Help! Interview decision pending and need more documents

B

brainee

New Member
A bit background of my case. I got my green card in Feb 2005. In Aug 2008, I accepted an offer to work in a U.S. consulting firm branch office in Hong Kong. Since then I had been coming back to U.S. every 3~5 months, although each time only stayed for a few days. By the time I filed my N-400 in December 2009, I was out of U.S. in the past five years for total 730 days, 9 trips and none of them went beyond 6 months.

Past Monday, I went for the interview. The decision is pending and the interviewer asked me to submit more documents by mail. One of the documents is “Evidence of your physical residence in the U.S. since you began your employment with your company”.

I can think of documents to prove my residence in U.S., such as the following,

  • Title of the house I owned in San Francisco Bay Area
  • The property tax paper of that house showing my name
  • The utility bills and PG&E statement showing my name
  • My driver license showing my house address
  • My bank statements and credit card statements showing my house address
  • 2009 W2 form (issued by my company headquarter in Boston) showing my house address. This one actually was already taken by the interviewer during the interview

However, I got confused about the term "physical". Theoretically, none of above document can prove "physical". The only thing can do that I think is the immigration agency stamps on my passport, which I think the USCIS already has the record. Could someone please shed some light on what kind of documents can be "Evidence of physical residence in the U.S. "? I'm stressed and deeply appreciate your opinion.
 
Perhaps "physical" is not limited to your physical body also your possesion of physical house, car, etc.

I'll say at this stage, there is not much you can do. Just think up any docuemnts you think may be related
and send them in. But do not over do it. For example, do not need to send in a Macdonald receipt
you got when you eat at MaCdonald's in San Francisco Bay Area or a picture of you on top of halfdome at Yosemite.
That is just my thouight but maybe that is a good diea to send such things. If you have traffic ticket in Bay Area, send
them too to hos wyou lived in USA.

Do you have family memeber living in the USA while you were out in Hong Kong? That is most convicning evidence.
 
did you file with a lawyer? My understanding of physical presence would be to submit stuff such as boarding card passes to show your presence, that you were in the States for such and such time. Testimonies can take you out there so much, but is not the best since I can have anyone write one for me. (as a lawyer had said to me once). Docs with date stamps and your name are the best.

Keep in touch tho.. I have some 840 days on me!
 
No, I did the filing all by myself.

The confusing part is the letter from the interviewer uses "physical residence" instead of "physical presence", although it might mean the same. But if talking about my in-and-out records, actually USCIS has all of them in their system. My interviewer actually asked me about the TWO trips after I filed my N-400 when she was looking at the computer.

khan6000 said:
did you file with a lawyer? My understanding of physical presence would be to submit stuff such as boarding card passes to show your presence, that you were in the States for such and such time. Testimonies can take you out there so much, but is not the best since I can have anyone write one for me. (as a lawyer had said to me once). Docs with date stamps and your name are the best.

Keep in touch tho.. I have some 840 days on me!
Click to expand...
 
Good! I guess I'd take anything that has my name and address with dates to show residence. I believe you are set. Letters from neighbors, tax records, leases, mortgage ,etc I think would suffice. Lets see what others have to say?
 
brainee said:
No, I did the filing all by myself.

The confusing part is the letter from the interviewer uses "physical residence" instead of "physical presence", although it might mean the same.
Click to expand...

Actually it many mean different things. I see your physical presence criteria is met 730 (days/5 years <50%) .
So I think what USCIS want to make sure is that you do not break continuous residence during the period when you
worked in HK. Back-to-Back trips canbe considered to break continous residence even non of them alone is more than
6 months
 
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Bobsmyth said:
Primary abode according to USCIS definition is primary physical residence.
Click to expand...

Then what is defintion of primary physical residence during a particular period? It is certainly not the palce
where you stay more than half of the time otherwise the OP apparently should be considered to have abadonderd US as
Primary abode. I don't think it shopuld be defined as the house whose value is bigger. If we have money, we are alloweed
to buy a palace3 anywehere in the rest of teh wolrd but still clamim a small hut in USA as our physcial residence.

So I think which is primary is purely subjective and has no clear definition.
 
WBH said:
Then what is defintion of primary physical residence during a particular period? It is certainly not the palce
where you stay more than half of the time otherwise the OP apparently should be considered to have abadonderd US as
Primary abode. I don't think it shopuld be defined as the house whose value is bigger. If we have money, we are alloweed
to buy a palace3 anywehere in the rest of teh wolrd but still clamim a small hut in USA as our physcial residence.

So I think which is primary is purely subjective and has no clear definition.
Click to expand...

Primary physical residence is the home in US that you upkeep (pay bills, utilities, etc..). Remember that proof of US primary residence in only valid when needing to prove continuous residency ties, such as in trips over 6 months but less than 12 months, or back to back trips under 6 months. It's not as simple as paying mortgage/rent, utilities on US house. USCIS looks as the all the evidence.
 
Bobsmyth said:
Primary physical residence is the home in US that you upkeep (pay bills, utilities, etc..). Remember that proof of US primary residence in only valid when needing to prove continuous residency ties, such as in trips over 6 months but less than 12 months, or back to back trips under 6 months. It's not as simple as paying mortgage/rent, utilities on US house. USCIS looks as the all the evidence.
Click to expand...

So when USCIS requests for documents to prove physical/continuous residence for a specified period, does one have to present utility bills for all the months in the reference period or just a few ? (cannot get many since it is in the past); bills for different services (water, gas, phone, etc,) or just for one; mortgage statements plus utility bills or either. What about a title deed? I have a similar case (8 months trip) and want to ensure I dont get denied or my decision delayed due to lack of documentation.
 
Mufuruki2 said:
So when USCIS requests for documents to prove physical/continuous residence for a specified period, does one have to present utility bills for all the months in the reference period or just a few ? (cannot get many since it is in the past); bills for different services (water, gas, phone, etc,) or just for one; mortgage statements plus utility bills or either. What about a title deed? I have a similar case (8 months trip) and want to ensure I dont get denied or my decision delayed due to lack of documentation.
Click to expand...

I would say the more you have, the better you are. I personally would not trust the title and the driving license kind of documents. DL - you can take once and not change for a year. Title Deed - you could be renting to someone. So show something which will show continuity of the residence - you do not have all statements, ask the utility to give a copy of first and last (if it costs per copy). And I do not know what is the level of evidence they need [ preponderance of evidence or beyond a doubt ], but if you can show a utility account, and proof of payments from your bank, that will indicate the pattern.

BTW, one 8 month trip may not give you as much grief as a pattern of such trips.
 
The bottomline is: just submit all reasoable documents you think related and helpful; and then let USCIS make a decision and get it over with.
 
Mufuruki2 said:
So when USCIS requests for documents to prove physical/continuous residence for a specified period, does one have to present utility bills for all the months in the reference period or just a few ? .
Click to expand...

Well if they ask for specific documents during a period of time you should expect to provide all of them, not just for a few months in the period. Not completely providing what they ask for is a good reason for them to deny you.
 
Thanks for all the comments!

The interviewer also asked for a copy of my lease agreement for my residence in Hong Kong. Does anyone know/guess what purpose this document serves?
 
I think you need to clarify more about the interview - its tone, what was asked and so on. Every piece of information you miss out in this discussion implies the replies are that much less informative and applicable to your case. I say this because the Hong Kong lease is totally new information and unrelated to anything you have discussed above. I suspect the IO made his doubts clear to you during the interview itself.

Anyway, it seems there is a doubt about your residency - the copy of HK lease seems to be an attempt to verify your intent to stay in Hong Kong. If you took a stance with the IO that you maintain a US residence, and you are coming back every 5 months, but the work keeps getting extended, the HK lease should be able to support (not prove) that.

Anyway, this is my speculation purely based on your comments in this thread. The context depends on what you and the IO discussed.
 
Very clearly, IO want to understand the duration of your residency in HK vs. USA. It is also a clear signal that IO is not comforatble with your presentation of residency data and seeking to clarify that further.
 
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