How may attending school in Canada affect my daughter's naturalization?

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easybay

Registered Users (C)
My eldest daughter (20) is eligible to apply for citizenship, but we are holding off her application until she has 5 years of "good morale character" - PI charge during her first week of college. We will be waiting 3 years and plan to hire a lawyer for advice when submitting her application.

My question is - she is considering applying to 2 year BS nursing program in Canada. Is there allowances for the 5 year continuous residency requirement for going to school? Or will her 5 year continuous residency start from when she returns to the US?

Thanks!
 
I take it "PI" means Public Intoxication. Are you sure it's a barrier to citizenship now? I think I'd be consulting a lawyer right now. I'm no expert but I suspect going to school in Canada could easily interrupt her US residency or even threaten her green card.

Your daughter's scenario is exactly why I hustled to apply for citizenship as soon as I was able and then get my 16 year old a US passport too. Teenagers can make dumb mistakes (like the PI episode) or choose to go back to the home country for college. Studying in Canada is a very reasonable option for Canadians (we're from Canada too), but you don't want it to lead to a loss of the hard-won US LPR status. Young people don't always worry about the long term, and might let the LPR status go without appreciating that without US citizenship they don't have any right to live in their "other" home country, the US, whenever they feel like it. I'm breathing a sigh of relief that my teenager is now "safe" as a US citizen.
 
Are you sure it's a barrier to citizenship now?
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I have asked many questions about this issue on this board, and was told that we it was probably best to wait the 5 years. She was 17 at the time and paid a fine, did community service, and took an alcohol awareness course. We can have the record expunged when she turns 21 next September, and realize she will have to disclose the incident on her N-400 application. She's a good student (Dean's list this past summer), and other than the one incident, never had any "issues".
 
This forum is great, but as some people point out in their signatures, it's not a source of professional legal advice. All other things being equal, especially if you are trying to avoid the expense of using a lawyer, the advice to wait five years after the incident makes sense. However, you're now adding attending school in Canada to the scenario. That alters the balance of what makes sense, I think, and introduces risks such as what if she goes to school in Canada, then gets a great job opportunity there?

I know that we Canadians tend to have a hard time contemplating engaging an attorney for anything other than a real estate transaction or (God forbid) a criminal case. But at this point, I really think your most prudent course of action is to pay for an immigration attorney consultation. It's only going to cost you something in the ballpark of a couple of hundred dollars. Your daughter's future options will be much better protected if she can gain her US naturalization before going to Canada to study.
 
easybay said:
My question is - she is considering applying to 2 year BS nursing program in Canada.
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Starting when? If she applies for naturalization before starting her studies, will she have at least 5 years of continuous residence (albeit with the conviction still in the 5 year moral character window), and 3-6 months to complete the naturalization process before her studies in Canada begin?

If yes, my suggestion would be to apply before she leaves and see what happens. Indications are that her offense wasn't a deportable one, so applying while it is still in the 5 year window would only be risking the loss of time and money. But consult with an attorney who can look at the court paperwork to determine whether it is indeed deportable or not.

Is there allowances for the 5 year continuous residency requirement for going to school?
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They are more lenient on people who study abroad than those who work abroad. However, it is still a gray area for which the interviewer (and his/her supervisor) will use their discretion to make a decision, so we can't predict how they will decide. If she regularly stays in the US during the breaks between semesters, and after graduating in Canada she lives at least 6 months in the US before she applies, she will improve her chances of approval, but there is still no guarantee.
 
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BigJoe5 said:
Did either parent naturalize before she turned 18? It would make a big difference.
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No, according to a prior thread neither parent has naturalized yet, but they hope to naturalize before their other daughter (now 17) turns 18.

P.S. easybay: this is an example why it is generally better to add related questions to your own existing thread instead of creating a new one. When you start a new thread for what is essentially the same situation and same family or individual, people lose the context of it, sometimes resulting in irrelevant or redundant or incorrect responses.
 
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