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It takes light 40 years to get there and back at 1,079,252,849 km/h, and the fastest spacecraft we have currently are the Helios Solar Probes at 252,792 km/h - it would take over 170,000 years before the probe returned.

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Let's grant the speed of light on the return side. Say we invent a method of transmitting probe data using radio waves or something.

Getting data back via radio seems physically realistic using the gravitational lensing of EM by our sun. It would require us to put a receiving and relay station very var out beyond the planets, at least 550AU, I think. But by the time we are sending a probe several light years, then 550AU should practically be child's play.

A good paper about using such lensing: "Interstellar radio links enhanced by exploiting the Sun as a Gravitational Lens" by Claudio Maccone.

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