Legal Permanent Resident (LPR) status is not a legal right but a revocable privilege. This means that an alien may lose his/her LPR status even after he/she has already received a green card, although he/she is a LPR, he/she remains an "alien." It is, therefore, possible for him/her to lose LPR status under certain circumstances.

Basically, loss of LPR status occurs when a LPR abandons his/her permanent residence in the U.S., or when he/she becomes deportable in the event he/she commits serious crime or violates other immigration laws and regulations. This article focuses on the topic of abandonment, i.e., maintaining LPR status by not retaining permanent residence in the U.S.

Many LPRs relax when they obtain a green card, believing that they can finally travel freely back and forth, or even relocate to their home countries, while maintaining the opportunity to reenter the U.S. willingly using their green cards as travel documents. Conversely, others believe that they have to stay in the U.S. for a certain period of time every year to keep their green cards. While a lengthy absence from the U.S. does not automatically cancel the LPR status of an alien, an extended absence may trigger an inquiry of the BCIS as to the alien's intention to remain a permanent resident in the U.S.

Therefore it is important that LPR plans to go abroad more than 1 year, he should apply for a reentry permit to make sure that he does not have an intention to abandon his Legal permanent residency.

Furthermore, it is important to bear in mind that before LPR can apply for the naturalization, he has to accrue 5 years of continuous  physical presence in US. Traveling outside of US for more than 6 months results cutting of the continuous presence. Please see how LPR can maintain his LPR status when this occurs at Maintenance of PR.