There's no requirement that a green card holder spend 6 months in the U.S. during the year. You and your wife can and should travel freely. And you could live outside the U.S. for several years and still keep your green card. If you decide to move to Portugal for a period of time, for example, you should consult an attorney but the solution to protect your green card status (for at least 5 years) is to get a document called a reentry permit, which is easy to get.

Interesting. Thank you for the response. If this is true, that's amazing!

Do you know where the 6-month requirement (rumor?) is from? Reading over https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-d-chapter... section C states

"...there are two ways outlined in the statute in which the continuity of residence can be broken:

The applicant is absent from the United States for more than 6 months but less than 1 year; or The applicant is absent from the United States for 1 year or more."

Is this only for citizenship/naturalization and not to maintain a green card?

Yes "the continuity of residence" is required for naturalization.

> An applicant for naturalization ... must have resided continuously in the United States after his or her lawful permanent resident (LPR) admission for at least 5 years prior to filing the naturalization application and up to the time of naturalization.

I’ll spare a new thread and just ask here as we are in the same situation (sorry OP!).

My understanding is we at least need to be in the US once every six months in order for my partner to maintain their green card status while we live abroad.

We were not aware of the reentry permit, does this avoid the requirements of needing to enter the country periodically? We are of course concerned about losing their green card status.

Lastly, how realistic is the timing in obtaining the permit? We have our move planned for next month.

Thanks you as always for these threads!

Re-entry permit is granted for 2 years and the only requirement is that you apply for it while in country. Usual processing time nowadays is around a year so in effect you need to apply once every 3 years for it. They have the option of sending it to a us embassy abroad for pick up but we have always had it sent to a friends address in US and picked it up while visiting US.

You didn't have any issues re-entering the US prior to picking up the permit from your friend's address?

Thanks for sharing your experience. A year is a very long time..I am also curious about the pickup options and address.

My partner will be updating their address to have mail sent to a family member’s address in the US, but we will also be living in a country that has a US embassy easily accessible.

My partner is Mexican, so as you can imagine, they almost always have awful experiences with immigration in the US.

Yes, a year is a long time but evidence of having applied for a reentry permit in the form of a receipt notice is usually enough to reenter the U.S. without issue even with absences of more than 6 months.

That is useful to know. We were expecting a 5-month wait (as of January 2025) and recently learned it could take over a year. Since we've been out of country since applying (no biometrics required) we were concerned about being out of country for over a year with just a receipt notice and permit in pending state.

Thank you both for the responses and sharing, crazy helpful.

I admittedly haven’t done my research today on the permit, but reading your reply now and seeing you can apply while abroad…that’s great news. I suppose my partner can start the process while we are still here, but glad we have the option it seems to do this once we are slightly more settled abroad.

Hope your family gets the permit soon.

To clarify, we applied while in USA (you MUST be there when submitting application and can only leave after biometrics are done (or you get a receipt notice saying you don't need them if they were done recently enough). So definitely don't go anywhere until you apply! (Otherwise you'll need to come back). And I recommend having an immigration attorney fill out the paperwork since the risk of a mistake could cause problems later on.

More info: The 6-month thing is only used for naturalization; if she's out of USA for longer than that it can reset the 5-year clock. And 1 year thing (without reentry permit) means she'd need to come in on a returning resident visa (which technically can be granted upon arrival). If you don't have one already, any immigration attorney would be able to clarify these details. Much easier for your situation as you're a US citizen!