Foreign Employment & Address Questions -- N-400 Part 6

U

uscqns

New Member
I believe that I meet all the eligibility criteria specified in the checklist for citizenship and plan to apply this week. However, I had the following questions pertaining to part 6 of the form N400.

BACKGROUND:
I have a history of traveling back and forth and spent a large amount of time in India since obtaining my green card. While in India, I was helping an affiliate company of my own small business and receiving salary from the Indian company. I am a co-owner in both the companies. Also, there were a couple of years when I had no U.S. income and received my salary exclusively from the Indian company. I have filed tax returns every year and also reported this income on my U.S. tax returns.

QUESTIONS
1. Is it ok to mention the Indian company as my foreign employer on question B of part 6? Or, is it better to mention the U.S. company as my employer during the entire time although this company was not earning any revenues yet? I would prefer the former, but is that grounds for disqualification?

2. In response to question A where you list all your addresses, I of course lived in India for a long duration and will list that address. However, I kept traveling back and forth and staying with friends in U.S. during visits. I had valid U.S. drivers license, bank accounts, filed my tax returns, etc. Should I just mention a single address in the U.S. with overlapping dates for the U.S. and Indian addresses or does anyone have any other experiences/ recommendations on this?

Your urgent reply will be highly appreciated!
 
You do not meet the eligibility requirements of maintaining US residency. You must be living in the US, not visiting the US. Any foreign job (unless it is a US company) will show the IO that you were not employed in the US. Visiting friends does not keep your US residency. You need to physically live here, rent/own home documents, US job if applicable, US taxes, Car payments, visa etc. Anything that you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have been living here.

You also mentioned you have been away out of the US for long times. Anything over 6 months to a year, it will be up to you to prove to the IO that you have been living here all those years (which clearly you haven't) and which will be easily determined by them that you haven't. Anything over a year out of the country (and comming back to visit does NOT count) will be almost 100% denial.

If you plan on getting US citizenship, you need to move back and make a permenant residence in the US, working here (not foreign employed) and only make trips outside the US not TO the US. You now will have to re-set your clock to the beginning as you would when you first got your green card...
 
There's two things pretty much guaranteed to stand out like a red flag to an IO; foreign residence and foreign employment.

Obviously we don't have the specifics of your travel dates, but I'd be willing to bet you're going to find yourself on the wrong end of a Notice of Intent to Deny once USCIS gets hold of this information. Be aware that naturalization is generally only conferred to bona-fide residents of the US, and those serving the US govt overseas (e.g. armed forces). A GC holder residing and working overseas (especially without a reentry permit) risks not only a reset of their continuous residence waiting period, but also the ongoing validity of their LPR status.

You may wish to seek professional advice before submitting your N-400.
 
warlord said:
You do not meet the eligibility requirements of maintaining US residency. You must be living in the US, not visiting the US. Any foreign job (unless it is a US company) will show the IO that you were not employed in the US. Visiting friends does not keep your US residency. You need to physically live here, rent/own home documents, US job if applicable, US taxes, Car payments, visa etc. Anything that you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have been living here.

You also mentioned you have been away out of the US for long times. Anything over 6 months to a year, it will be up to you to prove to the IO that you have been living here all those years (which clearly you haven't) and which will be easily determined by them that you haven't. Anything over a year out of the country (and comming back to visit does NOT count) will be almost 100% denial.

If you plan on getting US citizenship, you need to move back and make a permenant residence in the US, working here (not foreign employed) and only make trips outside the US not TO the US. You now will have to re-set your clock to the beginning as you would when you first got your green card...
Click to expand...
I got my green card in 2/2001 so it has been 6.5 years. I have been the owner of a business in the U.S. since 6/2001 and the foreign stint has been with our sister concern. I had applied for a re-entry permit twice, so my intent to return has been well documented; I also kept traveling to the US frequently. I have been back in the U.S. for almost 3 years now, during which time I have never traveled outside the U.S. except for short trips to Canada. I have always had a valid US drivers license, paid U.S. taxes as a resident, and maintained credit cards, etc. My last CR-breaking trip was in 2/2002; counting one year earlier from that, I become eligible in 2/2007? Please let me know if you still believe that I am ineligible although I meet all the CR and PR conditions in the citizenship checklist?
 
boatbod said:
There's two things pretty much guaranteed to stand out like a red flag to an IO; foreign residence and foreign employment.

Obviously we don't have the specifics of your travel dates, but I'd be willing to bet you're going to find yourself on the wrong end of a Notice of Intent to Deny once USCIS gets hold of this information. Be aware that naturalization is generally only conferred to bona-fide residents of the US, and those serving the US govt overseas (e.g. armed forces). A GC holder residing and working overseas (especially without a reentry permit) risks not only a reset of their continuous residence waiting period, but also the ongoing validity of their LPR status.

You may wish to seek professional advice before submitting your N-400.
Click to expand...
Could you please review my response to warlord and comment on whether you still believe I would be ineligible at this time?
 
uscqns said:
I got my green card in 2/2001 so it has been 6.5 years. I have been the owner of a business in the U.S. since 6/2001 and the foreign stint has been with our sister concern. I had applied for a re-entry permit twice, so my intent to return has been well documented; I also kept traveling to the US frequently. I have been back in the U.S. for almost 3 years now, during which time I have never traveled outside the U.S. except for short trips to Canada. I have always had a valid US drivers license, paid U.S. taxes as a resident, and maintained credit cards, etc. My last CR-breaking trip was in 2/2002; counting one year earlier from that, I become eligible in 2/2007? Please let me know if you still believe that I am ineligible although I meet all the CR and PR conditions in the citizenship checklist?
Click to expand...

Assuming you made your last CR-breaking trip in 2/2002, you became eligible 4yr+1day after that date. i.e. 2/2006. However, since you noted that you traveled regularly up until 3 years ago, it is possible those trips may have an impact on your case if they were back-to-back and could be viewed as a single overseas stay punctuated by one or more "visits" to the US.

Continuous residence, as interpreted by USCIS, is a bit of a nebulous concept. Theoretically the rules are simple, but practically there are all sorts of interpretations and gotchas ready to trip up anything but the simplest of cases.
 
Yes if you have been residing and only small trips out of the country for the past 3 years, you would probably be safe to apply in another year or so. You still would need to document your trips so, that then will be up to the IO to decide. So you definatly will want to get all the proof you can that you have resided in the US (seems like you do have the information).

I was under the assumption you were still living outside the US and that was the big flag. Since you said almost "3 years of continual residency" that's still only 2 years and how many months. You would need at least 4 unless those trips you took before the "almost 3 years" weren't extended stays past 6 months (or at the very most 1 year). You musts also be able to prove in that year you resided and lived in the US and were not living over seas.

So if that was the case and you still were living abroad, you will probably want to wait another year before applying and save yourself the heartache of a N-400 denial if they think you were not maintaining your residency...
 
Disclaimer: I am just another N-400 aspirant

If your CR requirements were met for the same 5 year period which will count toward your physical presence requirements, you need not even worry about foreign employment, having or not having the re-entry permit, etc.

The purpose of the re-entry permit was to obtain entry in to the United States after a prolonged absence. Now that you are back here in the USA, it is practically useless.

Of course, the re-entry permit will help if your interview starts moving in the wrong direction.

I do not think you should have any problem unless there is an IO out there to get you - usually very rare from what I've heard/read.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
From what you have described, it seems to me that you are fine and eligible. The strong pts are that you filed taxes each yr and own a business in the US. As you can see the advice given on boards is from people as inexperienced as you, I would say go for it. File by Saturday and you can save a few hundred $ too!
 
I have a friend who went aboard to visit for half year in 2002(the economic was back and he got laid off). About 1 year after return, he filled N-400 and got the citizenship. The IO didn't ask much about his time aboard and interview process was smooth. Since you already been back for 3 years, I think it should be safe to prove your US residence base on friend's experience. Without knowing your absence 3 years ago, the only thing I can think of is how long was the trips and did it reset your residence clock.

Warlord, you said any trip over a year(coming back for visit doesn't count) will almost be 100% denial. I wonder is that from someone's experience or your understanding of the naturalization requirement? Not that I am challenge you, but I also had a long trip aboard and want to understand what is the risk associated with that.
 
markx said:
Warlord, you said any trip over a year(coming back for visit doesn't count) will almost be 100% denial. I wonder is that from someone's experience or your understanding of the naturalization requirement? Not that I am challenge you, but I also had a long trip aboard and want to understand what is the risk associated with that.
Click to expand...

Over the past year alone, there have been several first-hand accounts of denials for this very reason. If you are really bored, you could probably trawl through my old posts and dig up some of the threads where the specifics were given. Unfortunately, by far the majority of people don't bother to come back and update the forum with the outcome of their problem cases. :(

What I find more curious about this whole area, is that the USCIS interpretation of residency rules appears a lot more restrictive than the written CFRs. Consequently - and I've seen this documented in at least one USCIS memo - an applicant who is denied by USCIS may well have success appealing the ruling in front of an immigration judge, because the judge must apply the letter of the law. Unfortunately, that route can be both time consuming and expensive, especially if you need to retain a lawyer on your behalf...
 
boatbod said:
Over the past year alone, there have been several first-hand accounts of denials for this very reason. If you are really bored, you could probably trawl through my old posts and dig up some of the threads where the specifics were given.
Click to expand...

I had posted a link on one of the threads describing immigrations stance on trips. It had stated that trips over a year are very rarely ever considered and granted a N-400 approval...
 
Warlord,

I did a search on your post and went through the ones with similar title, couldn't find the link. Can you kindly show the link?

Thanks,
Mark
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top