessions, that's the purpose of
this particular video. The good news is that your frustration that the law is so vague is that it is
vague. It is supposed to be vague, because it's supposed to be all-encompassing, it's supposed to cover
everyone from all walks of life, whether you're you know upper class or you're lower class, whether
you're Russian, whether you're Iranian, whether you're Muslim, whether you're Christian or Buddhist.
It doesn't matter if you're an artist or an extraordinary inventor if you've been outside
for a year you are presumed to have abandoned your green card unless you have a good documentation and an
excuse and why you did not abandon your residency and so let's figure out how. Okay, so the first
thing is I always ask my clients how did you get your green card? Focus on the story right .
You got your green card somehow. Is it through your family? Is it through business?
Is it through a lottery? Right, so I had a client who's been outside of the U.S. for 10 years.
They periodically come back, but they've been outside for the U.S for 10 years, but one of the
arguments I used was, well how did they get the green card? They got the green card through the
lottery. This is not like family or like business. People who win the lottery need more time to
prepare to uproot their entire life to come to the U.S. so they take a little longer right. If you've
been applying for a green card with your business you are ready so the moment you get your green
card the whole family comes over everything comes over right because you've known for a long time
that you are supposed to be a green card holder, a permanent resident. If you're waiting for
a family visa it's even faster or even longer depending on your situation. So again you
know, but lottery who knows right? It's completely up in the air so this client needed a little
longer and so I used that as an excuse so dive into how you got the green card if it's through
family. Well where is those family members? Are they still here? Do they still want you to come?
Are they willing to write letters proving that they still want you to come? How long did
it take to wait for you to come once you came? Once you got the green card, did you apply for a
re-entry permit and what roots did you put down? or who are you living with, did you buy a house?
All of those things focus on the family, focus on the business right. If you started a business, if
you got your green card because you got an EB-1C you're an executive of a company did you continue
to manage the U.S company and all those employees? How is the company doing? Did it file bankruptcy?
What are you going through right? So a lot of our clients this past year because of the pandemic
they got their green card through either through EB-1A or through the EB-1C a lot of people
through EB-1C well they are executive managers of international companies of the U.Ss company and the
company abroad and the pandemic didn't just hit the U.S., it hit globally but their one entity, their
affiliate relationship, so they went outside and managed the company abroad even though the U.S.
company the companies abroad are not necessarily U.S. entities but because they're affiliated with
the U.S. entity, they are still managing that and so it's still to the benefit of the U.S. entity.
The U.S. company anyways this might sound confusing but we we write out letters with documentation to
prove that it was beneficial for the U.S. company, for this person to be abroad for an extended
amount of time and now they are ready to come back to the U.S. So dig into the past, that's
that's the first advice I would give. The second advice is to put on your EB-1A and O-1 hats. If
you're an attorney preparing a case for a client for the first time, right, so what do you do when
you are an EB-1A attorney or O-1 attorney? You have to prove your client is extraordinary in every way
possible so there's a long laundry list of things that you go through, and you interview your client
about do you have any membership, who knows about your excellence, who's willing to write you letter of
recommendation, what clubs are you affiliated with, are you publishing anything, with
which journal, are you attending any conferences, are you attending any events where you are a
judge or where you're presenting, or do you have any competitions that you've been preparing for?
All of that - apply that to your clients case right now. If they've been abroad for
some time, a year or two years, what are some of the roots in the U.S.? Do they have a high salary in the
U.S., right? All of these things, so apply all of that analysis to our clients we spend a lot of time.
Maybe we come up with 10 or 20 or 30 documentation, get letter recommendations before they arrive so
that they are able to present all of this to the CBP officer or to the consular officer abroad.
Treat it like it's an EB-1A or O-1 extraordinary ability visa case because it will be to your
benefit. My third advice is to treat this case like a reverse tourist visa. Okay. Now if any attorney
has helped somebody apply for a tourist visa you will know how difficult it is to prove home ties,
typically in an ordinary situation you're helping a foreigner Cambodia or Canada or Vietnam maybe
they've had their tourist visa denied and now they really want to come to their friend's wedding
But how do you apply for a tourist visa? You have to prove that they have strong home ties in their
country. Well what are some of those documentation? Go through that exercise but for your green card
holder and prove that they have that same kind of home ties in the U.S. That same laundry list,
go through that right: do you have insurance? do you have life insurance? do you have company? do
you have any memberships? are you sitting on any boards? how did you relinquish your residency if
you're still so connected in every shape way and form, your children - how many children?and how many
grandchildren? do you have in the U.S.? Remember, if you watch this other video they did about miss
Sue, who'd been outside of the U.S. for six years. One of the key reasons why we were able to do it is
because all of her children and grandchildren are U.S. citizens and she's been filing her taxes and
she has all the life insurance and social security, everything in the U.S. so that was a key case that
we did and it was successful and it was really really awesome but that's the exercise right how
do you prove home ties and put down roots. My last piece of advice when you're preparing this case
is to listen. Listen very, very closely, don't be talking and sharing success and talk about process
or talking about how difficult it is the client already knows that listen to their story because
there might be something that they mentioned that you didn't know. Like one time I was preparing a
case and it was very very difficult they just got the green card so it's not that big of a deal to
reapply again but they've been outside for extremely long time the excuse wasn't that great
but they mentioned about their dogs and i was like okay well tell me more about your dogs well like
i have so many i have 13 dogs and who's taking care of them and and i found out that he had she
had a treasure trove of emails and and contact of all the people helping them take care of her dogs
while she's out and no she didn't have children and she is young but she had all of these dogs
and she obviously cared for them well that was a beautiful document to prepare and show the officer
she did not intend to abandon the dogs and if she was rejected her green card
these dogs would suffer extreme hardship and so of course the officer liked that argument very much
and the green card was still intact right so super important to listen because you never know what
you'll find out okay i hope this video helped and this series helped in helping people when they're
abroad and how to come back in the role of an attorney is really to help the client zealously
advocate for their clays to come up with the best argument for them these officers whether they're
consular officers or their cbp officers they see the same story over and over again they're
almost numb to it right find out which agency is reviewing your case right is it that are you
applying for SB-1 or are you flying to the U.S. do you need attorney representation or you do not
and what are all the documents that you can furnish and prepare and practice saying it and
that's the role of an attorney in a way our clients say we're like professional
beggars i like to think of ourselves as we are the UX designers for immigration officers right
we design your package so that the officers can see your case and immediately approve it they
like your story and that's really what we're here for so if you have your story if you've
prepared your case and you want us to kind of jump in and dive in and talk about it we'll be happy to
so give us a call and hope this series helped, best of luck, take care, bye-bye!