Child birth abroad, naturalized citizen parent -- question about physical presence in the US

[sam8622645]

I've lived in the US for about 15 years and eventually became a US citizen.
At the time around my naturalization, I was dating my (now) wife who is a citizen of my native country. We both lived in the US at the time.

Shortly after I became a US citizen, we got married and then left the states. We came back to our native country to take care of our parents.

That was several years ago.

Last week, my wife gave birth to our daughter. We are still residing in our native country at this time. So I did some reading on the embassy website about registering child birth abroad and the "Application for Consular Report of Birth Abroad for a Citizen of the United States of America".

One of the requirements is for the US citizen parent to have 5 years of physical presence in the US.

I have around 15 years of presence in the US, but not in the status of a citizen. It so happened that I only have about 2 months of presence in the US while being a US citizen. And all the other years as a visa holder or a permanent resident.

I couldn't find anywhere in the law or on the embassy help pages whether physical presence only counts when one is already a citizen or if any presence is counted for the purposes of this application.

I've been paying taxes as a resident (tax resident, not immigration resident) this whole time, even while living abroad. I could probably find 6 or 7 years of 1040s. And I also have a copy of my greencard somewhere -- would it be helpful since the process of naturalization in itself had some presence requirements?

Would that be sufficient to establish my presence in the US during my life for the purpose of this application?

Initially, I thought that CRBA application is just a formality. But the more I read about it, the more it reminds me of the naturalization interview. Looks like a serious thing that requires plenty of supporting documentation/paperwork.

I threw away all old bills, credit card statements, leases when we moved. I just never realized I would need them again.

So at this time, I'm not sure how to proceed.

 

[newacct]

It's physical presence, in any status -- permanent resident or visitor, legal or illegal -- as long as you are physically in the U.S. or one of its territories, it counts. See http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/86757.pdf starting at page 18 for more details.

Try to bring as much evidence as you can for the whole 15 years to be safe, as there will probably be lots of gaps in your evidence. School records would be good, although it's only evidence of presence during the school year, not during breaks. Work records would also be good. Or any receipts or time you attended some event or went to some office to take care of something, all of those are evidence that you were in the U.S. at that time (although they don't prove how long you were in the U.S.). Expired passports with stamps is also good for documenting foreign trips (although passports are not always stamped on entry).

 

[sam8622645]

Thanks. I'm also going to do a FOIA request with CBP. Hopefully, that'll get me some travel dates.