What are the green card residency requirements while EB-5 investors wait to get their conditions removed?

Conditional permanent residency means you consider the U.S. as your home and you are visiting another country. You have established binding ties to the U.S., and you should not be away from the U.S. more than 6 months.

There is no number of days of residence in the U.S. required to file to remove conditional permanent residence based on EB-5; however, after conditional lawful permanent residence is issued, both the investor and dependents have declared permanent resident intent in the U.S. and, if you plan to stay abroad for longer than 1 year outside the U.S., you should definitely file for a re-entry permit so that there is no assumption of abandonment of U.S. permanent residence. Even if you stay abroad for extended periods less than 1 year at a time, it recommended that re-entry permits be applied to avoid a hassle.

As soon as you become a conditional resident, you, as the investor, and your derivative family members holding the conditional green card should deem the U.S. as your primary residence and reside in the U.S. for more than 6 months per year. If you wish to leave the U.S. for more than 6 months, I suggest that you apply for a re-entry permit before you leave the U.S.

When a green card holder arrives, they are deemed to be an arriving alien. So, the issue is not how many days they must live here but why were they out. A green card holder is a resident who must reside in the U.S., as they are now looking at cumulative absences; so, the person needs to be living here, working here and have a home here. If they leave the U.S., it must be for a temporary purpose, such as to visit a relative. If the person is going to be out for more than three months, they need to speak to competent counsel and possibly get a reentry permit to be out for an extended period. If out for more than 6 months, that can be a serious issue. In reality, it often depends on which officer the person bumps into.

If they will be out for more than 180 days at a time, consider getting a Reentry Permit.

"Green card residency" means that the primary and the dependents are expected to reside in the U.S. Exceptions are available for individuals depending on their reasons for delaying the residency requirements.

A U.S. lawful permanent resident (LPR) is expected to permanently reside in the United States. If an LPR is absent from the United States for more than 180 days on any given trip, it may be presumed that he or she has abandoned his/her lawful permanent residency. Such a presumption may be rebutted by the LPR, but it must be shown that the intention was not to abandon permanent residence. The burden of proof is on the LPR to provide documents evidencing the intention not to abandon LPR status. Typically, absences from the United States of less than 180 days will not raise the presumption of abandonment, but it depends on the individual circumstances. The rule is the same for all principal and dependent permanent residents (conditional or not).

As the I-829 receipt notice states, your conditional green card is extended for a one-year period for as long as you are waiting for the removal of conditions adjudication. Thus, all the things you had to do while under the conditional green card must continue. Travelling to the U.S. each year to maintain the green card status must continue even after the removal of conditions has been approved until you obtain citizenship, as it is a requirement to maintain the green card status without abandoning that status.

There is no particular number of days that a dependent conditional green card holder must remain in the U.S. prior to the conditions being removed, provided they do not stay out of the U.S. so long that they are deemed to have abandoned their Lawful Permanent Residency. Normally, as long as the trip outside of the U.S. is less than 6 months and the individual comes back within 6 months and can demonstrate sufficient ties to the U.S., there should not be any problems. Staying out for longer than 6 months creates the rebuttable presumption that the individual intended to abandon their residency in the U.S. and staying out for more than 12 months would normally result in the individual being deemed to have abandoned their conditional Lawful Permanent Residency in the U.S. altogether.