Do I have a chance to get Citizenship?

M

mitko011

Registered Users (C)
Hello everybody,
I read many of the posts here and I still have questions unaswered. My
Situation is quite complicated- I just fulfilled the 5 years as permenent
resident and have been in US for more than 30 months. There is a reason why I
am wondering if I should apply for citizenship now or wait longer.
Well in 2006 I became a PR and spent 5 months in US and then applied for
Reenter Permit and returned to my home country for more than 6 months but less than a year to arrange some unfinished matters( 8 months).
Then I returned to the US started
work at the same job etc. for 8 months. Then I left again for 9 months
feeling secure that my reentry permit is still valid to the end of this
absence Feb 2009.After this I have lived mostly in US but travelled each
year to my country for 4 months. During all this 5 years I was filling my
taxes as I was supposed to do. My question is do I have a chance to proove
that I didnt broke my continuous residence since I had the Reentry permit,
filling taxes, mentaining address, bank accounts etc.The bad thing is that I cannot show rental payments and I am single so I dont have family here. The reasons of my long trips were that I had to separate some property with my brother and other family that I own there and try to sell it for which I can eventually show proof but not sure if it is going to be accepted because it is too complicated. I will appreciate if anyone knows of a
similar case that was sucsessful at the interview! Thanks in advance!
 
.. By the way my time outside US is 852 days , I got my GC beginning of July 2006 and my absences are as follows:
Left Returned
11/28/2006 - 08/16/2007 - 259 days
04/07/2008 - 02/04/2009 -302 days
08/27/2009 - 01/14/2010 -139 days
08/30/2010 - 01/30/2011- 152 days
Other than these absences everything is OK.
 
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mitko011 said:
My question is do I have a chance to proove
that I didnt broke my continuous residence
Click to expand...

Yes, you'll have a chance to prove that you didn't break continuous residency. However, it's up to the IO to decide whether the evidence you present is sufficient enough to overcome presumption in break of continuous residency for the trips over 6 months.
The reentry permit is only to preserve GC, not continuous residency.
Without any hard evidence that you maintained an abode in the US the during your long trips, your application will likely be denied.
 
Well yes during this two long trips I kept my belongings in a storage so I really cannot prove such thing. So is is more like to be denied?
 
mitko011 said:
Well yes during this two long trips I kept my belongings in a storage so I really cannot prove such thing. So is is more like to be denied?
Click to expand...

Keeping your belongings in storage is not evidence of maintaining a US residence. If you didn't maintain a US abode while outside the US then you can't overcome presumption in break of continuous residency.
 
So that pretty much means that they will reject me no matter of the reasons I had to be absent, does it? Well in such case when I will be eligible for naturalization? Will that be 4 years and 1 day after my last long trip which will be 04.05.2013?
 
hi Mitko011

my situation is complicated as well. very similar to you - i got my GC in 2006 and i was total days out side of little bit less then 700

i got the reentry permit and left for 10.5 month, came back for 2 weeks and left again to 179 days. i also had other trips of 2 month here and there, and other short ones...

i had my interview last month and the officer gave me hard time! really!!!!

i was asked to submit documents to show i had ties to the us while being a way. I'm still waiting for an answer so i don't know what will be the results and I'm hoping it will be approved but my recommendation to you - wait a little bit if you can. most likely- the officer will look at the dates and not going to like it.
the reason for being a way doesn't matter (at list thats what the officer told me) ... but then again, its all about luck as well. who interview you...
 
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Neway, Were you able to send them proof? what kind of documents they asked?how long you think this will take?
 
you ask the million $ question :)

i wish i knew how long its going to take.... for now I'm waiting and praying. that all i can do. i was told that they have 120 days from the interview to respond. i hope it will be much sooner then that as i really want to go to my country for the holidays.

he asked for proof from 2006 show that i was living in the us (until today).

he also asked me for proof about my marriage.

you need to send basically everything u have! i submitted: leases, bank statement, copy of checks, tax returns, credit card bills, utility bills, copy of driver license, junk mail, letter from employers, copy of passport and I'm sure I'm missing a few other.

my attorney say i have a good chance but I'm not counting on what they say any more after my previous attorney did so many mistakes and say so many things that turned out to be stupid.
 
mitko011 said:
So that pretty much means that they will reject me no matter of the reasons I had to be absent, does it?
Click to expand...

Denial is not guaranteed. Your chance of denial might be 90% or 95%, but not 100%. Continuous residence is subjective, and some IOs are more lenient than others; if you're lucky you could get an IO that thinks your (weak) evidence is good enough. If you can risk the money, go ahead and apply now and see what happens. Or apply in August 2012, when your first long trip would be outside the statutory period so you would only have one trip (the 302 day trip) for which to overcome the presumption of breaking residence.
 
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Jackolantern said:
Denial is not guaranteed. Your chance of denial might be 90% or 95%, but not 100%. Continuous residence is subjective, and some IOs are more lenient than others; if you're lucky you could get an IO that thinks your (weak) evidence is good enough. If you can risk the money, go ahead and apply now and see what happens. Or apply in August 2012, when your first long trip would be outside the statutory period so you would only have one trip (the 302 day trip) for which to overcome the presumption of breaking residence.
Click to expand...


Thanks for all the information! Jackolantern I think you are absolutely right about my chances now! Don't you think that even with one long absence they will still be around 90% chance of denial if the IO takes under consideration even my short trips every year?
 
mitko011 said:
Thanks for all the information! Jackolantern I think you are absolutely right about my chances now! Don't you think that even with one long absence they will still be around 90% chance of denial if the IO takes under consideration even my short trips every year?
Click to expand...

anyway, good luck for u.
 
Thanks to all of you! Good luck neway ,vivid2012 and all of you! All this makes me feel like a criminal although I've done nothing wrong ! This immigration law needs to be updated to a newer version! Its 21st century - people travel etc. But it is written so some people can suffer the way pioneers to America did.:mad:
...I am pretty much p****d off by this situation
 
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