Hi, I know that is needed 30 months of physical residency within 5 years in USA in order to apply for citizenship. However, how does the immigration know if I was here for less that that? Do they relay on what we tell them or they can find it out somehow? The USA immigration scans passports only on re-entry to the country, so, how should they know how long I was out unless I tell them? Also, once a passport is renewed - before the citizenship application - there is no record on the new passport of old trips outside the USA. Any comment about this issue?
Continuous residence verification
- Thread starter cobra967
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amandapanda said:
what if the country i visited to does not require to put a stamp on my passport, and i could not provide boarding passes.. etc (since most of the time i travelled either on business or using FF miles, so visa transaction was required, and after few years the business travel, i trashed the receipts too).
however, i managed to get something for my last 2 trips, but i am sure i need to find out more for my biz trips
thrix said:
i did not see the officer to type the answer on the computer. however, i read some posts saying the airline will tranfer the passenegers info to Dep of Homeland Security and they know when you left US.
even thought they have the information, they still ask me how long i was out of the country.
amandapanda said:
It's unlikely they will try read all the unreadable stampings in passport and USCIS never ask to carry expired passports in interview. They mainly rely on their own records. If they have doubt about someone's continuous residency and they ask the person to prove it, there are 100 ways to prove it. Rental lease agreements, paystubs, tax returns, timesheets/timecards from workplace, purchase records (non-online/non-telephone receipts), credit card statements, records on domestic travels/vacations, speeding tickets. Combination of any of the above documents is good enough to prove presence in USA.
JoeF said:
Although that is the intention of the US-VISIT program, I seriously doubt that this information is currently routinely available to the adjudication officers. I think, only if investigation is launched some statistics could be compiled for an individual, not particularly reliable at that, though.
Maybe sometime in the future...
JoeF said:
Are you saying about the officer in the airport or the adjudication officer of a DO? I've got an impression that in the DO there is no direct access to the entry/exit database because the search there is too tricky currently and there is no guaranteed record anyway.
At my interview just 2 days ago, the officer did ask for my expired passport. She looked at both my current and expired passports to verify the dates on my N-400. While I did not have passport stamps for every trip, she did make an effort to validate what she could from these. I had back-up documentation for any trips missing stamps, mostly in the form of frequent flyer account reports that show trips or cruise vacation itineraries / tickets (she never asked for any of this). For some of my other trips -- driving across the border to Canada -- it's very rare to have your passport even looked at, let alone have your GC scanned, so she accepted that I didn't have any stamps for those instances either.
I did not get the impression that she had access to any of the entry / exit information they may in one of the BCIS systems (or at least she did not have this in my file).
I did not get the impression that she had access to any of the entry / exit information they may in one of the BCIS systems (or at least she did not have this in my file).
pralay said:
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stallion4949
Registered Users (C)
Immigration officers at airport don't know jack about how long you've been away from their records. They rely on your response and if they suspect a lie they may follow up with more questions or send you away to another office at the airport for a more thorough inspection.
Continous Residence Verification
I doubt that the BCIS currently knows how long someone has been out of the country. I think they rely on your response to the question, "How long have you been away for?". As for the naturalization interview, I have known officers to ask for expired passports as well. If you have a relatively new passport, I would make sure that you carry at least one previous passport with you. It just makes sense since anyone can "loose" their passport to mask the absences - but it completely depends on the interview officer.
I doubt that the BCIS currently knows how long someone has been out of the country. I think they rely on your response to the question, "How long have you been away for?". As for the naturalization interview, I have known officers to ask for expired passports as well. If you have a relatively new passport, I would make sure that you carry at least one previous passport with you. It just makes sense since anyone can "loose" their passport to mask the absences - but it completely depends on the interview officer.
US exit-entry records verification
I am just curious if the immigration officer has all my automated arrival/departure records infront of him during my citizenship interview? I've tried to get those records on me from USCIS under Freedom of Information Act, but they told me that they didn't have those in their database, and referred me to Customs and Border Protection. I don't know if they order those records from CBP before my citizenship interview to verify my trips outside, or they only do it after the interview if you don't give them passport, and claim that you lost it or so.
Anybody can comment on this one?
I am just curious if the immigration officer has all my automated arrival/departure records infront of him during my citizenship interview? I've tried to get those records on me from USCIS under Freedom of Information Act, but they told me that they didn't have those in their database, and referred me to Customs and Border Protection. I don't know if they order those records from CBP before my citizenship interview to verify my trips outside, or they only do it after the interview if you don't give them passport, and claim that you lost it or so.
Anybody can comment on this one?
I think it would be best to assume the information is available to the officer during your interview. Entry dates are certainly available to the officer at the PoE, so why would they not be available to the IO as well?
That said, I think you're all looking at this issue backwards - the burden of proof is on the applicant to demonstrate they meet the eligibility criteria. That means providing the best possible information on your application, because if just one little discrepancy shows up, the officer will spot it and dig deeper. Immigration officers are like bloodhounds - just one sniff of a lie and they're on to you.
That said, I think you're all looking at this issue backwards - the burden of proof is on the applicant to demonstrate they meet the eligibility criteria. That means providing the best possible information on your application, because if just one little discrepancy shows up, the officer will spot it and dig deeper. Immigration officers are like bloodhounds - just one sniff of a lie and they're on to you.
USCIS officers don't have my US exit-entry records in their database, that was their response to my request. I am just wondering whether or not they request my exit-entry records from CBP database before my interview, or they check my passport first at the interview, and if I don't have one then they order those records from CBP, but thanks a lot for your response.
I filled out my N-400 and went into my interview assuming that the USCIS knew every time I had blown my nose in the last 15 years. I very careful to make sure that I told the truth in everything I wrote down or said (including saying things like "I took two trips to xxx during the summer of yyy, both of which were 10 days or less", when that was all I knew).
Be scrupulously honest and assume they know everything. Then they can't catch you in a lie (which is *very* bad).
Be scrupulously honest and assume they know everything. Then they can't catch you in a lie (which is *very* bad).
tarakan said:
Until the US-VISIT "exit" system becomes more established, the short answer is they probably don't with any degree of certainty. However, I'll bet they IOs are trained to spot deception and clues suggesting an applicant's case is not quite as clean as may have been presented.
Also remember that many times a passport may be stamped when its holder arrives in a country, so there could be some level of correlation between exit and reentry dates.