Eligibility for citizenship

L

luk12

Registered Users (C)
I got my green card in July 2003. Two years later, I moved to Canada due to family reason. I applied for re entry permit before I left US. The permit will be expiring in September, 2007. During the two years time period residing in Canada, I returned to US every 6 month by air or by crossing land except one time the interval was 9 months. Now I am planning to return to US. I would like to know if I am eligible to apply for citizenship in July 2008? By that time I will meet the requirement of residing in US for 30 months within 5 years and no single trip was beyond 6 months (except one was between 6 months and a year). I can provide all the documents supporting that I have strong tie to US, like bank account, credit card, car, auto insurance etc.

If the chance for me to apply for citizenship is rare, then I don't want to rush to move back to US. I am planning to stay for another 2 years with my family here in Canada. If that is the case, I want to go back to US temporally and apply for another re entry permit and then come back to Canada. Have anyone applied for 2nd re entry permit before? How hard is it to get it?

Thanks for any advices and suggestions in advance!
 
Sounds like you're still living abroad. In that case you had better worry about preserving your greencard then worry about the citizenship. You said you do have a re-entry permit, but just hope that will be enough. Best bet since you will have many red flags about your situation raised, is to wait till you officially move back to the US (not visit) but move, live, work etc and then apply 5 years from that point.

Right now I think you might be wasting your money and time with all these inturruptions and with living elsewhere at this time...
 
Re-entry permit preserves the green card during long overseas trips, not eligibility for citizenship. If you want to preserve eligibility for citizenship purposes, that is what filing N-470 is for (but it has stricter requirements than the re-entry permit).

Out of those two years, how much total time did you spend in the US? Coming back to the US every 5 or 6 months not sufficient. If you spent a total of only 6 weeks in the US (for example) over that two-year time frame, that won't be seen as two years of continuous residence in the US.

A single trip of less than 6 months won't break your continuous residence. But multiple trips of less than 6 months each, adding up much longer than 6 months and with very short breaks in between, often will break the continuity.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jackolantern said:
Re-entry permit preserves the green card during long overseas trips, not eligibility for citizenship. If you want to preserve eligibility for citizenship purposes, that is what filing N-470 is for (but it has stricter requirements than the re-entry permit).

Out of those two years, how much total time did you spend in the US? Coming back to the US every 5 or 6 months not sufficient. If you spent a total of only 6 weeks in the US (for example) over that two-year time frame, that won't be seen as two years of continuous residence in the US.

A single trip of less than 6 months won't break your continuous residence. But multiple trips of less than 6 months each, adding up much longer than 6 months and with very short breaks in between, often will break the continuity.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all your comments. I only returned to US for a few days each time. So the interval between each 6 months is very short. It sounds like I broke the continuity anyhow. That is too bad. I got to rethink how I should do with my life now. I was originally thought I can get the citizenship within 2 years from now (if I am eligible to apply in July 2008). Then I can sponsor my spouse who is Canadian to move to US to live together. If that is not the case which could be done in the near future, can my spouse apply for TN-1 visa to work and live in US? If that is not the case neither, I really don't know how should I do. If I go back to US in next month, I have to suffer long long time being apart. Tough decision!
 
No chance of natz eligibility at the moment, however you should check out the 4yr+1day rules as you can benefit from that reduction in wait time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top