Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing, well we're discussing CR-1 and IR-1 Visas. For those who are unaware, these are Immigrant Spousal Visas, oftentimes for the spouse of an American citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident who's looking to travel to America for the purpose of taking up lawful permanent residence. 

For those who are unaware, upon entry to the United States, those folks are going to be stamped in in I-551 status which means they are going to be Green Carded from entry. If you enter the United States in a CR-1 or IR-1 Visa, upon entry, you are granted Lawful Permanent Residence. Now the duration of the underlying marriage at the time of the entry to the United States will dictate the type of Green Card issued. For example, if you are married more than 2 years at the time of the entry to the USA, it is determined that the Visa itself grants Unconditional Lawful Permanent Residence as opposed to Conditional Lawful Permanent Residence which requires the filing of a lift of conditions 90 days prior to the two-year anniversary of the arrival in the United States in order to maintain Green Card status. However, if you travel in in IR-1 status, if you are married more than two years at the time of the entry, then a 10-year Green Card will be issued within weeks of arrival to the United States. That said, the question posed by this video, what if you want to leave after taking up your residency? Well you can. Having residency in the United States does not preclude leaving, returning to Thailand, or going somewhere else abroad. 

Now that being said, there is the issue of the presumption of Abandonment of Residence; I have talked about this in other videos. Basically you don't want to put yourself in a position where US Customs and Border Protection is presuming that you have abandoned your Permanent Residence. Oftentimes this will happen after a prolonged absence, after being abroad for a prolonged period of time, especially if it's over a year. You are returning, it is on a valid Green Card, but USCBP starts asking all these questions because they're trying to get people to perhaps slip up if you will and say that they basically abandoned their residence. I've consulted many clients over the years on how to deal with this and I'm happy to do that as well. 

That said, the purpose of this video is to point out that there is a documentary - documentary in the sense that it's document based - there is a document that acts as a remedy for these issues and that is a re-entry permit. It operates through the filing of an I-131 document that allows somebody to get a re-entry permit if they think they are going to be abroad for a prolonged period of time and it forestalls the presumption of Abandonment of Residence. This is important because under these circumstances, basically if you return using a re-entry permit, you're not going to get any hassle from US Customs and Border Protection because the re-entry permit affirmatively maintains, affirmatively preserves that immigration status, that residency while that person is abroad, so long as that re-entry permit is valid.

So that's an important thing to understand that while first of all yes, when maintaining residence in the United States you can leave the USA, but if you think you are going to be gone for a very prolonged period of time, it may be a good idea to look at obtaining a re-entry permit prior to departure.