Many trips and naturalization

O

octopus

Registered Users (C)
Hello,

I have read the naturalization rules, but I am still not sure if I get them all right. Is there any such a thing one has to remain in the U.S. for continuous period of time without any traveling?

I am spending the majority of time in the U.S. during a calendar year, however, I do travel outside the country 3-4 times a month on average. The trips range from couple of days to 3 months maximum.

Somebody discouraged me from applying for citizenship, because I have never stayed in the U.S. for a whole straight year without taking a trip. Could that be a problem for naturalization?

Thank you!
 
Hi Octopus
I have travelled a lot for business and personal reasons, for periods ranging from 1 week to 4 months per trip. At this point I am waiting for my Oath ceremony on July 9. I did not have any problem whatsoever with the trips. I am with the same employer who sponsored my Permanent Residency. If you can furnish that you were paying rent or mortgage, filing US tax returns, I do not think it is a problem at all. Make sure that you put in the dates for your trips correctly as they do verify that. Even if you get them wrong when you submit N-400, you can correct it at the interview time :) (I had to do it myself)
 
If you've traveled only for work or pleasure, you should be ok with those short trips. However, how many individual days total in the last 5 years have you spent in the US?
 
vijay421201:

Good that you stayed with the same employed for the entire time. I have changed 2 employments and now I am unemployed, my GC is not employment based. I don't work or I work as a freelancer, so sometimes I do have projects, sometimes I don't.

cafeconleche:

Most of my trips are just for pleasure. Some of them were business related when I was visiting my clients abroad. By the time of my application for natralization, I will have around 1000 days total spent inside the U.S. which is just a little bit more than 2.5 years.

guys, I very appreciate your responses, thank you
 
vijay421201 said:
Hi Octopus
I have travelled a lot for business and personal reasons, for periods ranging from 1 week to 4 months per trip. At this point I am waiting for my Oath ceremony on July 9. I did not have any problem whatsoever with the trips. I am with the same employer who sponsored my Permanent Residency. If you can furnish that you were paying rent or mortgage, filing US tax returns, I do not think it is a problem at all. Make sure that you put in the dates for your trips correctly as they do verify that. Even if you get them wrong when you submit N-400, you can correct it at the interview time :) (I had to do it myself)
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Hi Vijay,

I am planning to file my N400 soon and I am in the same boat. My travel patterns are almost same as yours.

Can you please let me know how many trips and days outside the US you had when you filed for N400?

Thanks.
 
Octopus and Ripcuri, there are two requirements for Naturalization.
1) 5 years of continuos residence - You should be able to prove if asked that you were a resident of USA for 5 years. This means that you maintained residence, paid taxes or had family back in USA for past 5 years (or 3 years if applying based on marriage to US citizen). So even though you were outside USA you should be able to prove that you always maintaining residency.
2) Physical presence requirement - It requires that you be present for at least 30 months in previous 5 years before you filed for N-400.

Bear in mind, if any single trip has exceeded more than 6 months then the rules might be different. If you did not file US taxes for any of those previous 5 years it could be possible red flag too.
 
vijay421201 said:
Ripcuri
I had 13 trips and 344 days outside US when I filed for N-400.
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Thanks Vijay,

I have 25 trips with 680 days. I am actually thinking about hiring an attorney to be on safe side. Having said that I have all the other requirements you stated previosuly and am thinking I could probably do it on my own. What you suggest after having gone through it?

I read some other posts and one guy had around 727 days and he mentioned that the IO didn't even ask for details and approved his case.
 
Hi ripcuri
I would not have hired an attorney if I was you. The only reason to have an attorney is when you have some other criminal issues to deal with.
Here is I suggest. File N-400 on your own. When you get to the point where they send you a letter to attend the interview, then if they ask for more documentation for your trip then you can get counsel from Immigration attorney. This way you would save some attorney fees for N-400 filing and go for an attorney only if you are required more documentation for interview. Remember they will not ask for any more documentation than what they ask for in your interview letter. Most people carry extra documentation, just in case the Immigration Officer has some doubts and it looks like the process would get delayed, and then you present the "extra just to be safe" documentation you are carrying. Remember they have only 15-20 mins scheduled per interview, and by time you show up for an interview all background checks, Port of Entry/Exit records are already verified by them. Your case is very simple do not go for an attorney at this point.
 
vijay421201 said:
Hi ripcuri
I would not have hired an attorney if I was you. The only reason to have an attorney is when you have some other criminal issues to deal with.
Here is I suggest. File N-400 on your own. When you get to the point where they send you a letter to attend the interview, then if they ask for more documentation for your trip then you can get counsel from Immigration attorney. This way you would save some attorney fees for N-400 filing and go for an attorney only if you are required more documentation for interview. Remember they will not ask for any more documentation than what they ask for in your interview letter. Most people carry extra documentation, just in case the Immigration Officer has some doubts and it looks like the process would get delayed, and then you present the "extra just to be safe" documentation you are carrying. Remember they have only 15-20 mins scheduled per interview, and by time you show up for an interview all background checks, Port of Entry/Exit records are already verified by them. Your case is very simple do not go for an attorney at this point.
Click to expand...

Thanks Vijay,

That was comforting answer and it also makes sense not to take attorney unless you have any criminal record. I am planning to take rentals agreement, tax transcripts, letter from my employer about my trips, other paper work to show that my wife and kids stayed in US. In fact she will be applying along with me so I am planning to take a copy of her N400 as she only made 3 trips totalling 100 days in the last 5 years.
 
ripcurl said:
Thanks Vijay,

That was comforting answer and it also makes sense not to take attorney unless you have any criminal record. I am planning to take rentals agreement, tax transcripts, letter from my employer about my trips, other paper work to show that my wife and kids stayed in US. In fact she will be applying along with me so I am planning to take a copy of her N400 as she only made 3 trips totalling 100 days in the last 5 years.
Click to expand...

Also make sure you put both of your N-400 in same envelope to increase your chances of getting same date/time for BioMetrics, Interview and Oath. All the best for your final journey. Also use http://www.trackitt.com/usa-immigration-trackers/n400 to get a better sense of processing times based on your Field Office.
 
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