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Continuous residence verification
- Thread starter cobra967
- Start date
You can certainly request your US enter-exit records from CBP, however whether or not the information they have is reliable, I don't know. It's my understanding that they enter your name, DOB and other personal information into their database by hand, therefore if they accidently misspell your name (they are all humans after all) there is no guarantee that you get the right responce from them. I wouldn't count on any responce unless I enter my names into the system myself. The reason why I asked them is because I don't personally remember and couldn't locate any records of my ever leaving the country.
My advise to everybody: always be honest with USCIS, because a LIE is the worst crime for them.
Remember that only trips outside the US for 6 month or longer at a time is a material matter. IF they are less then you are still eligible even it you did leave the US. Just list those on your application. You also have to spend more than a half of your total days in the US while being a resident.
I didn't remember taking any trips outside the US, which is why I applied for my exit-entry records from CBP. In fact they only sent my the records for one of my names. They didn't send me anything for my other name used, so I don't know if it means that they just don't have a record, or they forgot to check the other name. I am still waiting for their responce on that.
My advise to everybody: always be honest with USCIS, because a LIE is the worst crime for them.
Remember that only trips outside the US for 6 month or longer at a time is a material matter. IF they are less then you are still eligible even it you did leave the US. Just list those on your application. You also have to spend more than a half of your total days in the US while being a resident.
I didn't remember taking any trips outside the US, which is why I applied for my exit-entry records from CBP. In fact they only sent my the records for one of my names. They didn't send me anything for my other name used, so I don't know if it means that they just don't have a record, or they forgot to check the other name. I am still waiting for their responce on that.
Remember that only trips outside the US for 6 month or longer at a time is a material matter. IF they are less then you are still eligible even it you did leave the US. Just list those on your application. You also have to spend more than a half of your total days in the US while being a resident.
Technically thats not quite correct. According to immigration law, your LPR status can be revoked as soon as you have shown INTENT to abandon residency. The tricky problem is what exactly constitutes intent - it certainly isn't restricted to some time based criteria, although there are well defined time periods after which continuous residence and eventually your residency itself are ASSUMED to have been broken/abandoned.
An example of this would be a person departing the US to take up foreign employment of unspecified duration. Since no return date was set in advance, the person is immediately assumed to have abandoned their residency (lost LPR status), and as such, reentry to the US can be denied at PoE.
So anyway, my point is just because all your trips were shorter than 6 months, doesn't guarantee you have an easy time during your N-400 interview, especially if you happen to have been employed overseas. If you're interested in further reading, a little internet searching will turn up some cases of people being placed in removal proceedings for this very issue.
This is an interesting discussion but might I respectfully suggest that it misses the point?
You fill out an N-400 and have to list all absences from the US since permanent residency was granted. The burden is on the applicant to be truthful. An immigration officer can challenge these data and then the burden of proof is also on the applicant.
Thus the moral is, for sure, to be truthful and not to fudge the data (not that I am suggesting that anybody who has posted would do so).
In an extreme case, I think that airline passenger lists etc., together with USCIS database entries could be used to validate residency claims etc. I believe that the default position should be that the USCIS can find out what they need to know.
You fill out an N-400 and have to list all absences from the US since permanent residency was granted. The burden is on the applicant to be truthful. An immigration officer can challenge these data and then the burden of proof is also on the applicant.
Thus the moral is, for sure, to be truthful and not to fudge the data (not that I am suggesting that anybody who has posted would do so).
In an extreme case, I think that airline passenger lists etc., together with USCIS database entries could be used to validate residency claims etc. I believe that the default position should be that the USCIS can find out what they need to know.