Continuous Residence and Physical Presence Requirements for Naturalization

A

AeroKnight

New Member
I have a few questions about the physical presence requirement for naturalization and whether I qualify for naturalization.

I moved to the US in January 2004 on a L1-A visa. Later that year, my employer sponsored a green card and I was admitted as a LPR on 8/17/2005 (this is the date on my Green Card).

Since 8/17/2005, I have made several (some long) trips outside the US in relation to my employment / company's business. None of my trips were over six months in duration and all long trips were made while holding a valid re-entry permit.

To summarize, since I became and LPR, I made 10 trips out of the US and was gone for a total of 1090 days. My longest single absence was 169 days.

During all on my absences I owned property in the US, had US bank and credit card accounts which were in constant use, was paid by my US employer here in the US, received W-2s, earned no foreign income, filed my taxes as a resident etc. All foreign trips were made on round-trip air-tickets originating and terminating in the US.

I would become eligible to apply for naturalization 90 days before 8/17/2010. My basic questions are:

1. Do I fulfill the Continuous residence and physical presence requirements as required for naturalization?

2. If I don't, can I benefit from any of the exemptions available for the physical presence requirements - I work for a privately held US company (not a research organization or an international organization) and my absences were for the benefit of their bottom line.

3. Would a lawyer be able to help me in my situation or is there no expected benefit of having one?

I expect to be able to fulfill the other requirements of naturalization - English, naturalization test, good moral character etc.

I would appreciate your thoughts and input. I'd be especially keen to hear from others who may have been in a similar situation themselves and their experience of going through naturalization. Thanks!
 
1. Do I fulfill the Continuous residence and physical presence requirements as required for naturalization?

... Not by a long shot.

There are appox 1825 days in these 5 years and you were out of US for 1090. But actually you have not even completed 5 years, so you were out 1090 days out of nearly 1735 days. 913 is the midway point (approx 30 months) to meet PP, and you have spent like 735 days in US. This is very low.

While continuous residence is subjective and debatable (in some case), physical presence is pretty much black and white. You have to meet the requirements, or else...

Looks like you need to spend a good 8-9 months (guesstimate) in US without any travel before you meet physical presence.
 
Also, you spent 1090 days out and the longest trip you are worried about is 169 days. Let's remove this from the total, and you end up with 921 days of absence in almost 4 years (having removed the 169 days from the TOTAL also).

First of all, this is 9 trips of almost 102 days each.
Then over a period of 4.2 years equates to a 3.5 month trip every 6 months.

While you can justify these as work related, it is too much travel, and IOs are likely to ask questions.

Other factor they will look at is whether some of these trips were back to back ... where you left US within 1-15 days of arrival. Don't have this data from you, but seeing the count of trips+days, it makes me feel there will be some which will fall under that category.

You can post your travel dates for people to evaluate what you need to do to become low-risk in terms of proving continuous residence perspective. [ It is basically staying more in US, but how much is the question. ]
 
The earliest date you could file N-400 is 5/20/2010. However, you do not qualify as you do not have physical presence of 30 months stay. You require 913 days stay in the last 5 years from the date of application. It will depend on when your longest absence took place. If it was in the initial period of your GC then probably you would complete 913 days physical stay fairly quickly. Say by early 2011. If you need citizenship your aim should be to avoid any travel outside USA for next few months. Draw up an excel spreadsheet and calculate when u would complete physical stay requirement. And monitor same.
AeroKnight said:
I have a few questions about the physical presence requirement for naturalization and whether I qualify for naturalization.

I moved to the US in January 2004 on a L1-A visa. Later that year, my employer sponsored a green card and I was admitted as a LPR on 8/17/2005 (this is the date on my Green Card).

Since 8/17/2005, I have made several (some long) trips outside the US in relation to my employment / company's business. None of my trips were over six months in duration and all long trips were made while holding a valid re-entry permit.

To summarize, since I became and LPR, I made 10 trips out of the US and was gone for a total of 1090 days. My longest single absence was 169 days.

During all on my absences I owned property in the US, had US bank and credit card accounts which were in constant use, was paid by my US employer here in the US, received W-2s, earned no foreign income, filed my taxes as a resident etc. All foreign trips were made on round-trip air-tickets originating and terminating in the US.

I would become eligible to apply for naturalization 90 days before 8/17/2010. My basic questions are:

1. Do I fulfill the Continuous residence and physical presence requirements as required for naturalization?

2. If I don't, can I benefit from any of the exemptions available for the physical presence requirements - I work for a privately held US company (not a research organization or an international organization) and my absences were for the benefit of their bottom line.

3. Would a lawyer be able to help me in my situation or is there no expected benefit of having one?

I expect to be able to fulfill the other requirements of naturalization - English, naturalization test, good moral character etc.

I would appreciate your thoughts and input. I'd be especially keen to hear from others who may have been in a similar situation themselves and their experience of going through naturalization. Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
AeroKnight said:
2. If I don't, can I benefit from any of the exemptions available for the physical presence requirements - I work for a privately held US company (not a research organization or an international organization) and my absences were for the benefit of their bottom line.
Click to expand...

If you thought of this BEFORE you started traveling so much, you might have been able to get the equivalent of an exemption by obtaining an N-470. But now it's too late. The N-470 does not apply retroactively, so it will not cover your past absences.
 
My case is also similar. I got my GC in 2000 Dec and I was in USA till 2003 June. After that I went to India to take care of my sick father. I was travelling back to USA with in every six months to retain my residency status and GC. No trip outside USA was for more than 170 days. I made a total of 12 trips. In 2007 Sept after my father's death I moved back here. Since then I never travelled to India. In Feb 2010 I completed my 913 days and filed for citizenship. I got my interview date in Apr. The IO asked me questions only about why I stayed out for somany days and the proof of my father's health etc. He kept my status in pending. DId not hear any thing from USCIS in 2 weeks. Still waiting. I filed my taxes regularly in those 4 Yrs. Really donot know what will happen to my case
 
@pvelamur - Your case is better because you do not have any trips since Sep 2007. That at least shows you are back in US ... if not "really back", at least 2-3 years which is a good number. 2 weeks wait is nothing. It could take that much time to get an oath letter for a case which was recommended for approval on the spot. With a supervisor review plus review of any additional evidence you submitted in interview, it could take time.
 
pvelamur said:
After that I went to India to take care of my sick father. I was travelling back to USA with in every six months to retain my residency status and GC. No trip outside USA was for more than 170 days.
Click to expand...

Again, as Jack said, in hindsight, it might have been better to file documents to preserve residency. But I can understand how it can be difficult to plan long term when someone in family is sick, and many a times you wonder if you are ever going to be back and so on...
 
Thanks everyone for your input.

@Jackolantern - the N-470 came up and was discussed when i was applying for my re-entry permit and I would have filed one, except, I never had a full years uninterrupted presence in the US since I became a resident. In short, the N-470 was never an option in my case.

In respect of the other suggestions of waiting a few months - this might not work in my case as my travel overseas was more weighted in the later part of the 5 years. If the earlier presence is not counted (say from Aug 05 to Apr 06) then my days of physical presence actually goes down. I will set up a spreadsheet to see where things lie.
 
Hi can you help me when i can file for US citizeship.below are the lists of my trips outside the US.
Nov.14,2009-back to US Nov.301,2011(stayed outside the US for 2 yrs and 17 days). - but i used Re-entry permit for this trip.
Marc 31,2014-back to US May 11,2014 ( 1 month and 11 days)
Dec.08,2914-back to US Dec 19,2014 ( only for 12 days)
2015 no trips for this year.
Those are my trips fronthe last 5 yrs.
Can someone help when i can be able to file for US CITIZENSHIP? Please.hope you can help me.thankyou.God Bless
 
We would like to file for US citizenship, but we are not sure if we are eligible. Our case: GC issued date is 6/2011. Our friends have a big house. The offered us a small apartment where we could stay until we were settled. We activated and stayed with them for 6 weeks until August 9th, 2011, got our DL, a bank account, applied for SSN and went back to our home country. Our plan was to stay there under 6 month and keep our continued presence. But life was happened. My mom got cancer and the doctors told her, she had only a few month left. She asked us to stay for the time and we even didn't think about to reject her wish. She passed away in March. After the bereavement and taking care of the legacy, we went back to the states in 6/2012. The only evidence what we have is the death certificate.Our question is, do you think I can explain the time out of the country? It was never our intention to stay out of the country for such a long time.
 
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