Time outside the US

[alix 20]

Thanks again!

[ayra 2]

Alix if you do not mind I would like to ask Shub also an opinion regarding our case . Our case is also very similar to both of you and we would like to be prepared when it is time to file for the citizenship. I really appreciate if you can comment and give some idea based on the below timeline :

September 2009 : Got married

August 2010 : Wife got the GC based on a marriage with myself USC

October 2010 : Applied for the I-131 travel book for my wife, completed fingerprints

Jan 2011 : Moved to abroad since I got a job with a multinational American firm (based on local payroll)

June 2011 : Wife's travel book came to the embassy abroad, had the expiration date very close to the expiration date of her 2 year green card

June 2012 : Wife went to the USA, applied for I-751 to remove conditions , stayed 2 months

August 2012 : Wife came back to abroad to visit me

Jan 2013 : Wife went to the USA for a week

April 2013 : Wife moved to the USA again and waiting to receive her 10 year gc since then

So after the travel book, she has spent 12 months all together in the USA. And after the travel book, she did not stay abroad not more than 6 months. Since April 2013 she has been continuosly living in the USA for 10 months. At the moment, we are still waiting USCIS to finalize our I-751 case and hopefully to receive the 10 year green card.

My question is after she gets the 10 year green card, if she can wait another 6 months more, can she be eligible to file for the citizenship based on the above timeline ? Our case is a little bit complicated however I do appreciate your input .

Fyi, we regularly file for taxes as a couple even though my wife is not working. We have a permanent address, credit cards, driver licences etc based on our address in the USA.

Edited February 21, 2014 by ayra

[warlord 73]

Thanks warlord....you said I could have problems in more ways than one, what do you mean by that?

I wasn't working there and we have bank accounts here and had a mortgage until 2010 here as well (this was under my husband's name only as when we bought the house I wasn't an LPR yet). I also had a car until late 2009. I have a friend who stayed longer outside the US and she had no issues getting her citizenship.

Depending on the IO, and the nature of your absence. Since you were gone over 6 months (I thought you said) 3 different times, it will be up to you to prove you didn't break your residency OR abandon your Green Card. That was the other issue that may be a problem. Proving that you didn't abandon your Green Card.

Residency resetting is one thing, but abandoning the Green Card is far worse. So you really need to show all the proof you have that you were still maintaining a US residence and ties to the US as much as possible so the IO won't think you just relocated and and had no ties to the US during your time away...

[alix 20]

Thanks warlord. I'm considering waiting until May to apply so I only need to show one of the trips, which was when my son was born and right before we moved back.

It's very disheartening to be in this situation. I didn't leave the country because I wanted to but because I had to. We had bank accounts here but our house was being foreclosed so I don't have any payment proof. I'm not sure how I'll prove that I didn't intend to leave the country apart from tax returns. Unfortunately I didn't apply for my second reentry permit until a year after getting my 10-year green card and we returned only 3 months after it was issued. The first one I had before removing conditions.

Do you think the fact that I haven't left at all in almost 4 years could help?

[Shub 78]

Alix if you do not mind I would like to ask Shub also an opinion regarding our case . Our case is also very similar to both of you and we would like to be prepared when it is time to file for the citizenship. I really appreciate if you can comment and give some idea based on the below timeline :

September 2009 : Got married

August 2010 : Wife got the GC based on a marriage with myself USC

October 2010 : Applied for the I-131 travel book for my wife, completed fingerprints

Jan 2011 : Moved to abroad since I got a job with a multinational American firm (based on local payroll)

June 2011 : Wife's travel book came to the embassy abroad, had the expiration date very close to the expiration date of her 2 year green card

June 2012 : Wife went to the USA, applied for I-751 to remove conditions , stayed 2 months

August 2012 : Wife came back to abroad to visit me

Jan 2013 : Wife went to the USA for a week

April 2013 : Wife moved to the USA again and waiting to receive her 10 year gc since then

So after the travel book, she has spent 12 months all together in the USA. And after the travel book, she did not stay abroad not more than 6 months. Since April 2013 she has been continuosly living in the USA for 10 months. At the moment, we are still waiting USCIS to finalize our I-751 case and hopefully to receive the 10 year green card.

My question is after she gets the 10 year green card, if she can wait another 6 months more, can she be eligible to file for the citizenship based on the above timeline ? Our case is a little bit complicated however I do appreciate your input .

Fyi, we regularly file for taxes as a couple even though my wife is not working. We have a permanent address, credit cards, driver licences etc based on our address in the USA.

Keeping in mind my opinion is just my opinion, I think the answer ultimately depends on when she wants to apply. Technically she could have been eligible to apply as early as August 2010 plus 3 years minus 90 days so around May of 2013. Having an approved I-751 is not a prerequisite to apply for citizenship. Sometimes people become eligible to apply for citizenship before the I-751 is approved (because for some reason their I-751 is taking a long time to approve) and the IO at the naturalization interview reviews the I-751 application at the same time.

That said, you would not have been eligible for naturalization in May or even August of 2013 because you did not (and still do not) meet the physical presence requirement. If applying based on the 3-year/marriage rule, you have to have been physically in the USA for 18 months out of the last 3 years, meaning a total of 548 days over 3 years.

I used arbitrary dates in my calculation, it took me a bit of time to figure it all out, and keep in mind I'm not very good at math but I think I got all of the below right:

15-Aug-2010: became a permanent resident

15-Jan-2011: left USA

15-Jun-2012: returned to USA after 517 days

15-Aug-2012: left USA

15-Jan-2013: returned to USA after 153 days

22-Jan-2013: left USA

15-Apr-2013: returned to US after 83 days

As of her return to the USA, she had been outside of the country for a total of 753 days between August 2010 and April 2013.

If you take today's date and go back three years, you get Feb 22nd, 2011, on which date she had been outside of the USA for 38 days so those don't count anymore, meaning that as of today, she has been outside of the country for 753-38=715 days over the past three years. At the very least you must wait until you get that number down to less than 548 days, there's no way around that. That time will come on August 8th, 2014, and you simply cannot apply until after that date or you will be rejected (but no worries, they'll keep your $680!).

After that date, she will meet the physical presence requirement (provided she takes no further trips outside of the USA). At that time you can start worrying yourself about the continuous residence requirement, but she definitely broke that between Jan 2011 and June 2012. If she hasn't had any trip outside of the USA lasting 6+ months after that date (and it doesn't look that way from the table above), then according to the law, she may apply for citizenship based on marriage to a US citizen no sooner than 2 years and 1 day after the day she returned in June 2012 after a trip of over one year (that's a mouthful), which means June 2014.

Since that's before the August 2014 deadline I mentioned, you must wait until August nonetheless due to the physical presence requirement.

So, in short, it sounds to me like she may be able to apply after August of this year. You'll have to do the precise math (down to the day) with regard to the physical presence requirement. I think that's all I had to say

If anybody else wants to give their input or disagrees with my opinions, feel free to post

[alix 20]

Wow....I totally agree with Shub. You don't want to rush it and end up paying double! That's my fear too...and I have met that requirement in 2012!

[alix 20]

I'm going to hijack this thread back ?!

In your humble opinion, do you think it matters if I wait until May to file and leave one trip out or should I just file now and include both (and hope for the best)?

One trip started in Nov 2008 and ended in May 2009 (209 days). The other started in July 2009 and ended in March 2010 (264 days).

[Shub 78]

I'm going to hijack this thread back ?!

In your humble opinion, do you think it matters if I wait until May to file and leave one trip out or should I just file now and include both (and hope for the best)?

One trip started in Nov 2008 and ended in May 2009 (209 days). The other started in July 2009 and ended in March 2010 (264 days).

I think the conversation regarding your own case got side-tracked, and that was before even the tangent on ayra's case.

So let's try to make this easy. You will apply based on the 3-year rule.

1) Is the date on your green card next to "Resident since" February 20th, 2011 or earlier?

2) Between February 21st, 2011 and February 21st, 2014, have you taken any international trips lasting more than 180 days?

3) Between February 21st, 2011 and February 21st, 2014, were you physically within the territory of the United States for at least 18 months/548 days?

4) Can you provide federal tax return transcripts showing that you filed a tax return for tax years 2010, 2011, 2012 (and possibly 2013 since Apr 15, 2014 is approaching, you might as well try to have that on hand)?

5) Have you lived within the same USCIS district in the 3 months preceding the date of your application for citizenship?

If you answered yes, no, yes, yes, yes, I say go ahead and apply and I think you'll be fine.

If you haven't already done so, go to http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/article/attachments.pdf then go to page 5 and fill out the eligibility worksheet for a more thorough check.

[alix 20]

"If you answered yes, no, yes, yes, yes, I say go ahead and apply and I think you'll be fine."

Then I think I'll be fine! Thanks!