Held a Green Card for Over 10 Years, Now It's Deemed Abandoned
Hi everyone. This is more or less a hypothetical question, just because I am interested in the answers not because I have any intention of actually moving.
So, I moved to the USA from England when I was 5 years old thanks to my dad's company transferring us over there. We were only supposed to stay for 2 years, which then turned into 5, and then indefinitely. We were on visas for the first few years, but then around age 10/11 is when we were granted green cards. We remained in the US for a further 10 or so years until we moved back to England just before I turned 22.
We have now been out of the country for 5 1/2 years, so I am well aware that our green cards are now seen as "abandoned," but we had them renewed a year or so before we left so they actually still have a few years left on them before they fully expire.
If I were to ever decide I wanted to go back to the US, what would be the process here? Would the fact I lived in the States for 16 years and had a green card for 10+ years mean anything? Or would all of that be completely irrelevant and the whole process have to be started all over again because we left for an extended period of time? Again I don't plan on trying to return, just curious about what would happen if I ever decided I wanted to try to move back.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/immigration/comments/pnhigc/held_a_green_card_for_over_10_years_now_its/