Not Losing Your Green Card Through Returning Resident Visa

[calcoolram]

Does anybody in the Forum have experience with this Visa (SB-1)?

http://www.apsanlaw.com/law-212.save--your-green-card---returning-resident-visas.html

The summary is

A former immigrant who has lost U.S. resident status and desires to return to the United States may do so by applying for returning resident status. This loss of residency could occurr when someone statys out of the United States for more than 2 years with a re-entry permit or over one year without a re-entry permit. An application for returning resident status requires evidence of the applicant's continuing, unbroken ties to the United States, that the stay outside the United States was truly beyond the applicant's control and that the intent of the applicant was to always return to the United States. Evidence may consist of continuous compliance with U.S. tax law, ownership of property and assets in the United States and maintenance of U.S. licenses and memberships.

What situations would allow for this Visa? How have Forum member benefited from this? I would be curious to know people's thoughts on this.

I was thinking about situations where members have a Green Card but are not able to wait for US Citizenship before going back to India. This could be because of multiple reasons like taking care of parents or wanting to go back before Kids become too big. However, due to risk in the R2I process, many tend to wait for Citizenship. If there was a way to come back to the US through SB-1, it would benefit some members. Having waited in line for sometimes 10 to 15 years to get the green card, a way back to US, without Citizenship would be a huge bonus for some members. Thoughts?

[kdeeksh]

As mentioned in the OP, SB-1 is needed if you are a permanent resident in US but need to stay out of the country for more than two years with or without re-entry permit (thus lose GC status). My wife had to over stay in India for more than 2 years (2 years and 7 months to be precise) due to personal reasons (to take care of unwell parent) on GC. Even she had re-entry permit but even that got expired and had to stay there beyond that. So only option for her was to apply for SB-1 to get back but the interview process at the US consulate was very long and stressful. She had to go through two rounds of interview on the same day one session before lunch and one post lunch. It looks like the lady officer was so tough and drilled into every detail and even after submitting all proofs (X-ray and all reports) it was very difficult to convince her it seems. But luckily the end result was positive after all this. I would not suggest this route of applying SB-1 to get back to US as it's very risky and stressful. Just my 2 cents.

[calcoolram]

Thank you for your insight and experience