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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing SB-1 Returning Resident Visas. What are SB-1 Returning Resident Visas? Well, as the name suggests, it's for a returning resident. Well who uses this? 

What you will see from time to time, or what I have seen over the years, is sometimes people - this happened a lot over COVID - got stuck outside of America or they will get sick abroad even if there weren't travel restrictions, and they basically just can't return. For whatever reason, they can't get back to the United States, but they hold a Green Card. So, if they spend too much time outside the United States, they could raise the presumption of abandonment of residence or if their Green Card expires, they may not even be able to board a plane because they won't let them on the plane because they don't have a valid travel document.

So the question then posed is well what are you going to do? What do you do with that? And the answer is, in some cases, in a lot of cases, there are circumstances where a lost Green Card that may still be valid - there's different criteria for that - but with regard to an SB-1 where you have got an expired Green Card and somebody is abroad, yeah that may be the only way to deal with it. Effectively, it is a Visa for someone that has a Green Card to take back up their residence within the United States. So that's the way to think about these things and that is basically what you are looking at if you are looking to get an SB-1. 

That said, these things are kind of highly specialized; I have done a few of them over the years. I do about one a year it seems like. I'll get one because somebody just gets stuck out for too long and then they have to get an SB-1 to go back. That being said, again they are kind of complex compared to other types of visas because frankly Embassy staff oftentimes doesn't quite know the protocols. It is not a routine matter. I completely get that somebody that may not have been there very long, doesn't know all of the ins and outs of this one specific visa category. 

That being said, I have done a number of them. We have assisted in these kind of visas in the past; it may not necessarily be the only option. That being stated, it may not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.