Apply for I-751 while abroad

[monkeyblue 0]

Hello my husband (British) and I submitted our I-751 and we have been asked to attend an interview.

We have been travelling and spending most of our time outside of the United States for the majority of that last year. My husband and I have returned twice with our most recent visit being in April 2012. We are now back in the UK and an unfortunately the USCIS has requested an interview most likely because we weren’t able to give them documentation to demonstrate a bona fide relationship like mortgage, kids, or even a rental agreement due to our travelling.

It look like we will be staying in the UK for longer than anticipated as my husband has a business that requires his attention and I have decided to do some schooling. We do not want to abandon the green card as it is such a hassle to go though it all again. We have continued to file our taxes in the US and we do intend to live in the US again in the near future.

This is my question: Should we go to the interview? It’s a lot of money to fly back for the interview, and if it’s likely that they will approve the removal of the conditions then it is worth it. However if it were likely that they will not approve the 10 year green cars due to our residency would it be better to just let it go?

I am aware of the I-131 travel permit, but that needs to be applied for whilst in the US.

Any thoughts?

Would it be possible to do the interview at the London Embassy?

Thanks!

[Penguin_ie 5,997]

Not possible to interview at the embassy.

How long exactly did you spend outside the USA since you got your greenard, and how long in the last year? And looking forward, how long do you think you will spend the majority of your time outside the USA?

Other than taxes, do you have anything to show that you reside in the USA (not even talking about bonafide relationship stuff- ust things you prove YOU reside there)? If not, then there is not much point in going through with ROC- hand your greencard back at the local US embassy and have your husband re-petition you when you are ready to move to the US permanently.

Edited May 13, 2012 by Penguin_ie

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Not possible to interview at the embassy.

How long exactly did you spend outside the USA since you got your greenard, and how long in the last year? And looking forward, how long do you think you will spend the majority of your time outside the USA?

Other than taxes, do you have anything to show that you reside in the USA (not even talking about bonafide relationship stuff- ust things you prove YOU reside there)? If not, then there is not much point in going through with ROC- hand your greencard back at the local US embassy and have your husband re-petition you when you are ready to move to the US permanently.

Very good answer. The issue will be not so much that you have been out of the country, but did you maintain US residency. Of course the proof of marriage is important also. You would need things like a permanent address in the US, filing taxes, drivers license, bank account, etc. That shows you are a US resident. Absences can be addressed and allowed but not if you are not maintaining residency. Having a source of income in the UK also tends to make it look like you reside there.

You have to answer the question yourself if you think you can do that if you go to an interview. You are married and as Penguin says, you can be petitioned again at any time, even by DCF if you have been in the UK for more than 6 monhs.

[gnasa 3]

I want to add another point of view.

My understanding of the conditional status of a LPR is due to USCIS following laws that are essecially suspicious a marriage is entered into solely to obtain LPR status. In an ROC application one needs to demonstrate that they are married and live together and have an ongoing relationship, and NOT that they've spent more time in the US than abroad. In fact within the i-175 instructions it specifically states one can apply to ROC from abroad, one just has to fulfill the biometrics and interview as if they were normally in the US. I feel one can supply evidence that they have an ongoing marriage and finances, no where does it say that a joint house lease has to be a US lease or that your only income has to be from a US employer.

With that said, it is important to maintain the intent to reside within the US when one holds a green card which can be demonstrated in ways that there is already lots of discussion/threads on.

I see it as a choice for folks who are temporarily living abroad and need to remove conditions (My wife is currently in the same boat and we've yet to decide).

- apply to remove conditions and fulfill biometrics/interview requirements. Note that we are currently armed with a re-entry permit, but its not clear to me what one should do if ROC app is processing but we still live temporarily abroad on a work assignment. I guess there is some risk that a determination of abandoned residency comes down like a hammer when they actually process the ROC app, has anyone heard of this happening?

- surrender GC and re-apply when your ready to move back to US. This has its own difficulty though as one may not reside in a DCF country and may not have either enough US assets/income or another US citizen for the affidavit of support required.

[monkeyblue 0]

Thanks Everyone for your response.

My husband and I spent about a year in the US with his provisional green card and now a year and a half without (With two visits to the US during this time away). I've decided to enroll in a university program in the UK so we will be here now for about three years.

We have done what we could to maintain residency. My husband has an active US diver's licence and US bank accounts that have money from a photography business trickling in every month. This is what we live on while travelling. We don't own a property, but we have maintained the address that we lived in before we left the US as our permanent residence (We were renting a room from a friend and have our mail delivered there) As I said before we have also filed our taxes jointly and come back to the US in October of 2011 (for the biometrics) and just in March of 2012.

It sounds like it might be worth it to just attend the interview.

Anymore thoughts would be appreciated