Filing I-751 while Studying abroad in Ireland (American/Canadian)

[AmericanInDublin 0]

Hello, My husband received his Conditional Green Card June 2010. I am American, he is Canadian. We are now coming up on the start of the 90 days prior to the 2 year anniversary of this. We're putting together the packet for the I-751 but the catch is, we're living abroad in Dublin, Ireland while my husband (he is the Canadian/applicant) is completing a Ph.D. in Psychology here.

We have a 1 1/2 year old daughter and have been married for nearly since August 2009 (nearly 3 years). So, our daughter was born a week before we had our interview for the green card and she is a US citizen. We have spoken with USCIS and the US Embassy here in Dublin and we've confirmed that we CAN (at least) file the form from Ireland. (We were a little afraid we might need to be present in the US for the entire processing time)

Backstory: We were in the US until only 3 months ago when my husband started the PhD program here in Dublin. We will be here for 3 1/2 years while he completes this but we will travel back to Seattle at least once per year in order to maintain his status. We have an apartment here, obvsiously, but our "permanent residence" is in Seattle. Seattle/USA is home and we will be living there permanently after this 3 year program. We have a home in Seattle, my entire family, all of our friends, our bank accounts are active, etc. etc. Seattle is home.

BUT, the gray area comes in when 1) we're a bit fuzzy on which address we are to put where and 2) . We're living in Dublin and have our address here but we also have our home in Seattle (friends are renting it). So, in PART 1 on I-751, do we put our Seattle address (where we did live/still own) or do we put our present/temporary address, here in Dublin?

There are two options in Part 1. "Address" and "Mailing Address". My inkling was to put our Seattle address as the 1st "Address" and our Dublin address as the "Mailing address". There could be two problems with this though. One, they may see our Dublin address and think we have intention to stay here and forfeit our whole application. But, of course, I don't want to withhold any time of information. And two, I don't know if they'll even SEND notices outside the US.

Also, if they mail things to the Seattle address, it will take about 7 days for our friends to forward those notices to us.

So, my question is, does anyone have any advice on which address (Dublin and Seattle) to put, and where?

And lastly, I'm sorry this is so wordy but we're minorly flipping out with stress over this. =) After speaking with USCIS (I say "speaking" with hesitance as it involved conversing with a robot-woman who only read back sections of her script to us) - they say we can file from here but that we MUST be in the States for the Biometrics appointment and (possibly) an interview.

Does anyone know if we all 3 need to be present in the States for the Biometrics appointment? I know if they call for an interview that we must be present but I'm hoping, for the biometrics, that it might just be him that needs to be there.

If any of you have kids, or have flown long distances with huge time changes, you know how hard it can be. It's not the flight length (we can survivve that) - it's the effect of the 8 hour time change on a 1 1/2 year old that seems like an undue hardship. Not to mention the $4,000 cost for each trip. We will be in Seattle for the month of August 2012 but we're terrified that they'll receive our application and say we must be present in June 2012 as well.

Anyway, this was way too long but we're frantic. Thank you for reading and really, any feedback would be very much appreciated. Thank you!!

[Inky 1,111]

Biometrics is only for the green card holder.

If there is an interview both the USC and green card holder have to attend the interview.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Just he needs to be there for biometrics. Both in the event of an interview.

Did you file an I-865 for you to change your address? And an AR-11 for him? By law he is required to do so within 10 days of moving.

You own a house in the US and are renting it out. It's like owning a house in Ireland and renting it out while you're in the US, doesn't mean you're "living" in the US. You should also make sure you file taxes and all that fun stuff.

I believe he's going to have problems being out of the US for so long so he should file for USC as soon as he is able. You should have him return to the US before he's been out of the US for 6 months. Any period outside of the US for 6 months+ breaks continuous residency and will make applying for USC a little more irritating. I would apply for USC as soon as the window opens (90 days from 3 years of being an LPR). As long as he fits the criteria (has to have been living in the US for so many months out of the 3 year period) then he shouldn't have any problems. You're then free to live wherever you want for however long you want.

Put the address in Ireland as your mailing address is my personal opinion because that is where you are living. I know you're calling it temporary but you're living there for 3 years straight, that's a move, not a temporary visit or school period (term address).

[AmericanInDublin 0]

Just he needs to be there for biometrics. Both in the event of an interview.

Did you file an I-865 for you to change your address? And an AR-11 for him? By law he is required to do so within 10 days of moving.

You own a house in the US and are renting it out. It's like owning a house in Ireland and renting it out while you're in the US, doesn't mean you're "living" in the US. You should also make sure you file taxes and all that fun stuff.

I believe he's going to have problems being out of the US for so long so he should file for USC as soon as he is able. You should have him return to the US before he's been out of the US for 6 months. Any period outside of the US for 6 months+ breaks continuous residency and will make applying for USC a little more irritating. I would apply for USC as soon as the window opens (90 days from 3 years of being an LPR). As long as he fits the criteria (has to have been living in the US for so many months out of the 3 year period) then he shouldn't have any problems. You're then free to live wherever you want for however long you want.

Put the address in Ireland as your mailing address is my personal opinion because that is where you are living. I know you're calling it temporary but you're living there for 3 years straight, that's a move, not a temporary visit or school period (term address).

Thank you both for your replies. I really appreciate the input. You have a good point about owning versus where we are residing. I hadn't heard about the 6 month period. We were told by USCIS, before we left that he only needed to be back in the US once per 12 month period. They said he could literally fly to New York City, stay for one day and fly back and that would be sufficient for USCIS. Of course we won't be doing that - we'll be staying a month back at home in Seattle but you're saying there may be a rule about being gone more than 6 months?

Do you have any more info.on that? Of course, if that's the case, we'll try to get him back there sooner.

ALso, sorry, not familiar with all the acronyms in this process. I know everyone on these forums speaks in all the acronyms but I'm a little lost. =)

What is USC?

What is LPR? (And isn't this the TWO year period, not three years? We've had his green card for 18 months, and need to remove the conditions before the 2 year anniversary. Not sure what the 3 year time period is)

And with the address - no, we did not fill out the AR-11 as the embassy told us that there is no way to file a foreign address. Does anyone know anything about that? The AR-11 online form and the paper form have no provision for filling in an address outside of the US. And if you're living abroad (outside military service or gov't work) they tell you to contact the US Embassy (here in Dublin for us). So we did that and they said there is no way to change the address and to just continue using our Seattle address. As you can tell, (and I'm sure you've experienced) we get conflicting information from every single person we speak to.

Again, thank you so much for replying. It's a big help to hear back from some humans. =)

[Inky 1,111]

USC = US citizen.

LPR = legal permanent resident.

The 3 year period is when one can become a US citizen through naturalization. - He wont be eligible because hes outside the US more than 6 months and his clock resets to 0. He will have to wait 3 years again for being outside the US so long to apply for citizenship.

At the 2 year mark you file for removal of conditions to be able to have a 10 year card.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Thank you both for your replies. I really appreciate the input. You have a good point about owning versus where we are residing. I hadn't heard about the 6 month period. We were told by USCIS, before we left that he only needed to be back in the US once per 12 month period. They said he could literally fly to New York City, stay for one day and fly back and that would be sufficient for USCIS. Of course we won't be doing that - we'll be staying a month back at home in Seattle but you're saying there may be a rule about being gone more than 6 months?

Do you have any more info.on that? Of course, if that's the case, we'll try to get him back there sooner.

Okay i'll try and explain this without confusing you You (I'll use "you" to mean immigrant) can stay outside the US for UP TO 12 months at a time. If it's longer than a year but less than 2 years you need something called a re-entry permit. The thing with this is ANY period outside the US of over 6 months can be used against you in determining that you've given up LPR (legal permanent resident) status. They can also use "patterns" against you. Some people use a GC (green card) as more like a visitor visa to visit the US and live outside the US instead. They pop back to the US for a period to make sure it's less than 12 months.. thinking this is okay. It's not. They can use this against you.

One thing that you aren't routinely told is that after 6 months your naturalisation (this is the process he will do to become a USC - US citizen) clock is paused. This means he's broken his "continuous residency" which is something he needs for naturalisation. There are ways to try and convince USCIS that you didn't break your continuous residency because you still filed taxes, paid rent or whatever (it's explained in the naturalisation instructions). If he's out more than 12 months at a time (with the re-entry permit) then his clock is reset... meaning it starts from 0.

Why does this matter? This matters because he is eligible to become a USC after 3 years of being an LPR... but there are the little rules like continuous residency. On the forms it says "have you been out of the US for more than 6 months at a time" and if you say yes to this qn then you need to prove he didn't break continuous residency. Possible but a pain when you have the ability to prevent having to do it.

So based on your timeline he is eligible for USC in the next year (90 days before the 3 year anniversary of being an LPR). If he comes back to the US before he's been out for 6 months at a time then he doesn't break continuous residency, he applies for USC, gets his US passport and lives wherever he wants without immigration worries (no need to come back to the US to maintain the GC and what not )

ALso, sorry, not familiar with all the acronyms in this process. I know everyone on these forums speaks in all the acronyms but I'm a little lost. =)

What is USC?

What is LPR? (And isn't this the TWO year period, not three years? We've had his green card for 18 months, and need to remove the conditions before the 2 year anniversary. Not sure what the 3 year time period is)

Hope I explained this above Yes you have a 2 year GC, and a 10 year GC but he's eligible to become a US citizen after 3 years of being an LPR. THis would make your lives a LOT easier with him needing to stay out of the country for so long.

And with the address - no, we did not fill out the AR-11 as the embassy told us that there is no way to file a foreign address. Does anyone know anything about that? The AR-11 online form and the paper form have no provision for filling in an address outside of the US. And if you're living abroad (outside military service or gov't work) they tell you to contact the US Embassy (here in Dublin for us). So we did that and they said there is no way to change the address and to just continue using our Seattle address. As you can tell, (and I'm sure you've experienced) we get conflicting information from every single person we speak to.

Ah. Well then I would ignore it for now. He's just "visiting" Ireland at the moment.