utterly confused about residency requirement

E

educatedcat

Registered Users (C)
First of all, THANK YOU TO THE MODERATORS AND ALL for this site. It took me years to get my GC, and you were all my support system here. THANK YOU.

NOW MY QUESTION:
I got my GC a year ago--through my employer. Now I am a professor whose one year sabbatical has been approved, starting in June. ALSO, (I am of subcontinent descent), my boyfriend and soon-to-be fiance/husband (US White Citizen) is off to London to study for his MA, starting in September.

I am now completely confused to what physical presence or continuous presence means. I would like to spend time in Asia during my sabbatical doing research (well, that is required by my job) and I want to spend some time in London setting up the beginnings of my married life. But I don't want to break my residency requirements and get denied for citizenship in 4 years.

Also, since my GC, I have also spent about three months (on and off) in Asia doing academic research.

1. DOES THE SIX-MONTH RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT APPLY TO MY ENTIRE FIVE YEARS? That is, can I NOT be out of the US for more than 6 months TOTAL in all of the 5 years?

2. IS IT SIX MONTHS OF CONTINUOUS presence that is required, which means that I need to fly back every few months? Will my years of research in Asia be added up then, because that will be more than six months in five years, especially if my fiance/husband spends a year in London.

Friends, I am a fairly smart person, but this issue of physical or continuous presence and residency requirement MAKES NO SENSE TO ME.

I apologize if my question has already been answered, but I have read USCIS pamphlet on naturalization requirements; I have read many of the threads here; I have read USCIS residency requirement, and I am just confused.

Please help.
 
educatedcat said:
First of all, THANK YOU TO THE MODERATORS AND ALL for this site. It took me years to get my GC, and you were all my support system here. THANK YOU.

NOW MY QUESTION:
I got my GC a year ago--through my employer. Now I am a professor whose one year sabbatical has been approved, starting in June. ALSO, (I am of subcontinent descent), my boyfriend and soon-to-be fiance/husband (US White Citizen) is off to London to study for his MA, starting in September.

I am now completely confused to what physical presence or continuous presence means. I would like to spend time in Asia during my sabbatical doing research (well, that is required by my job) and I want to spend some time in London setting up the beginnings of my married life. But I don't want to break my residency requirements and get denied for citizenship in 4 years.

Also, since my GC, I have also spent about three months (on and off) in Asia doing academic research.

1. DOES THE SIX-MONTH RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT APPLY TO MY ENTIRE FIVE YEARS? That is, can I NOT be out of the US for more than 6 months TOTAL in all of the 5 years?

2. IS IT SIX MONTHS OF CONTINUOUS presence that is required, which means that I need to fly back every few months? Will my years of research in Asia be added up then, because that will be more than six months in five years, especially if my fiance/husband spends a year in London.

Friends, I am a fairly smart person, but this issue of physical or continuous presence and residency requirement MAKES NO SENSE TO ME.

I apologize if my question has already been answered, but I have read USCIS pamphlet on naturalization requirements; I have read many of the threads here; I have read USCIS residency requirement, and I am just confused.

Please help.
Click to expand...
Residency and Naturalization
by Gregory Siskind,
http://www.ilw.com/articles/2007,0116-siskind.shtm



Preservation of Green Cards during Foreign Travel
by Gregory Siskind, Esq.

http://www.ilw.com/articles/2006,1030-siskind.shtm

Maintaining Legal Permanent Resident Status
http://www.hooyou.com/reentrypermit/maintainninglegalPRS.html
Maintenance of Lawful Permanent Residence
http://www.americanlaw.com/maintlpr.html
http://www.twmlaw.com/resources/immigrant/immigrant6cont.htm

http://careers.the-scientist.com/index.cfm?attributes.fuseaction=news.display&article_id=789

http://immigration.about.com/library/blpermres.htm

http://www.quanlaw.com/ls_presidency.asp

Very good legal guide for US Citzenship or to maintain Permanent Residence of US, very good reading

http://www.illinoislegalaid.org/UPLOADS/001688natguide.pdf
http://www.immihelp.com/greencard/retain-greencard.html
 
There are no simple answers to your questions because a lot also depends on the discrestion of immigration officers. There are 2 definite rules: 1. Any trip longer than 6 month at any one time is considered to have broken a continuous residence (unless you prove that you had compelling reasons to do so). 2. Being out of the U.S. more than 30 months accumulatively during last 5 years breaks the physical presence.

However, even if you are within the limits of above 2 rules, IO can still consider that you have abandoned the residence if he/she determines so. This usually accurs when you have multiple long trips that last close to 6 months, and IO suspects that you are in fact residing overseas for a variety of reasons. Also, if all of your trips are combined to be anywhere close to 30 months physical presence limit, there could be problems.

You'll find in "citizenship" forum, there are posts about this matter. Some people have come back to US for every 5-6 month while working overseas, and they were subjected to harsh questioning at interviews. The only way to be safe is, do not have many long trips.
 
I think you got very good answers and pointers to good sources of information on subject matter. Let me add few things.

Frankly, I do not see much confusion about the issue from the "mechanical" perspective. So, I am bit confused about your confusion :) It is really straightforward in terms of continuous and physical presence requirements.

I suspect that your confusion comes from the fact that you assumed that with GC you are able to live wherever you want for whatever period of time....And that somehow GC is giving you endless freedom in planning what you want to do. And at the top this, you just simply file some "additional papers" after 5 yrs and get your citizenship. Just like a good academic excercise....Well, it does not work that way.

Keep in mind - US Residency (Green Card) means exactly that - U.S. Residency, i.e. that you are living in US.....not living and working oversees. It means that your primary place of abode is US, that you are paying US taxes etc.

Keep in mind...There are three issues here:

(1) You have to maintain your US residency
(2) Your preparations for US citizenship application
(3) "Mechanics" vs. "Reality"

(1) & (2) are well covered by earlier posts. Let me say a few words about (3).

You can not "beat" the system just by doing few days flights back to US every six months, while having in reality your residence in London or in Asia. Sooner or later you will get in trouble with (1) and/or (2). USCIS wants to see more than simple "mechanical" record (of your trips with which you are trying to "beat" the system), but real proof of your residency in US.

If you are preparing to live in London for real, it is going to be very hard for you to preserve GC and get citizenship.

However, if your real intention is to have only 1yr sabbatical, maybe you should re-consider getting re-entry permit and filing for N-470 before coming back to US. This will demonstrate that your job is temporary (sabbatical) and help you preserve continuous residence for the purpose of naturalization. You have a lot of discussions about N-470 here on the board.

My strong advise: study this issue carefully before you are going to make any decision about your future. Keep in mind that USCIS is generally more stringent about residency requirements after 9/11 and POE officers are asking more and more questions to probe suspicious long-trips out of US each time green card holder is returning to US.

Good luck!

P.S.: I'm not a lawyer or an immigration expert. I'm just an ordinary guy. You are soley responsible for your actions.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Wow, as expected, I have gotten very good advice. Thank you for your responses and for the links--I will go study them now :) . Quite honestly, I just wasn't even sure about the mechanics of the residency requirement, and your information has given me a lot to learn my education process.

Superstring, I appreciate the fact that my confusion is confusing :eek: . If I may address some of your points:
I suspect that your confusion comes from the fact that you assumed that with GC you are able to live wherever you want for whatever period of time....And that somehow GC is giving you endless freedom in planning what you want to do.
Click to expand...
I actually assumed that my residency time would be very restricted, and for that reason, I have kept my research trips to Asia to no more than 2-3 weeks in length.

My primary concern is that my sabbatical year (which was a very tough battle to get one) was approved on the basis on my research in Asia. Which means that I must go do field work in Asia for my job. Additionally, I was not expecting to be affianced during my sabbatical year and for my fiance to head off to London for one year only (the length of his study). These two complications--the fact that my job requires me to produce a book based on my research and the fact that my fiance expects me to spend some time with him during the early months of our marriage--have completely messed up some of my original plans.

I will take your advice and approach this cautiously; which means I probably need to postpone any wedding plans and to curtail long research trips.

I wonder how other academics deal with this aspect of sabbatical travel.

I should mention that at no point will I NOT be paying taxes in the US and I will still be employed full-time at my university, because a sabbatical is part of my job requirement.

Hmmm...I have a lot to think about and learn.

Thank you all for your comments.

Salaam, Namaste, Peace.
 
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