Re-entry permits alone do not secure green cards held from Vietnam

A Vietnamese family with permanent residence in the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore or Japan that keeps living and running its business in Vietnam holds that status only within limits each country sets, in days counted or permits issued.

In the United States, a re-entry permit stops the length of an absence alone being held against the holder, but officials still judge intent, and business ties abroad are on the State Department’s list of evidence that may indicate abandonment.

Five sets of limits

The United States: a year, and 180 days

A valid green card is an entry document for a permanent resident returning from a temporary absence of less than one year. The Immigration and Nationality Act sets a separate threshold: a permanent resident away for a continuous period of more than 180 days is regarded as seeking admission.

This indicates that the 180-day rule changes how the returning resident is examined at the border, not whether they still hold status.

The only six-month figure on the travel page of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) concerns naturalization: absences of six months or more “may disrupt the continuous residency required for naturalization”.

Intent is the key factor, and business ties abroad are evidence

On its travel page, USCIS uses an absence of more than a year as a general guide, but says abandonment “may be found to occur in trips of less than a year” where the holder did not intend to make the United States their permanent residence.

Its Policy Manual puts intent, “as demonstrated by the applicant’s actions and objective circumstances”, ahead of the time spent abroad, and says a single visit every year does not preserve status for those living outside the country.

The manual cites Matter of Kane, a 1975 Board of Immigration Appeals decision on a resident who “routinely spent 11 months of each year living in her native country in which she operated a business” and returned for one month a year; she was found to have abandoned her residence. Of the examples found, Kane’s facts therefore come closest to a family that runs its company from Vietnam.

The State Department’s manual for consular officers deciding returning resident visas lists “family, property, or business ties abroad” among evidence that may indicate abandonment.

On the other side, USCIS says an officer may weigh ties from filing US income taxes as a resident to owning property or running a business in the United States.

Its page on maintaining residence counts moving to another country intending to live there permanently, and declaring oneself a “nonimmigrant” on US tax returns, among the ways status can be abandoned; the Policy Manual says claiming “nonresident alien” status to qualify for special tax exemptions raises a rebuttable presumption of abandonment.

A finding of abandonment can be challenged in removal proceedings, the Form I-131 instructions say, and the manual’s naturalization chapter says status is not lost until an immigration judge’s removal order becomes final.

The re-entry permit covers the length of an absence

A re-entry permit lets a permanent resident apply for admission on return without a returning resident visa. The holder must be in the United States to file and for biometrics, the Form I-131 instructions say, and the permit can be sent to a US embassy or consulate for collection if that is requested at filing.

It is valid for two years, or one year, with narrow exceptions, for someone who has spent more than four years in aggregate abroad in the last five (or since becoming a resident, if shorter), and it cannot be extended.

While it is valid, the holder is not deemed to have abandoned status “based solely on the duration” of absences. The Policy Manual adds that a permit “does not automatically preserve” permanent resident status, and that not having one is not, alone, evidence of an intent to abandon it.

USCIS says a permit “will assist” in establishing the intention to reside permanently. This indicates that the permit settles the length of an absence but does not settle the intent on which Kane turned.

USCIS says it is “advisable” to apply first for an absence longer than a year, while the help centre of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) says a resident who intends to stay out a year or more “must apply” before leaving.

After more than two years abroad, any permit has expired; the returning resident (SB-1) visa under 22 CFR 42.22 requires that a protracted stay was caused by reasons beyond the applicant’s control. A stay prolonged by choice to run a business therefore does not meet that condition.

EB-5: a shorter permit and a 90-day window

EB-5 investors, whose investment amounts are explained in a separate article, receive conditional residence for two years. For a conditional resident, the permit runs for two years or to the date they must apply to remove the conditions, whichever comes first.

The petition, Form I-829, must be filed in the 90 days before the card expires; otherwise USCIS terminates conditional status and the person becomes removable. While it is pending, an expired card with an I-829 receipt issued within the previous six months is an entry document after an absence of less than a year.

Canada: 730 days, and which work abroad counts

The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act requires a permanent resident, including one admitted through Canada’s provincial entrepreneur streams, to be in Canada on at least 730 days in every five-year period; Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) says the days need not be continuous.

Days abroad also count for a person accompanying a Canadian-citizen spouse or common-law partner or, for a child under 22, parent; for one employed full time by a Canadian business or the federal or a provincial public service; and for one accompanying a permanent-resident spouse, partner or parent so employed.

Under the regulations, a Canadian business includes a corporation incorporated under the laws of Canada or a province with an ongoing operation in Canada; the employee must be assigned abroad full time as a term of the job; and, for greater certainty, the term excludes “a business that serves primarily to allow a permanent resident to comply with their residency obligation while residing outside Canada”.

Read with that exclusion, the definition indicates that a company run from Vietnam with no operation in Canada is not a Canadian business, so days spent running it do not count.

A permanent resident card is valid for five years, and status is not lost when it expires. A resident abroad without a valid card needs a permanent resident travel document to board, and IRCC assesses that application to confirm the 730 days were met.

Missing them does not end status by itself: IRCC says a person stays a permanent resident until an official decision is made, a decision made abroad can be appealed to the Immigration Appeal Division, and humanitarian grounds can overcome a breach.

Australia: a five-year travel facility

Australia’s Department of Home Affairs tells permanent residents they “do not have an automatic right to return”: re-entry depends on the travel facility on the permanent visa, usually valid for five years from grant, as on the subclass 888 business innovation visa.

If the facility expires while the holder is abroad, the permanent visa ceases at the same time, and a Resident Return visa is needed to come back as a permanent resident.

The Resident Return visa gives a new five-year facility to a person who spent 730 days in Australia in the five years before applying. Without that, a 12-month facility is available on ties to Australia that are “both substantial and of benefit to Australia”.

A subclass 157 visa gives three months on compelling and compassionate reasons for the absence, for an applicant who has “not been absent from Australia in the 5 years prior to making an application”, as the page words it. No facility can be extended.

Singapore: the permit is what keeps the status

A valid re-entry permit is necessary whenever a Singapore permanent resident travels out, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) says. Since 1 December 2025, a resident abroad without one has 180 days from departure, or from the permit’s expiry abroad, to apply, and a refused application ends permanent residence.

So does a missed window, for which ICA’s FAQ says no appeals will be accepted. The Ministry of Home Affairs says there is no longer any route to reinstatement after a loss of status, whether the person is still abroad or has since returned.

Permits are decided case by case: residents must show “a commitment to continue contributing to Singapore”.

Investors who gained permanent residence through the Global Investor Programme (GIP) receive a five-year permit. Under the Economic Development Board’s factsheet of 5 May 2025, a five-year renewal requires the investment conditions, the business, fund or family-office condition, and residence in Singapore for more than half the time by the investor or all GIP dependants.

A three-year renewal requires the investment conditions and either of the other two. A family that lives in Vietnam can therefore renew only for three years, through the business, fund or family-office condition.

The board gives no undertaking on renewal, and the factsheet still says permanent residence is lost on leaving without a valid permit, wording that predates the 180-day rule. The GIP route is examined alongside family offices in Singapore and Dubai in a separate article.

Japan: a permit of up to five years

A foreign resident of Japan, such as a holder of Business Manager status, applies for a re-entry permit before leaving; it can be valid for up to five years, and not beyond the holder’s period of stay.

If there is good reason the holder cannot return in time, they can apply through a Japanese consulate for an extension of up to one year, within six years from when the permit took effect, under the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act.

A resident can instead declare a special re-entry permit on departure, valid for one year and not extendable. Leaving with no permit ends the status.

A resident who does not return before the permit expires must hand back the residence card within 14 days, according to the Immigration Services Agency, and during the pandemic the agency re-admitted as permanent residents people it described as former permanent residents who could not return within their permits.

This indicates that a permanent resident who stays abroad past the permit loses permanent residence.

What this article has not established

No statement by USCIS, CBP or the State Department was found that an absence of six months by itself puts the green card at risk. The 180-day rule was read in the 2024 edition of the US Code; later amendments were not confirmed.

It was not established how the abandonment test applies to conditional residents or whether an I-829 interview can be held abroad, and the State Department’s own SB-1 page was not checked. The Form I-131 instructions and the regulation word the end of a conditional resident’s permit differently; this article follows the regulation.

For Canada, how partial days are counted, and any rule specific to provincial entrepreneur nominees, were not established.

For Australia, the Migration Regulations were not checked, no page specific to the subclass 858 National Innovation visa was read, and whether a company in Vietnam can be a tie of benefit to Australia was not established.

For Singapore, no current statement of the maximum permit length for an ordinary permanent resident was found; the only ICA statement of renewal factors found dates from 2020; and whether the GIP renewal criteria have changed since December 2025 was not established.

For Japan, no agency sentence was found stating in terms that a permanent resident who misses the permit loses that status, and the 2024 amendment allowing permanent residence to be revoked on other grounds was not researched.

The Vietnamese side was not established; how Vietnamese tax residence is decided for the holder of a second passport is explained in a separate article.