Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing presumption of Abandonment of Residence in the context of travelling outside of the United States for a Green Card holder; someone who has Lawful Permanent Residence in the US. 

This is something I deal with pretty frequently. People will contact us, they'll say, "hey I left the US X number of months ago, or sometimes X number of years ago, I want to go back." In some cases they lost their Green Card or their Green Card has been stolen; in some cases their Green Card has expired; in some cases their Green Card is still valid. So the state of the Green Card, whether it is still in one's possession, whether it's still valid, that will factor in to analysis regarding being able to go back to the United States, and the issue of the presumption of Abandonment of Residence. 

When we talk about the presumption of Abandonment of Residence we are talking about you will hear the stories or you will see them on the forums and things where people will say, "oh I got on a plane, I went back to the United States, and I got hassled by US Customs and Border Protection. They put me through a whole rigamarole, a bunch of questions; they pulled me into secondary inspection and asked me all kinds of things." And oftentimes what they are trying to ascertain is did you want to abandon your residence when you last left? My personal opinion is I think resources could be better spent rather than frankly hassling people who have gone through the legal Immigration process over whether or not they really are trying to keep their residence, especially where they are coming back into the United States, but it still happens. And this is why again, while there is no hard and fast rule, you will oftentimes hear people say, "oh you have to return to America once a year, that's the rule." Well there is no actual rule to that effect, but certain rules of thumb do apply. The best rule of thumb is you really want to go back to the US as frequently as you can, because at the end of the day, that is your supposed residence; as the name implies, it's where you presumptively reside. Now that being said, merely having a Green Card does not mean you are chained to physical presence in the United States; you can travel abroad. There are also other mechanisms, for example re-entry permits. It is possible to get a Re-entry Permit to be able to leave and be gone from America for as long as two years without raising the presumption of Abandonment of Residence.

Now that said, again the analysis is going to depend on the underlying facts in each case. For those who are sort of overwhelmed by all of this stuff, it may not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.