hi everyone I've been getting a lot of requests to make a video on everything you can do to prove you
did not abandon your green card now I made a video similar to this back in 2020 but now since then
we've represented over 300 400 clients coming into the country every circumstance is different and
we encountered a lot of things so in this video we're just gonna go down all the things that I can
think of off top of my head from everything I've experienced hopefully you find it helpful enjoy
hi everyone this is Joseph I'm the managing partner here at Tsang & associates where we
solve legal problems with creative solutions so the legal problem is that if you've been out of
the country for over a year technically you could be deemed that you've abandoned your green card
and I know that sounds ridiculous because it's tremendously difficult to get a green card it's
like you buy a super expensive car and then you park it in the garage and then somebody says oh
well you must have abandoned your car well no right like it's so important I went out of my
way I wait list I bought it I clean it why would I abandon it but anyways arguments aside the law
is if you have been out of the country you could have abandoned your green card because technically
if you don't use it you lose it and as an lpr as a permanent resident you should be in the country
you should be working you should pay paying taxes that is a minimum requirement I get it that's the
law so let's prove it the argument falls into two camps the first camp is proving that the u.s
is your home the second camp is proving that the reason that you've been out was temporary
in nature it was supposed to be short it's out of your control let's start with the first camp
how is the u.s your home everybody is different if you're a young kid well you have different
documents if you are an entrepreneur you have different documents so without talking about each
different category I'm just going down a whole bunch of lists okay so let's get to it you have
hobbies do you have pets do you have charities that you donate to do you have dependents do
you wire money to people in the u.s you know I know a lot of people will wire money out of the
u.s to help people but many people also wire money into the u.s do you have dependents you
have young children do you have parents if you got your green card through family based do you have a
lot of family here do you all live in the same jurisdiction or area do you have a family tree
to show all the people that are connected do you have an amazon account you have an amazon prime
account you have netflix account you have hulu account you have hbo max account do you have a
library card do you have a local gym membership or do you have a national chain membership
how long have you had these said memberships have you been there for a long time do you go
to church do you go to mass you go to your temple do you have people who know you who can write like
letter recommendations about your involvement even though you've been out of the country do you have
zoom meetings with particular members are you a part of a soccer team are you part of a baseball
club are you part of a collector's club that plays dnd magic the gathering anything that's
fun that you have a particular group that you guys participate together do you go to competition are
you part of a chess competition a golf competition are you part of country clubs at golf resorts
where you go and play do you have a tee off that's coming up that you're supposed to go
to that's very prestigious and important are you supposed to meet with important people celebrities
ceos investors do you have these meetings that take a long time to schedule and that you need a
schedule that you've been continuously scheduling do you pay taxes do you pay property taxes do you
have bills do you have insurance do you have a house do you have an apartment do you have a condo
have you been hiring people to maintain your residence your house uh was there a major leak
do you have a tenant dispute do you have an investment dispute do you have a litigation
that you need to fly back for to contest are you an influencer do you travel around the country
do you take a lot of pictures do you have a lot of followers do you have a lot of followers in the us
who rely on your content are you an entertainer do you have a podcast do you have a youtube channel
do you have a photography blog or are you an inventor do you have a patent pending do you
have a trademark that's being applied do you have a company do you have an llc a sole proprietorship
do you have an s corp do you have a c corp do you have shareholders that you report to
do you report to shareholders because you run the company do you have an official title are
you a secretary treasurer of a company or of a non-profit or of just your hoa association
what is your resume how do people know you do you have a wikipedia page do you have a linkedin page
what is your job do you have a retirement plan do you have a 401k do you have social security
do you have a pension do you have a retirement account you have a life savings account you have
a term life insurance do you have a universal life insurance do you have a stock portfolio
do you have an investment banker managing your funds and investing in certain things are you an
angel investor do you have other ceos that report to you is somebody desperate and relying on your
investment in order to start a company do you have real estate agents that's helping you shop
for a property do you have accountants do you have lawyers do you have professionals that's
helping you establish your roots in the us did you pay taxes over the past five years 10 years
do you owe back taxes do you owe a mortgage do you owe a lot of money to u.s entities
do you have student debt how much money do you owe to different entities because
all of these things route you in to the us fabric whether culturally whether it's friendships
whether it's other us citizens whether it's it's other companies entities to the government itself
show your roots the purpose of all of this and more is to show that you are deeply
and inseparably connected to the fabric of the u.s commonwealth all right now part two why did
you leave why did you leave for one year for two years for three years or more so plane tickets
when did you leave why did you leave what was the original intent did you buy a return ticket
you've been stuck covet happened what was the government policy at that time in april of 2020
where did you go japan has certain policies print out all the different policies from april 20th
all the way to the present if you're flying back in how many times did you try to return did you
email a friend did you talk to a friend are there travel agents that helped you prepare documents
to show that you were going to come back but then you couldn't come back and then you had
to buy tickets again did you get turned away by a certain particular airline did you try to contact
the embassy did you email the embassy did you pay for an interview with the embassy did you
get denied by the embassy did you try to go to a different embassy did you get covert did you
get sick did somebody else get sick around you what's your relationship to them did you go to
the hospital did you buy things for them how why did you have to carry that for them why couldn't
other people care for them how many people were stuck with you and why couldn't you come back
were you hospitalized how were you hospitalized what kind of medications were you on what kind
of major surgery how much did it cost relative to us dollars and to the the living standard
over there did it cost a whole year's salary for somebody from your particular country how severe
was it and why couldn't you have come back for that particular surgery show you try to contact
doctors but it would have taken too long your life would have been threatened you are still as of now
still a legal permanent resident and still part of the commonwealth that the u.s should care for so
if you came back to the us you would have died well then it makes sense that you were abroad
did you get laid off did you try to get your job back right maybe you have a job in the u.s and you
left and then now the job could not keep you out for that long so they fired you and did you try
to contest it did you hire a lawyer to contest and now do you have an employment lawsuit in the u.s
did the job in the u.s expect you to return at this particular date but then you couldn't and
you tried to extend it for three months and then you couldn't meet that because you were stuck how
did you fund for all this expense while you're overseas if you're working overseas and that was
your original intent the entire time and you were working there even before covid well these are
probably not good things that you want to mention if you were a minor and your parents took you out
well that was beyond your control how old were you where did you go what school did you go to and now
when you're coming back where are you going to go what school are you going to go to or did you
graduate you're going to get a job do you have a job offer already show that it was beyond your
control did the company send you is this a u.s company that sent you and your family overseas or
did you just go voluntarily show that other people forced you to go you didn't want to but you had to
were you working for the us government overseas were you working for a u.s company overseas
were you working something that's related to covid were you trying to solve the global supply chain
problem were you solving the global coveid crisis show that you are part of the us's endeavor to
save the world right these grand pictures you are part of the solution and not part of the
problem all this and more you can present but the key thing is don't just shove all this paperwork
before a cbp officer they will hate you they will probably hate me for telling you all of this
but the idea is you need to be able to explain it and when they question you you can find a document
and show them it's just a conversation with the cpp officer at the airport I'm sure you've gone
through that experience before but because you violated a particular u.s law you've been out for
too long they deserve an explanation they need to enforce the u.s law whether or not you agree
with the principles of the law and should it be changed that's a separate question but they are
just doing their job so provide the explanation that they require to let you through good luck
if you have any questions feel free to reach out I hope this has been helpful take care bye