COVID One Year Later: US Green Card Holders Still Abroad

A client wrote to us with a very common scenario: he is a UK citizen and US permanent resident (US green card holder) with a tenured position at a large American university. He left the U.S. for spring break in March 2020 and was already in the UK when his university closed for the first COVID-19 lockdown. After teaching the 2020 spring semester virtually, he remained in the UK for the fall 2020 semester on research leave. There was also a UK government advisory against non-essential travel.

The plan was to return to the U.S. in January for the spring semester, but a new strict lockdown was introduced in the UK in late December as a new COVID-19 variant emerged. Now, he would ideally like to stay in the UK until he is vaccinated but is concerned that permanent residents who stay out of the U.S. for more than a year lose their green cards. Knowing that applying for an SB-1 returning resident visa is difficult and subject to long delays now since embassies are closed,