Citizenship requirement $680 Help!!!

[claudiaarroyo49 1]

Hello,

My mom is a US resident and has been a resident for 7years. She has lived at least 30 months in this country as required. However, she has spend more than 6 months at a time outside this country and she returned 2 months ago after a year spent outside this country. To tell the truth, she probably has spent the same amount of time in both countries. 6 months herem 6 months there. The problem is, will staying more than six months up to a year outside the country disrupt the continuous residency? I really dont want to shell out 680 dollars on her application getting denied. Please help!

[Cathi 5,746]

The requirement is that she is a resident of the US, maintaining her resident status by actually living here. It is obvious that is not the case. Spending six months or more outside the US in any year will raise suspicions and cause problems when she files for citizenship. Spending an entire year or more at a time outside the US is a totally different story, she will have big problems.

Edited June 29, 2013 by mimolicious

[claudiaarroyo49 1]

The requirement is that she is a resident of the US, maintaining her resident status by actually living here. It is obvious that is not the case. Spending six months or more outside the US in any year will raise suspicions and cause problems when she files for citizenship. Spending an entire year or more at a time outside the US is a totally different story, she will have big problems.

Thank you Mimolicious for your reply,

So what do you suggest? Obviously, she is no longer staying more than a few months when traveling overseas every year from now on, but my question is when do you think it will be safe for her to try and apply(given the lengthy stays outside the country no longer happen) in a year? In five more years?

[BigDaddy28 228]

how many times did she stay outside of the US more than 6 months during this 7 years? 1 time, 2 times?

If it's 1 time, I would apply for it since she already fulfilled the 5 year requirement.

Don't take my word for it but if the other members confirm what I'm saying I would say go ahead and do it.

If she wants to travel tell her that she has to stay less than 6 months outside of the US, if she wants to get US citizenship then she can go and stay as she pleases outside the US.

[HeatDeath 430]

If you go to USCIS's website, in the Citizenship section, they have a downloadable booklet called Guide to Naturalization. In this book there is a flowchart you can work through that will explain, step by step, how do do all of the in-country/out-of-country calculations to determine whether she is elegible to apply for naturalization.

I strongly recommend you read that book several times, and work through the flow chart with her. The rules that determine whether a person qualifies to apply for citizenship are much more complex than those for any other USCIS process, and some of them are a little confusing. It depends on a lot more than just the 2-3 facts you given us about her, and working through the flowchart is the only way to know for sure.

Start here: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=598da2f39b1ab210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=598da2f39b1ab210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

And here is particular flowchart to work through, starting on pages 4-5:

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

Edited July 2, 2013 by HeatDeath

[NickD 202]

All I know is that a plane ticket is far more expensive than 680 bucks! USCIS site fully explains the residency requirements, with that many trips, may need an adding machine to learn if those requirements were met.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

If she stayed out for more than a year she has reset the clock and has to start all over again