Reentry Permit: Keeping Your Green Card During Long Trips Abroad

A green card is for people who live in the United States. Long absences can be treated as abandoning your permanent residence:

A reentry permit does not guarantee you keep your status. If you move your life abroad, CBP can still find abandonment. But it prevents a finding based only on the length of your trip and replaces the green card as your entry document for that trip.

Permanent residents and conditional residents can apply. The permit is usually valid for up to 2 years from the date it is issued. If you have spent more than 4 of the last 5 years outside the US since becoming a resident, USCIS usually limits it to 1 year, except in some cases such as work for the US government.

You cannot extend a reentry permit. To get another one, you must return to the US and apply again.

The permit also works as a travel document. People who cannot get a passport from their home country, or who do not want to use it, sometimes travel on the permit, though some countries do not accept it for visas.

1. File Form I-131 while you are physically present in the US. Select the reentry permit option. The fee is $630 as of the USCIS fee schedule dated September 9, 2026.
2. Tell USCIS where to send the permit: to your US address, or to a US embassy or consulate abroad for pickup.
3. Attend biometrics. USCIS schedules a fingerprint appointment in the US. You generally must stay until biometrics are done; you may leave after that, even before the permit is approved.
4. Plan ahead. File at least a few weeks before travel so biometrics can be scheduled. You can ask USCIS to expedite the biometrics appointment if you have a travel date.

Processing times vary. Check the USCIS processing times tool for Form I-131.

A reentry permit protects your green card, not your naturalization clock. For naturalization, trips of more than 6 months but less than 1 year are presumed to break continuous residence, and trips of 1 year or more break it, even with a reentry permit.

Some people working abroad for the US government, certain US companies, or international organizations can preserve continuous residence by filing Form N-470 ($420) before the trip. Use our naturalization date calculator to see how trips affect your filing date.

If you stayed abroad for more than a year, or past your permit's expiration, because of circumstances beyond your control (such as a serious illness or a pandemic lockdown), you may apply for a returning resident (SB-1) immigrant visa at a US embassy or consulate. You must prove that you intended to return and that the delay was not your choice. It is hard to get.

Another option is to start over with a new green card process. Some permanent residents at the border are asked to sign Form I-407 to give up their status. You do not have to sign it; you can ask for a hearing before an immigration judge. Talk to a licensed immigration lawyer if this happens.

While you travel, keep evidence that the US is still your home:

• File US tax returns as a US resident (filing as a nonresident can be used as evidence of abandonment)
• Keep a US address, bank accounts, credit cards, and a driver's license
• Keep a job, business, property, or family ties in the US where possible
• Keep records of why the trip is temporary, such as an employer letter or medical records

See also green card renewal if your card will expire while you are abroad.