Stayed outside US more than 2 yrs but with Re-entry Permit

[hetty 0]

Hi everyone. nice to be back.

My husband is thinking about applying for naturalization at the end of the year. His only concern is, he had a history of staying outside the US for more than 2years. He applied for a reentry Visa on March 2000 when he was there in US. He wrote the intended departure to be March 2000 with expected length of trip of two years. He left the US on March2000. When he received the approved Reentry permit, it was valid from October2000 to October 2002. He used the reentry permit to be able to finish his education in 2 years. He got back in the US on September 2002, a month before the Re-entry Permit expiration. He was allowed to come in. Since then he had multiple 2week-trips back to his home country without any problems in the Port of entry.

Since coming back in 2002, he only stayed outside the US about 28days per year, on an average.

Now, in the Naturalization application, he has to write all the trips done outside the US, including the one from March 2000 to October 2002 using the Re-entry permit. Will he have problems in the Naturalization process because of staying outside the US more than 2years? Will they take away his green card? Or will they do nothing because he just followed the expiration date in the Re-entry permit.

thanks for future answers.

Edited July 25, 2007 by hetty

[lucyrich 20]

It shouldn't be a problem. The two year absence breaks his "continuous residence" period, so for the purposes of the "continuous residence" requirement of naturalization, it's as though he became a LPR on the day he returned from the long absence. According to the dates you write, he's easily been back from the trip long enough to naturalize if he's been married to a USC for the past three years, and he's almost been back long enough to naturalize even without taking into account the marriage.

The fact that they let him back in, not only after the long absence, but after multiple other trips since then, is a good sign that they didn't judge him to have abandoned permanent resident status. Assuming he's been filing taxes, maintaining his home in the US, and not doing other things that would cause him to lose resident status, he's a permanent resident.

[hetty 0]

thanks lucyrich for your insight.