Confused

P

Proxyon

Registered Users (C)
Hi all.

I am new to this forum and thank you all in advance for your support and answers.

It is my third year in the US, however I have been out of the coutry for less than 6 months. Everything went fine on my re-entry at the border, however, I am concerned that on the stamp in my passport where is the date of admission, the immigration officer wrote with a pen: "Out 6 months". To be accurate, I left the US on March 25th and came back on September 20th. That is exactly 178 days.

However, I am still confused about this writing in my passport. Why the officer had to write "Out 6 months"? What is the point of this? I mean, on the day of the interview they will see my passport, my claim of the days outside (about which I am certain) then they will say: "Everything with that guy seems normal to us, we checked his outside of the US history, he is OK, but then why the immigration officer wrote "out 6 months"?

You see what really confuses me is how important is the border officer's writing and do they really care about that at the naturalization, or it is just something minor and they ignore it as far as they are certain about my days in and out.

Can all that story reflect to my naturalization process?

Thank you.
 
I am sorry I dont have an answer to offer. But I am curious how did the IO at POE know that you were out for 6 months ? Were you asked about that, or were other stamps in your passport checked ?
 
I don't know what the immigration officer checked on his computer when I gave him my Green Card, but when he asked me: "For how long have you been outside of the US?", I said: "Almost for 6 months", which is exactly what it was. Then he stamped my passport with the admission date, took his pen and wrote under the stamp: "Out 6 months".
 
Proxyon said:
It is my third year in the US, however I have been out of the coutry for less than 6 months. Everything went fine on my re-entry at the border, however, I am concerned that on the stamp in my passport where is the date of admission, the immigration officer wrote with a pen: "Out 6 months". To be accurate, I left the US on March 25th and came back on September 20th. That is exactly 178 days.
Click to expand...

Have you traveled before this trip also? It could be because you have other trips which might indicate to the officer that you are not living in US.

If he stamped your passport, he also very likely noted this in the computer. These records will be available to the IO at the time of naturalization.

However, whether this will be an issue or not depends on your overall travel pattern and not an individual trip.
 
sanjoseaug20 said:
Have you traveled before this trip also? It could be because you have other trips which might indicate to the officer that you are not living in US.

If he stamped your passport, he also very likely noted this in the computer. These records will be available to the IO at the time of naturalization.

However, whether this will be an issue or not depends on your overall travel pattern and not an individual trip.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your answer.

Yes, I have traveled this trip before. It is a visit to my native country. The last time I stayed was for 5 and half months. The reason I stay there for that amount of time is because my parents are old, one of them has an illness, I do not have brothers or sisters and I should take care for them. I explained that to the immigration officer.

From your post, I understand that these words "out 6 months" under the stamp are more likely for an internal use at the airport arrival, not that they determine my eligibility for naturalization, right?

My overall travel plans for the future and intentions include traveling to my country for up to six months, the point is even if there is a reason for them, after being marked on my passport, can I do something in order to avoid any troubles on arrival in the future?
 
The problem I see in the future is that if you continue taking long trips out of the country you might not be able to naturalize until 4 years and 1 day after your last long trip. Other than that, as long as you still have your main residence in the US it shouldn't be a problem. If you are trying to game the system to keep the GC but for all purposes you live abroad that might mean trouble, as a border agent might ask you more questions next time or refer you to secondary inspection. If you are planning to be abroad for a considerable amount of time taking care of your elders you should consider applying for a return permit.

For naturalization you are most likely going to break continuous residence so you'll have to wait (as I pointed above) four years and a day after your last long trip.
 
Proxyon said:
From your post, I understand that these words "out 6 months" under the stamp are more likely for an internal use at the airport arrival, not that they determine my eligibility for naturalization, right?
Click to expand...

Please do not assume anything. It can do a lot of things:
a) Ask you to see an immigration judge next time if you have another long trip. This is the first step towards revoking the green card.
b) Ask you explain / justify for naturalization ... it is usually very hard to convince CIS that you are living here if you are really not
c) Nothing may happen

Having the stamp makes it more likely they will scrutinize you more the next time you return to US.

As Huracan said, you have the option of applying for re-entry permit.

BTW, although the law says 6 months, there is not much difference between 183, 180, 178 or even 125 days if the IO sees a pattern of such trips rather than just one trip.
 
Out 6 months means you were close enough to the limit for IO to consider it as 6 months. Also, a back and forth travel pattern of just under 6 months will cause suspicion, no matter what your reason for traveling to your home country is.
As for naturalization, expect it to bring your continuous residency requirement into question.
 
Hi Experts,
I have 5 trips (one per year) of following lengths. These were just vacations, I was living/working in the US the whole time (and can be established however required).

Is this set of trips any cause for concern, given that they are slightly longer than a normal case ? If so, any documents I should prepare to justify these were indeed vacations ? (I currently have tax-transcripts & W2's)

Year 1: ~55 days
Year 2: ~35 days
Year 3: ~85 days
Year 4: ~45 days
Year 5: ~23 days --> Latest trip
 
complex_dude said:
Hi Experts,
I have 5 trips (one per year) of following lengths. These were just vacations, I was living/working in the US the whole time (and can be established however required).

Is this set of trips any cause for concern, given that they are slightly longer than a normal case ? If so, any documents I should prepare to justify these were indeed vacations ? (I currently have tax-transcripts & W2's)

Year 1: ~55 days
Year 2: ~35 days
Year 3: ~85 days
Year 4: ~45 days
Year 5: ~23 days --> Latest trip
Click to expand...
Yearly vacations of this length are not something that would bring continuous residency into question.
 
He wrote that for his fellow POE officers that you will meet in the future.

Proxyon said:
I am concerned that on the stamp in my passport where is the date of admission, the immigration officer wrote with a pen: "Out 6 months". Why the officer had to write "Out 6 months"? What is the point of this?
Click to expand...
 
The officer wrote that so that the next person (who looks at your passport the next time you enter the country) pay close attention to your trips and the pattern.

Does it mean anything for the naturalization - not in and of itself. However, the fact that you have multiple trips close to 6 months is a cause for concern. BUT - again, if you've passed all the other criteria and meet the residency requirements - all the IO is likely to do during your interview is give you some grief and count every day.

Make sure you are very, very, very diligent about recording your trips in and out. Make sure you have all passports with all stamps to document when you entered another country and entered the US because you'll need to prove that you weren't out for longer than necessary.

Personally I wouldn't be as worried about the naturalization interview as I would be about you retaining your green card. If you continue this pattern (under 6 months) for long enough you're going to get hassled. However, in general, if you are maintaining bank accounts in the US, have property here and are paying taxes here and have a business or job here - there's little likelihood that the USCIS could prevail in claiming that you've abandoned your residency. If you don't have the above - then it's a different story.

Good luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top