First Time Travel After GC

[Jackolantern]

I know I am being paranoid but I quit my job after getting GC(3 weeks) to go back to school (no animosity with the employer). I will be traveling to Canada for thanksgiving and I wanted to be prepared in case they ask questions.

If you got your green card through family, asylum/refugee, or self-sponsorship, quitting won't lead to any trouble. But if your green card was sponsored by an employer you may have trouble in the citizenship interview if the interviewer decides to grill you about it. Still, it is a very gray area, there is no fixed length of time for staying with the employer, and we don't know of anyone actually being denied citizenship for leaving too soon although some have be harassed in the interview about it.

In the end, it will boil down to the type of interviewer you get, how well you present your case, and whatever court precedents are made (if any) on this issue between now and when you apply for citizenship. Still, it would look better if you went back to the sponsoring employer at the end of your studies (and before applying for citizenship, of course).

I don't know if the officer at the POE will give you trouble, but they do often ask who you work for (they asked me when I traveled). If your travel date is a short time after your GC approval, it will become obvious to them that you left the employer very quickly, and we can't say how they will react.