My parents received their family based green card in June 2016. From 2016 to 2019, they lived in US for 24 months without staying overseas for more than 6 months. However, due to COVID, their 2019 trip back home got stretched and they returned back to US after 2 years and 1 month. They did apply for SB-1 visa and were granted it before entering into US. After their return, they stayed for another year so they have total 35 months of US stay (with one long stay outside US). Technically they can apply for citizenship after 30 months of US stay and after 5 years. But I am not sure how their stay outside US for more than 2 years will impact their ability to apply for a citizenship. Any information on this will be appreciated. Thanks!
How does extended stay overseas/SB-1 impact ability to apply for citizenship?
- Thread starter riverrock
- Start date
There are two main requirements for naturalization: "continuous residence" as a permanent for the last 5 years, and "physical presence" for half (30 months) of those 5 years. It's continuous residence that's the main issue here. An absence of more than 1 year definitely breaks continuous residence (except for people who worked for US organization abroad who filed N-470 before they were gone 1 year, which is not relevant here). The chapter I linked to above goes into detail about how long they would have to wait after a break in residence. Basically, if they can provide certain strong evidence of ties to the US in the last year of their absence, they can apply for naturalization 4 years + 1 day after their return from the absence. If they cannot, they can apply for naturalization 4 years + 6 months after their return from the absence. Whether they got SB-1 visas or reentry permits or not has no bearing on this.