{"id":589,"date":"2012-08-23T17:33:54","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T23:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=589"},"modified":"2026-08-15T23:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T05:19:14","slug":"green-card-expired-while-outside-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=589","title":{"rendered":"Green Card Expired While Outside the US"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>I had my green card since 1980 but kept my Russian citizenship.\u00a0Two years ago my Mother took ill and I returned to Russia to help her.\u00a0She recently died and now I want to return to USA.\u00a0The problem is my green card has expired.\u00a0Can I use the expired card to come back?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No, and you\u2019ll have some serious problems in regards to maintenance of your residency.\u00a0In order to maintain your residency you should be present in the US for half the year or more or have a very good reason for being outside for so long.\u00a0One way is to apply for a reentry permit before you leave but it doesn\u2019t sound like you did that.\u00a0You will need to either apply for a returning resident visa or obtain a letter from the Consulate to give to CBP when you attempt to reenter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had my green card since 1980 but kept my Russian citizenship.\u00a0Two years ago my Mother took ill and I returned to Russia to help her.\u00a0She recently died and now I want to return to USA.\u00a0The problem is my green card has expired.\u00a0Can I use the expired card to come back? No, and you\u2019ll have &#8230; <a title=\"Green Card Expired While Outside the US\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=589\" aria-label=\"Read more about Green Card Expired While Outside the US\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[129,148,149],"tags":[266,280,281],"class_list":["post-589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-card","category-re-entry-permit","category-returning-resident-visa","tag-green-card","tag-re-entry-permit","tag-returning-resident-visa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Green Card Expired While Outside the US - US Immigration Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=589\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Green Card Expired While Outside the US - US Immigration Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had my green card since 1980 but kept my Russian citizenship.\u00a0Two years ago my Mother took ill and I returned to Russia to help her.\u00a0She recently died and now I want to return to USA.\u00a0The problem is my green card has expired.\u00a0Can I use the expired card to come back? 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