Citizenship application denial or not ?

[JACKIE77]

My uncle has lived in the USA since he’s been 17 years old and he came here with a green card already. He never bother to become a citizen until now, almost 50 years later. He lived here all his life, married, divorced and had kids. He does not work anymore because a heart problem and his doctor put him on a permanent disability and he collects SSI. Because of that, in the last 5 years he’s been traveling overseas to visit friends and family he left behind. On one occasion he stayed overseas over 6 months and while there he collected his SSI with his bank ATM card. He does not know if he’s done something illegal by collection money overseas but he believes he did since he did not tell Social Security office that he intended to stay overseas for quite some time. Now he wants to apply for citizenship to make his traveling easier but he’s afraid that once he applies they will know that aside from being over 6 months overseas he also collected SSI and that will be grounds for denial of his application.
Is that true? Can his application be denied for staying overseas over 6 months and for collecting SSI while there?
Thanks a lot.

 

[Bobsmyth]

If he stayed oversees for over 6 months he is presumed to have broken continuous residency requirement if he intends to apply for naturalization and will have to show proof that he still held residential ties in US.
I'm not aware of any issues with collecting SSI from his US bank account while oversees on an extended trip.

 

[vdostoi1]

My uncle has lived in the USA since he’s been 17 years old and he came here with a green card already. He never bother to become a citizen until now, almost 50 years later. He lived here all his life, married, divorced and had kids. He does not work anymore because a heart problem and his doctor put him on a permanent disability and he collects SSI. Because of that, in the last 5 years he’s been traveling overseas to visit friends and family he left behind. On one occasion he stayed overseas over 6 months and while there he collected his SSI with his bank ATM card. He does not know if he’s done something illegal by collection money overseas but he believes he did since he did not tell Social Security office that he intended to stay overseas for quite some time. Now he wants to apply for citizenship to make his traveling easier but he’s afraid that once he applies they will know that aside from being over 6 months overseas he also collected SSI and that will be grounds for denial of his application.
Is that true? Can his application be denied for staying overseas over 6 months and for collecting SSI while there?
Thanks a lot.

His long time PR status may be sufficient proof that he did not intend to abandon residency in the US. I am almost positive his case is pretty unique as few people are in his situation. I would just have proof that he did not intend to abandon PR in the US.