this video is about how you can save your green card from being considered abandoned
at the airport. If you are a green card holder and you've been outside of the U.S. for over one year,
one method on how to preserve your green card and save your green card is by flying
to the U.S. airport and proving your case with a CBP officer, with an immigration officer at the airport.
If they believe you, if they looked at all the documents and interview and consider that you
did not abandon your U.S. residency, then your green card is safe! That's this video - let's get started.
Hi everyone, this is Joseph and I'm the managing partner here at Tsang & Associates where we solve
legal problems with creative solutions. So the problem is if you are a green card holder that
have been outside for a year and you fly into the U.S. how do you present your case so you can
convince the officer that you did not abandon your green card? We're going to share the requirements
that the CBP officers are looking for and some of our success stories so you can compare and better
help your own case. All right so let's start with the requirements the CBP officers are looking for
when they're evaluating whether or not a green card holder has already abandoned their green
card. Right now these requirements are pretty much the same as what the consulate officers
are looking at when they're evaluating whether or not somebody abandoned their green card
when they're applying for the SB-1 visa so if you're in this situation
look at what the consular officers are looking at and that's the same thing as what the CBP officers
are looking at but i'm going to summarize it here the first one is the length of stay outside of the
U.S. and the reasons why the three things that they focus on is the purpose of the departure
a fixed end date on why you left and an objective intent to return to the U.S. as your permanent home
these are the three reasons and three factors that they want to see let me share some success stories
with you so you can see how they play out before I get into the stories a quick disclaimer i had to
change the name and the consulate to preserve the confidentiality of the case but otherwise I kept
the facts intact so you can compare with your own case how to employ these similar arguments
so that you can convince an officer that you did not abandon your green card the first story is the
story of miss sun who's been outside of the U.S. for six years she's a green card holder she's had her
green card for 20 plus years but for the past six she's been outside never stepped foot into the U.S.
one time this is pretty much a slam dunk denial case because there is a clear court ruling where
somebody in the exact same situation been outside of the U.S. for six years to take care of somebody
else and the court dean did no you've abandoned your residence you've been outside for too long
if you want your green card you should apply for it again so oh it's a clear-cut
bright line case ruling when you compare our facts to that fact it's so similar that everybody
pretty much discouraged her from trying to enter the U.S. we tried we prepared a lot of
documentation we we interviewed multiple times a lot of back and forth with the cbp officer
and the good news is she successfully entered here are the arguments we employed let me share
them with you now the first thing is we showed why she had to stay out of the U.S. for six years right
six years is a long time considering that people get in trouble for leaving the us for a little bit
over one year and one day she's been out for six years you have to have a really good justification
the main thing is she's old, she's over 70 years old and the reason she had to stay outside is
because her husband was dying because of her husband's complicated medical situation she was
the only person that can take care of him she had to stay there she couldn't even leave for a month
or two months she just had to continuously stay and because the illness is uncertain she kept on
trying to come back but because of the illness and the medical situation that they're in the doctors
and the facility that's required she couldn't just transport him and bring him over because
the situation was complicated if her and her husband were to come back to the U.S. even for
a month or two months he will likely pass away so because of the complicated medical situation
it prevented her from entering that's the foremost argument that we presented nonetheless
it's six years it's a long time so we did the second thing we documented all the assets and
the children and the grandchildren who were green card and you are citizens in the us and this was
the distinguishing factor with the famous court case okay so in the famous court case the person
was outside the U.S. for six years but they didn't have strong family ties in the u.s whereas in this
case Mrs. Swin all her children and grandchildren well not all but a lot of them are all u.s
citizens in the u.s and they had houses they had businesses she had a retirement account she
had social security she had life insurance she had property she was paying her taxes
we presented over 30 documents of her routes and ties to the us and we could easily present 300
documents more that the officer was like okay well i understand the situation and if i present this
before a judge the judge will probably ruin your favor so we would permit her to come back in but
this is definitely an exception that's exactly what the officer said it was amazing we weren't
dealing with the cbp officer at lax we were dealing with a potential judge court situation
and we present and we prepared Mrs. Swin and the grandmother that when she came to the U.S.
she had to maybe stay here for six months to nine months to prepare for her trial and she was ready
for it and we presented everything but luckily the cbp officer did not want to go through a
court ruling did not want to do any reports the evidence was overwhelming that her intent abroad
was fixed even though it was six years but it was fixed because the purpose of it was to take care
of her alien husband and once that that illness is over whether he healed or he unfortunately
passed away then she will return right so it was fixed even though it was long it was still fixed
and she maintained her roots here so that's the sun's success story it's one of my favorites
there's so many other ones and i made separate youtube videos feel free to check them out um
and I know because of the pandemic there's so many nuance situations like i had a client that tried
to fly into the U.S. but each time the airfare would would be canceled and he tried over six
times documented everything and when he presented that before cpp officer they just chuckled and
just waved him in that don't worry about it so this past year has been absolutely crazy the CBP
officers have been very very understanding about this specific situation and we've been helping
a lot of different people strategize and think about what's the best argument to employ because
when you're in front of the cbp officer you really only get that couple minutes and
if you cannot immediately convince them and have the proper documentation then you might be in
trouble right so hopefully these videos help you and if you have any questions about your specific
situation I would love to strategize with you! It's everybody's unique and you have your own
business and friends and family that can all chime in and help and we can all strategize together
so if you have any questions feel free to reach out all right take care bye!