Continuous Presence question

S

sjadad4244a

Registered Users (C)
I have detailed my situation below, (apologies for the long post)
My N400 Priority date is 5/16/07 and FP date is 7/3/07

EMPLOYMENT
1. Employed by a publicly owned US Company for the past 10+ years (since April 1997)
2. Employment based green card through the same company (April 2002)
3. US Company sent me on a temporary fixed time assignment to India from Jan 2005 till Feb 2007 on an expat contract.
4. Continued to be an employee of the US Company (on US payroll), salary paid in the US.
5. Reentry permit filed in November 2004 and expired in March 2007.
6. Temporary assignment was for business development but could not apply for N470 due to frequent travel outside US before start of assignment.
7. Physically present in the US since assignment end date except for one 34 day trip since assignment end date but will continue to travel to India and elsewhere as part of current job responsibilities.
8. Job responsibilities during the assignment (and currently) had a number of US employees reporting directly and indirectly to me. (not sure if this matters)

TAXES
9. Expat contract with tax equalization - Taxes in India paid by the US Company.
10. Company paid accounting firm filed taxes in US and India for 2005 and 2006.
11. Filed taxes as US resident all 5 years.

HOUSING
12. Living in the same apartment building since 2003, lease is in my name.
13. While on temporary assignment, continued to rent the same apartment as family continued to live in the US and assignment required frequent trips to the US (9 trips in 2 years).
14. Company provided housing (rent allowance) and car in India on assignment
15. Did not move furniture from the US, company provided allowance to buy furniture in India.

FAMILY & OTHER TIES TO THE US
16. Wife continued to live and study in the US through all of 2005
17. Son was born in the US in 2005 (US citizen).
18. Wife and son lived in the US for some of 2006 (3 months), visited me and extended family in India for the rest of time.
19. Wife and son lived (wife worked) in the US all of 2007 (to date) and continue to do so.
20. Second son born in the US in 2007 (US citizen).
21. Continue to own and operate 2 cars, bank accounts, credit cards, investments, land lines, cell phones, DSL etc. in the US.

TRAVEL
22. Travel pattern (almost all were business trips)
Year No of trips and duration outside US
2002 1 trip of 29 days (total : 29)
2003 3 trips of 24, 23 and 5 days ( total : 52)
2004 7 trips of 11, 10, 8, 25, 4, 7, 36 (Total : 101)
2005 5 trips of 44, 66, 67, 19, 21 (total : 217)
2006 4 trips of 128, 55, 69, 63 days (total : 284)
2007 (to date) 2 trips of 31, 34 days ( total : 65)

Total No of days outside US : 748

QUESTIONS
1. While I have several strong ties back to the US as explained above through family, housing and employment are these sufficient to overcome the potential continuous residence issue?

2. I am sure there are several others in similar situations, what has your experience been at the interview?

3. I have meticulous documentation to substantiate all the claims made above but are there any specific documents USCIS is looking for that will help my case?


Thanks
 
Hard to say how you stand. One the one hand, you were resident in India for 2 years without the benefit of an N-470, but on the other, you did maintain ties to the US.

Roll the dice and see if you come up lucky.
 
You've got a very strong case, and if you provide all of that info to IO @ interview, backed up by proof at the same time, you should get the oath scheduled that same day (actual ceremony will naturally take place another, scheduled day)
Also, I have a weaker case than you, but look at my posts (click on my user name), fortunately I only have a dozen and see the links and info I provided.
 
sjadad4244a said:
1. While I have several strong ties back to the US as explained above through family, housing and employment are these sufficient to overcome the potential continuous residence issue?
Click to expand...

You have been continuously residing in the U.S. since the end of your temp assignment. The question of cont. residence is not about strong ties, taxes, housing, or having one's family or furniture in the U.S. It is about physical presence in U.S.

It also sounds like you didn't file for Reentry Permit - which would have saved you in a situation like yours. Unfortunately you'll have to reset the counter.


3. I have meticulous documentation to substantiate all the claims made above but are there any specific documents USCIS is looking for that will help my case?
Click to expand...

Airfare tickets, boarding passes, passport stamps. That's all. Just keep those ticket stubs.
 
You wont have too many issues. your case is similar to mine... we too were on assignement, maintained our home in the US, taxes same as you...
One of the below will happen:
1. Since none of your foriegn trips are more than 6 months at any given time I/O may not ask for any proof.
2. Depending on I/O, he may ask for some proof, starting with your US tax returns for the last 5 yrs. You are safe, you will have everything... (do have both actual returns & tax transcripts read). other things he may check is proof of apt lease and utility bills.
Our lawyer had asked us to get all of these ready.

Apart from ties to the US during that time, I/O can ask current attachment - didnt for us - but we carried latest utility bills, kids schools transcripts etc.

You will be fine, as long as you are prepared with these documents.
 
Amerikanus said:
You have been continuously residing in the U.S. since the end of your temp assignment. The question of cont. residence is not about strong ties, taxes, housing, or having one's family or furniture in the U.S. It is about physical presence in U.S.

It also sounds like you didn't file for Reentry Permit - which would have saved you in a situation like yours. Unfortunately you'll have to reset the counter.


I did have a re-entry permit - Applied in November 2004 and expired in March 2007. There was no need to extend the reentry permit as my assignment completed in Feb 2007.
Click to expand...
 
The biggest problem is the lack of N-470.

Anyway, worst case is that denial would result in losing the application fee and having to wait until 2011 (four years and 1 day after restarting continuous residence). However, it may also be worth it to withdraw this application and wait until 2008 to apply (one year after returning from your last long trip), since it looks bad to apply within the first few months after returning from a series of long overseas trips, if those trips were long and frequent enough to create doubts in the interviewer's mind about continuous residence.
 
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sammySam said:
1. Since none of your foriegn trips are more than 6 months at any given time I/O may not ask for any proof.
Click to expand...
They don't just look at individual trips; they look at the overall pattern of trips outside the US. 5 trips of two months each in the same year is probably worse than one trip of 6.5 months.
 
Since I have returned from my assignment in January, I have taken 2 short business trips (3 / 4 weeks each) as part of my current assignment. To date, out of 262 days I have been out of the country for 55 days. This pattern will more or less continue.

Secondly, I come under the Washington DC DO, one of the slowest in the country. My PD date is 5/16/2007 and I expect to get an interview letter sometime in March / April 2008 timeframe with an interview in May 2008. By that time I should have built up substantial time in the US that I expect will help clarify my intent to live in the US. Also, note that my family has been in the US through 2007 and will continue to do so. Will that not count favorably?
 
I have a similar situation …..Sjadad4244a – what’s your situation….did you pass the interview?

Thanks

Barryil
 
barryil said:
I have a similar situation …..Sjadad4244a – what’s your situation….did you pass the interview?

Thanks

Barryil
Click to expand...


No, I fall under the washington DC DO. They are processing applications from 21st Jan 2007. My priority date is May 16th 2007.

I have been mostly in the US since Jan 31st 2007, went out of the country on short business trips raging from one to three weeks (total of about 80 days). This wait for the interview is helping build the case for intention to remain in the United States, though I would prefer to get an interview letter rather than continie to build my case :)
 
Interview Completed - Now on to the next step

MY CASE DETAILS ARE AT THE START OF THE THREAD ....

Had my interview today (7/9) at the Washington DC DO. Lasted for about 35 - 40 mins with a recommendation for approval. Since I am a DC resident, I will have to wait for an oath letter.

Here are the highlights:

1. The IO had a number of questions on my residential address and talked about the locality, commute to work, routes I take to get to work, restaurants in the area, all to understand if I indeed lived at the address mentioned in the N400. I have been outside the country for more than 700 days so the line of questioning was anticipated. Surprisingly, she did not ask for lease agreements or proof of residence.

2. Noted that my two sons were born in the area in 2005 and 2007 and talked about the hospitals, again to guage familiarity with the area.

3. She asked why I lived in the city (DC) - unlike most software people who tend to live in the suburbs. I was prepared for that one as I have been asked this many time before - To be near my wife's workplace in DC.

4. She did not ask for any evidence for travel dates, she did take an updated sheet for post filing travel, I had about 100 days of travel over 6 / 7 business trips. I guess it did look good that I had travelled only 100 days out of the 420+ days since filing. She mentioned that she will add the dates up later to make sure I was within guidelines.

5. In 2005, I had incorrectly filed form 2555 exclusion without realizing the implication. Since I was on a tax equalization agreement with my employer and taxes were prepared by the company accountant, the company bore the cost of the additional tax, interest and penalty. I had a letter from the company that was sent with the application but she took the original from me at the time of interview. She also reviewed the Tax Account Transcript from IRS and marked the amended taxes paid in the transcript. She took a copy of the transcript as well. She did not have too many questions on the issue. I was frankly most worried about this topic but I think it was the admission of a mistake by the company and the payment of additional taxes, interest etc. that helped the cause.

6. Additionally, I had 7 traffic tickets over the past 18 / 19 years. She did ask for the dispositions for each and noted very carefully the kind of offences they were. All of them were 30 to 100$ tickets. I did have to spend considerable time to get the court records from various jurisdictions but feel it was time well spent. She took the copies of the dispositions for her file.

We completed the reading, writing and civic tests.At the end of the review she asked me to sign the photographs, application form where it talks about agreeing to the oath and couple other oath related papers that had my name, A# and nationality. Then she said she was recommending me for approval, congratulated me and said that depending on the final approval (supervisor review), I will be scheduled for oath. She marked the recommended for approval box and passed the various tests box and I was done.

Guess, I am one step closer to the finish line. My wife had her interview at the same time and she was done in about 10 minutes. One big factor in my favor was that my family continues to live in the same apartment while I was travelling abroad for extended periods.

I have to say this forum has been a fantastic resource. I discovered the horrors of form 2555 on this forum and took corrective steps immediately. I also realized importance of traffic ticket dispositions and finally the virtues of being armed with documentation for any eventuality. I was carrying about 10 inches of documents with me. The IO noted that I was very prepared.
 
Well it certainly sounds like you were well prepared for the interview, but even so, you still got worked over pretty good! Hopefully all that preparation will pay off and USCIS won't keep you waiting too long for the oath letter.
 
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