continued residency - stop over enough?

F

frank346234

New Member
I am in the process of turning my green card into a citizenship.

For this, besides other things, I need continued residency.
Meaning that I cannot leave the country for more than 6 month.

My question is:

If my plane stopped in New York (e.g. en route from Mexico to Europe) for a couple of hours, I exit through customs and enter again....

Would this reset my continued residency counter?

Thanks for your answer.
 
As far as I know – No it will not reset your continuous residency counter.

I had to live in UK due to spouse’s school for 1 year. I just had my naturalization interview and IO reschedule my interview, he wants me prove the ‘continued residency’ by giving utility bill for the year I was away.

I thought that a tax return and bank statement with my in-law’s address (we lived with them hence no utility bill…bummer) would suffice. But IO wanted more, he gave me two more months to look for anything that I can find and he would accept otherwise he will deny and I will have to apply some other time.

I knew that I couldn’t live outside of US with a green card for more than a year without re-entry permit. I did not get a re-entry permit so I came back within 365 days.

During interview IO said that by coming back to US in one year, I satisfied my green card requirement but not continuous residency requirement!!!!

My 2 cents --- dont leave until you are a citizen....
 
Very short and easy answer: No, it does not. Plus, with the new passenger information systems etc. in place since 9/11, they have gotten pretty good at tracking arrivals and departures of ALL folks...including those with LPR status. Good luck!

Cheers!
Legal
 
Short answer - you're out of luck

Long answer - technically a short stay such as this might count as 1 day physical presence, but it does not help demonstrate that you continued to be a US resident. This case is very similar to another recent one, where the person was issued a NOID (for the same reason), and was trying to decide whether to appeal or not.

You can reapply 4yr+1day from the date you returned to the US.
 
Well, the good thing is that I am planing for the future.
So I still have all options open to me.

But what I don't understand:

Is there a difference between one day and one week?

I always was under the impression that if I returned to the US for one week every six month for 2.5 years and spend the remaining 2.5 years en bloc in the US I would be fine (naturalisation-wise).

Am I mistaken?
 
frank346234 said:
Well, the good thing is that I am planing for the future.
So I still have all options open to me.

But what I don't understand:

Is there a difference between one day and one week?

I always was under the impression that if I returned to the US for one week every six month for 2.5 years and spend the remaining 2.5 years en bloc in the US I would be fine (naturalisation-wise).

Am I mistaken?
Click to expand...

Based on recent interview feedback mentioned above, yes I believe you are mistaken.

The crux of the problem is you need to prove to USCIS that you resided continuously in the US for the specified 3 or 5yr waiting period. Unfortunately certain aspects of the natz rules are open to interpretation by lawyers, immigration officers and laymen, so nobody seems to have a definitive answer to this question. We can only go by past experience, and right now that strongly suggests your "quick trip home" tactic doesn't work.

You may find this thread interesting (if perhaps a little conflicted in advice being offered)
 
Thank you for your answers.
The link was interesting indeed.

In this they introduced the term "LACK of continuous residence" rather than breaking it.

The "lack o.c.r." aside. Would this "couple of houres in the US" qualify for a reset of my continued residency status in the sense of not breaking it (according to the letter of the law)?

I have no choice but to go ahead with my "2.5 outside and 2.5 yrs inside the US" strategy. So now all I can do is to build the best case I can and get a good lawyer before applying for citizenship.

So back to my original question: Would a stopover be enough not to break my continued residency (despite the fact that it reflects poorly on me!)
 
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