How can travelling out affect

armanda

New Member
I am a GC holder for the past for 4years, which I got through my marriage to my wonderful hubby

Because of the nature of my job (I work in the aviation industry) I travelled out of the country alot. I have had to travel out of the US for aleast every other month and I sometime stay for 4-6 weeks on each occassion.

We are planning to apply for my citizenship soon and am really worried how my regular trips will affect my application.

Please, kindly give all the necessay information that you may have on this topics

Thanks
 
From a residency perspective, in general you should be fine if you satisfy the permanent residence and continuous residence requirements by a handsome margin. The requirements for these are clearly laid out in the guide to naturalization. [ Residency requirements are primarily counting the # days IN/OUT and making sure you fall within the boundaries laid out by CIS ] I am assuming your already satisfy the requirements and are not under.

#0. If you satisfy the residency requirements way over the minimum prescribed, you should not have to worry.

#1. If you satisfy the residency requirements, but are borderline [ meet 105% of the minimal requirements, but not more ], the IO may want to understand more about these trips and satisfy himself/herself about their nature. If you can demonstrate that the trips were work related, and on behalf of a US employer ... you were getting paid by your employer during these trips, you have deputation notices / emails as proof and so on, that will go a long way towards convincing him/her.

You also need to check whether you have back to back trips. If you have 4 trips of 6 weeks each with only a 2 day return to US, it might satisfy the technical definition of residency, but still might be suspect for the IO.

#2. If applying for naturalization under the 3-year rule, they will scrutinize your marriage also since you have a lot of time away from US. This will include proof of joint residence, bank accounts, insurance nominees, joint car insurance and so on. In some cases (but not all), they might call the hubby for the interview too.

Last, not all borderline cases are handled similarly. Some swim through fine with no questions asked, some get under intense scrutiny. Don't worry un-necessarily, first understand where you fit in the requirements area (barely meet, meet way over ...).

I think the members of this forum can evaluate the situation better if you can provide trip details / dates etc.
 
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