Need Help

[mood 0]

Hi All ,

I need an advise about the time my wife will be eligible to file for naturalization process.She left twice before so this got me confused about that.

Dates:

Date of entry and green card issue : February 10th 2006

Left U.S.A. : April 5th 2006

Return to U.S.A. : October 14th 2006

Left U.S.A. : July 6th 2007

Returned U.S.A. : June 18th 2008

And since June of 2008 she permanently stayed in U.S.A.

Thanks

[milimelo 4,413]

Hi All ,

I need an advise about the time my wife will be eligible to file for naturalization process.She left twice before so this got me confused about that.

Dates:

Date of entry and green card issue : February 10th 2006

Left U.S.A. : April 5th 2006

Return to U.S.A. : October 14th 2006

Left U.S.A. : July 6th 2007

Returned U.S.A. : June 18th 2008

And since June of 2008 she permanently stayed in U.S.A.

Thanks

Are you a USC? Or is this based on 5 yr rule? You have a long absence (close to a year) that might have affected the residency duration so may want to add that time in before applying - should be fine if she files around end of 2012 -- JUST my guesstimate, nothing firm. Others will probably chime in on this as well.

[mood 0]

Thanks for the reply, I am recently a US citizen so yes it is the 5 yr rule

[xxhwx 2]

there seems to be a 4 years + 1 day rule which may be applicable to your wife, but I am not knowledgeable enough to make the diagnosis.

best of luck!

[LBeachey 44]

Hi All ,

I need an advise about the time my wife will be eligible to file for naturalization process.She left twice before so this got me confused about that.

Dates:

Date of entry and green card issue : February 10th 2006

Left U.S.A. : April 5th 2006

Return to U.S.A. : October 14th 2006

Left U.S.A. : July 6th 2007

Returned U.S.A. : June 18th 2008

And since June of 2008 she permanently stayed in U.S.A.

Thanks

I agree this is a confusing rule but in your wife's case it is pretty straightforward. Since she was out of the country for longer than six months, her clock was reset and she will not be eligible until 5 years from June 2008.

Additionally, she will need to have been in the country 30 months in that five years which it appears she has already fulfilled. So as long as she is not out of the US longer than 6 months until then she will be eligible in June 2013.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/M-476.pdf

Though, others may chime in but my reading of this would also suggest that if the third anniversary of you becoming a citizen occurs prior to June 2013 she would be elgible then?

[ndu26 114]

if she had not gone out for so long, using the 90 day rule, she would have qualified on 11/12/2010 ( 3months before she marks the 5th anniversary. USCIS has a calculator to help people know this date. I came in sept 15th 2006 and would have marked the 5th year in sept 2011 but I was able to file on june 17th( the exact first eligible day) infact the adjudicator asked me how I calculated it to the very date ( and reminded me that I would have been rejected had I missed it by one day ). I was only out of the country twice, each time lasting between 3weeks- one month and then took another one week to london after i submitted my N-400 application which i notifed them of during the interview(cos they will ask abt new travel while application was pending)

http://www.uscis.gov/dateCalculator.html

Since she was out for such long period just give it till next year at least to make up for lost time so that her application will not be rejected but then you have the great option of calling them for solid information since she was eligible in feb 2011 and this is december already so she may have made up for lost time. JUST CONFIRM FIRST though!

Edited December 1, 2011 by ndu26

[ndu26 114]

She may actually qualify since she has been out for a total of 20months during the last five years see the following checklist from USCIS ( look at page 2) and see what applies to you

http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/attachments.pdf

she has not been out for a total of 30months ( which would have required her to make up time within her current five year timing. during each trip she did not stay out for a year or more. her longest trip was 11months right?

Hope you guys have been living in your current state for at least three months and just incase they ask, hope she can show something like tax return to show she did not abandon her domicile duirng her stay outisde the U.S...again verify info.

Edited December 1, 2011 by ndu26

[v333k 59]

You need to meet the physical and continuous residence rules.

== Physical presence: 30 months out of 60 months must be spent in the US if based on 5 years.

== continuous residence: must not have taken trips outside the US for 6 months or longer.

Keeping that in mind, if you apply today for citizenship, then they will look back to December 1st, 2006. Looking at your timelines, she has violated the continuous residence rule by leaving for almost 1 year on her second trip listed above. Therefore, if my understanding is correct, the only rule she needs to meet is the continuous residence since physical presence has been met. So the way I would calculate it is by saying that if the max allowed time outside the US without violating the continuous residence rule is 6 months, then June 18, 2008 minus 6 months will be Dec. 18, 2007. So 5 years from Dec 18 2007 will be Dec 18, 2012... so she will be eligible 90 days prior to that day which will be Sept 19, 2012.

[nwctzn 55]

You need to meet the physical and continuous residence rules.

== Physical presence: 30 months out of 60 months must be spent in the US if based on 5 years.

== continuous residence: must not have taken trips outside the US for 6 months or longer.

Keeping that in mind, if you apply today for citizenship, then they will look back to December 1st, 2006. Looking at your timelines, she has violated the continuous residence rule by leaving for almost 1 year on her second trip listed above. Therefore, if my understanding is correct, the only rule she needs to meet is the continuous residence since physical presence has been met. So the way I would calculate it is by saying that if the max allowed time outside the US without violating the continuous residence rule is 6 months, then June 18, 2008 minus 6 months will be Dec. 18, 2007. So 5 years from Dec 18 2007 will be Dec 18, 2012... so she will be eligible 90 days prior to that day which will be Sept 19, 2012.

I would play it safe and assume that the clock has reset on June 18, 2008 when she returned from her long trip. So I would apply June 18, 2013 minus 90 days which would be March 20, 2013. Of course, this is just my personal opinion.

[LBeachey 44]

I agree this is a confusing rule but in your wife's case it is pretty straightforward. Since she was out of the country for longer than six months, her clock was reset and she will not be eligible until 5 years from June 2008.

Additionally, she will need to have been in the country 30 months in that five years which it appears she has already fulfilled. So as long as she is not out of the US longer than 6 months until then she will be eligible in June 2013.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/M-476.pdf

Though, others may chime in but my reading of this would also suggest that if the third anniversary of you becoming a citizen occurs prior to June 2013 she would be elgible then?

This thread has been bothering me since I posted because everytime I read the rules about this I get more confused so I did some more searching and think I found the answer here: http://forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?238302-4-years-and-one-day-rule-please-clarify

So the 4 years and 1 day rule does apply to absences over six months but less than 1 year. However, it only applies once you have been a green card holder for the intitial five years. In other words, in no circumstances can you use the rule to shorten your wait to under five years. Also, this rule does not apply for those cases where a LPR applies at three years based upon their marriage to a USC(the rule actually lets you include the last 364 days of your last absence). My interpertation is that while this rule was created with absences of over one year in mind, if you didn't apply it to any absence over six months you create a scenario where you would be penalized for returning slightly under 1 year rather than slightly greater than one year.

So in the OP case, his wife had been a green card holder for 5 years on 2/10/2011.

Since she last re-entered on on 6/18/2008. 4 years and 1 day is 6/19/2012. So she is eligible on that day. As other's have said, she can apply 90 days prior to that but given the complexities of her case, I think I would wait until that day or just slightly before.

Additonally she has to phycisally have been in the US for 30 months of the immediately preceeding five years from the date of application but it appears she has already fufilled that requirement.

[mood 0]

Thank you all for your kind help, we have wonderful members here.

I was leaning to apply the 1 year rule so June 19 was my hope, but as u said was not clear if she had to break the year or not.

More opinions are so welcomed .