continuous residence question

C

cool_dude09

New Member
Hi people! I'm a newbie here. I know this question has been answered a zillion times but every cases differ I guess,

I became a permanent resident in Feb 2004, but has went back and forth to my country about 5 times, each trip not lasting more than 6 months, and the total number of days I have been out is about 300 days. I think if I'm correct, I will be eligible to apply 90 days before my five years on Feb 2009 which I already did.

I already filed my N-400 earlier this month in Atlanta D/O and have a fingerprinting appointment on 1st week of January.

I want to know your honest opinions regarding my concerns:

1. are they adding up the 300 days to the 5 years I have? Its sooo confusing, I called USCIS and two people gave me two different responses. The first one said they do, and I will be eligible to apply late 2009, because I have been gone approximately close to a year, and if they add that up, that will be 2010.

2. my wife back home wants me to go back again for a brief vacation on February (about 3 weeks) after my fingerprinting. I read in this forum that the shortest waiting time so far from fingerprinting to Interview letter date is 2 months. If that's correct, hopefully I can expect a letter by March 2009 and I would have been back. Now, do they count that against my application?

The main reason I'm going back and forth is because my wife and kid are back home and I need to see them often. I'm currently employed full time in a bank and have another part time job on the side. During those times I went home, I maintain my employment, except when I was gone for about 160 days( which was the longest), I quit my full time job but I took a leave of absence from my part time job.

Guys, do you think I'm already eligible or did I just wasted my $675??? Thanks to all of you. :)
 
I applied based on 3 years rule (married to US citizen). By application date I had 380 days out of the country (538 days out by interview date – 8 months later) by Oath day - 570 days out...

You need to have at least 2.5 years in the US - that means you can be out for 900 days ....as long as you don't leave for more than 6 months AND have MANY ties to US (paid in US, bills, mortgage etc).....try to come back as many times as possible even if it's for short trips...

Good luck …
 
If the trips are very close together sometimes they will aggregate them and think of them as one big trip when looking at continuous residence. But even if they do that, 300 days is still less than a year, and for trips of less than a year it is still possible overcome the presumption of breaking residence, providing you have sufficient ties to the US. So don't worry about those 300 days (provided you can show ties to the US like US lease/mortgage, bank accounts, utility bills, etc.), nor about the 3 week upcoming trip.
 
Jackolantern said:
If the trips are very close together sometimes they will aggregate them and think of them as one big trip when looking at continuous residence. But even if they do that, 300 days is still less than a year, and for trips of less than a year it is still possible overcome the presumption of breaking residence, providing you have sufficient ties to the US. So don't worry about those 300 days (provided you can show ties to the US like US lease/mortgage, bank accounts, utility bills, etc.), nor about the 3 week upcoming trip.
Click to expand...

My concern is that- when I listed the places where I lived in the last 5 years,all of them are US addresses which are the apartments where I lived. My longest absence is about 145 days where I listed my address overseas. I checked out of my apartment at that time (its no use paying for a lease when you're out that long) and put all my stuff in the storage. During those times I was out, I'm still paying my phone bills with T mobile, car insurance with Liberty, maintained bank accounts (because I do direct deposits with my paychecks) and I was only ON LEAVE on my part time job. I'm not sure if they will take it against me because I can not list down any US address when its listed that I was out of the country for that long period of time. I will be lying if I will list my sister's address during the time I was physically out for family reasons.
Please advise. thanks
 
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