Continuous Residence Question - Worked abroad but entered US often

T

treemo

New Member
Hi everyone,

I have searched through the forums and have read many related threads, but I am hoping to get some of your opinions on my specific situation.

- I received my green card 10+ years ago.
- I worked in Canada from December 2009 to December 2010
- I obtained a 2-year reentry permit for the duration of the employment.
- After ending that job, I stayed in Canada for a 2-3 more months to travel and prepare for my move back to the US.
- During that entire time (12/2009 - 3/2011) I made frequent trips (once every 1-2 months) to the US to visit family and friends.
- I maintained a mailing address, bank accounts, credit cards, and drivers license during that time.
- I filed taxes as a US resident for 2010 and 2011.
- On my 2012 taxes, I used the form 2555 foreign income exclusion, and used the "physical presence test" (and not the bone fide residence test).
- I am now living in the US and working full time.

I would prefer to apply for naturalization asap, but I understand that may have broken the continuous residence requirement for the application. I was never out of country for more than 3 months at a time, but was clearly working/living in Canada for a little over one year.

Should I apply now? What are my chances and potential risks? Should I wait until March 2015?

Thanks!
 
Was the Canadian job a fixed one-year contract (or a string of a few shorter contracts), or was it open-ended employment and you just happened to quit or get laid off after 1 year? If it was a fixed-term contract and you have evidence of that fact, your chances are improved.

Was the job for a US employer who sent you to Canada, or did you go to Canada on your own to take up employment? The first would improve your chances.

Apply now and see what happens. If denied for breaking continuous residence, reapply in March 2015 using the 4 year + 1 day rule.
 
baikal3 said:
I don't think the OP's would be eligible for the 4 year + 1 day rule given the fact that all the individual absences were 1-2 month long.
Click to expand...

If it is determined that continuous residence is broken, the 4y+1d rule may be used regardless of the length of the individual absences.
 
Jackolantern said:
There was a USCIS memo about it (can't find it at this minute).
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The only USCIS document that I am aware of that explicitly addresses the applicability of the 4 year plus one day rule to absences of less than a year is this 1993 letter which is listed as Appendix 74-13 of AFM:
http://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/AFM/HTML/AFM/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-26573/0-0-0-40527.html

While the letter does not explicitly explain its logic (particularly its interpretation of the meaning of "paragraph" in "An applicant described in this paragraph who must satisfy..."), the situation specifically considered in the letter deals with an absence between 6 months and one year long that broke continuous residency. In the OP's case, all the individual absences were 1-2 month long.
 
Jackolantern said:
Was the Canadian job a fixed one-year contract (or a string of a few shorter contracts), or was it open-ended employment and you just happened to quit or get laid off after 1 year? If it was a fixed-term contract and you have evidence of that fact, your chances are improved.

Was the job for a US employer who sent you to Canada, or did you go to Canada on your own to take up employment? The first would improve your chances.

Apply now and see what happens. If denied for breaking continuous residence, reapply in March 2015 using the 4 year + 1 day rule.
Click to expand...

It was open-ended employment and I quit after 1 year (we had a reorg and I declined the new position). I was working for a (european) multi-national corporation in the US and the company shut down the office that I was working at in 2009. I was offered a position on the team that was taking over the project in the same company in Canada (I was paid in Canadian dollars by the Canadian division of the company). I took the job because I wanted to complete the project that I had been working on for a few years.

Is there any reason why I *wouldn't* want to apply/try now?
 
The only reason not to apply now is the time and money that might be wasted. But if you can afford to lose that, go ahead and apply now and see what happens.
 
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