Long-time green card holder, wants to apply for citizenship, planning to study abroad this fall

[apkyletexas 0]

Hi, I hope the kind members of the board can help. I've been reading a lot of confusing information about this situation, and don't know how to proceed. My daughter and I are green card holders, and I am married to a natural born US Citizen. We all live in the same house together in Texas, and have all lived together in Texas since we got married in 2008. My daughter has done extremely well in her schooling, and is about to graduate high school. We were planning for her to apply for her citizenship this year.

 

A couple of weeks ago, she got an offer of a full-tuition scholarship to attend a highly ranked international school. She would need to start school there at the end of August if she intends to go. So far, we have not sent in the form to apply for her citizenship yet.

 

Some questions I have

- is there any possibility that she would be approved for citizenship before August? (I'm thinking not, but interested in your opinions).

- if she does not apply for citizenship now, it sounds to me like her 3-year clock for continuous residence might be zeroed out by her overseas study. Is that your experience?

- if she studies abroad on her green card, it sounds to me like we can prove that she has sufficient continuous contacts, family, banking, taxes, drivers license in Texas to qualify to keep her green card. But I am worried about this also. Any thoughts?

 

This is all happening quickly. We were surprised at the scholarship from the school. In fact, we were surprised she was accepted at all - this school has one of the lowest acceptance rates in their field. So now, we have a lot of immigration questions, but all the information we can find is kind of confusing.

 

Thanks for any help you can give!

[nightingalejules 678]

What a crazy, unexpected situation! I can't imagine not being able to simply be thrilled and excited about this kind of opportunity. Instead, there are all these immigration problems, compounded by the fact that your daughter becomes hugely more difficult to petition to return to the US after she turns 21 (if she loses her green card status).

 

It does seem as though the current wait time for citizenship is longer than 5 months, so it's unlikely that she would be approved in time. I wonder, though if she would be able to apply now and return to the US when it came time for her citizenship interview, and then again when it came time for her oath ceremony. I don't know what the rules would be on this, but it might work. 

 

Since she is not married to a US citizen, she is on the 5 year residence timeline, not 3 (I think, even though she got her green card through your marriage. Either way, the "continuous residence" will have to do with number of days physically resident in the US over the past 5 years rather than the past 3 years, so it might not be entirely "zeroed out" by her attending university overseas (especially if she spent as much time as possible in the US between terms).

 

She would definitely have to file for "Re-entry permit(s)" if she's going to be absent for more than 6 months at a time. 

 

This might be one situation where you should consider talking to an immigration lawyer to figure it all out. 

[apkyletexas 0]

Hi nightingalejules, good point: 

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your daughter becomes hugely more difficult to petition to return to the US after she turns 21 (if she loses her green card status)

Her 10-year card expires in late May, 2021 - right around the time of her expected college graduation date. So, we might get lucky on that.

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She would definitely have to file for "Re-entry permit(s)" if she's going to be absent for more than 6 months at a time. 

She'll have Christmas break and a long summer break, so I think we'll just have her come home for all the longer breaks. I don't want to risk the 6 months problem.

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I wonder, though if she would be able to apply now and return to the US when it came time for her citizenship interview, and then again when it came time for her oath ceremony. I don't know what the rules would be on this, but it might work.

This is one of the main things I've been thinking about. I don't want to waste the $725.00 filing and biometric fee (plus one or two roundtrip airfares) if she's simply going to be refused citizenship for currently studying abroad, though.

 

 

Edited March 14, 2017 by apkyletexas

[believe 46]

If I recall from the N400 rules the clock does not come on for students. Her home address is your home, and the only reason she's out of the country is for school. Hopefully someone with similar experience will chime in.