Hey there! Hello and welcome back, and a big thank you to everyone that’s been following along. If you’ve read my post titled, “Detained at the Border!” this post is a follow up to that and either way, you just need to know, as we didn’t.
You need to formally surrender your green card when you move back to Canada (or move permanently out of the United States).
Call us whatever you’d like (go on it’s okay, we can’t hear you lol…), but for whatever reason we were under the impression that if you’ve left the United States and been gone a year or more, that your green cards would be considered abandoned. Wrong!
Kudos to all y’all if you knew that but apparently that’s not the case, and it sure tripped me up on my visit to Seattle to see my grandbaby this past November, wholly! I never ever want that experience again TYVM. I don’t like it in Secondary.
Seriously though, we’d have done this right after we moved if we’d have known, and why they never said anything the other times we’d crossed the border last year we’ll never know.
What You Need To Do
It’s pretty easy actually, but if you need some instructions you can get to them here.
USCIS form I-407, Record of Abandonment of Lawful Permanent Resident Status, needs to be completed, signed, and returned with a green card for each person leaving the United States. There’s all kinds of tax implications and all that too, so best to return them.
It’s a fillable PDF which is nice. We filled them out online then saved and printed a copy for each of us. Don’t forget to sign your form, as they’ll automatically reject it unsigned. Black ink is preferred ☺
Where to File
We sent our stuff via courier with no signature required (we used FedEx but you can use UPS, DHL or whomever). This just makes sure it gets delivered as sometimes folks don’t want to sign for things. Just get your own tracking number and you can follow the envelope along to its destination.
The courier address to deliver your completed, signed I-407 form and your green card to is as follows:
USCIS Eastern Forms Center
Attn: I-407 Unit
124 Leroy Road
Williston, VT 05495
You can also send your stuff via regular snail mail (USPS or Canada Postal Services) to the following:
USCIS Eastern Forms Center
Attn: I-407 Unit
P.O. Box 567
Williston, VT 05495
Make sure your Alien number appears on the top right of pages 2 and 3 of the form (we had to had write just those in), then make copies of everything. Photocopy and/or digital copy (take a picture with your phone) of both the front and back of your green card and the three pages of the application.
You can also surrender your green card and I-407 in person to a USCIS border agent at a port of entry, but it’s probably the least desirable option. Typically it requires an interview and you may have to wait, who knows how long. Just sayin’…
What Happens Next
Completing and returning form I-407 along with your green card tells USCIS that you’re voluntarily giving up your status as a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) of the United States. They’ll update your records, then send an email confirming they’ve received your stuff. The formal documents should arrive in the mail shortly thereafter. We’re waiting on ours and will update the post once we get everything back.
UPDATE!!
We’ve received both the email confirmation and final documents in the mail confirming the voluntary surrender of our green cards. The process is now complete.
For reference, here is a timeline of events so you’ll have an idea of about how long it takes (or how long it took for us):
- February 4, 2023 – packaged up our I-407 forms and green cards and sent them to USCIS via FedEx
- Tracked the package until it arrived at USCIS on February 14, 2023
- April 11, 2023 – Received an email from USCIS titled, “USCIS Form I-407 Abandonment of Lawful Permanent Resident Status”
- Provided confirmation of abandonment of lawful permanent resident status
- Acknowledged receipt of form I-407, “Record of Abandonment of Lawful Permanent Resident Status”
- April 21, 2023 – Final documents arrived in the mail, postmarked April 15, 2023. (We keep a copy of these documents with us when we cross the border, but so far haven’t been asked for them.)
➡ Just a note – if you’ve got any questions or comments about anything we’ve shared or, there’s something you’d like more information on, (or you’ve found a typo, oh my!), we’d love to hear from you! Head on over to our contact form and drop us a note. Cheers!
