N-400 questions on being outside U.S. for >1 year

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walletless

Registered Users (C)
Hello,

My wife is a permanent resident since 2001. She was a student back then, hence she took re-entry permit in 2002 and returned to U.S. in 2004 while studying in India. Later, she did not return in 2005 (without re-entry permit), but came back to U.S. in August 2006. She has been staying in U.S. since August 2006 with brief vacation trips (1-2 months) to India.

Between 2001 and 2003, she did not file any income tax returns, but she had a $0 income. She has filed tax returns since then, and we have copies of all years since 2004 and official IRS transcripts from past 5 years.

In August this year, she will complete her 5 consecutive years in U.S., and will become eligible to apply for N-400. I have three questions given her situation:

1) Is it OK to not file taxes between 2001-2003 with no income? Could the interviewing officer ask her about it, and does she have any option of filing them now with a $0 income?

2) Given that she did not enter U.S. between 2004-2006 and did not apply for a re-entry permit either, what kind of questions should we expect from the officer? She did not enter because she was studying for a diploma course, but did not appear for it and does not have any certificate/transcript from that. Could the officer reject her application because of this?

3) My wife got her greencard because her parents sponsored her. However, since then, her parents have surrendered their green card as they do not wish to pursue residing in U.S. anymore and have permanantly settled in India. Could this pose any problems to her case?

Other than these two things, we have all the documents that we would need for her:
- Marriage certificate from India, copy of green card before name change due to marriage
- SSN card
- Certified tax transcripts from past 5 years
- Copy of tax returns since 2004
- Proof of residence in her current state (tax returns, lease agreement, utility bills)
- Valid drivers license from U.S.
- Financial proof (I will be sponsoring her. I am on H-1B visa).
- Indian passport
- Re-entry permit from 2002
 
#1. If she did not have income, she was not supposed to file. You can say "you have filed all tax returns that were due" and you will be correct.

#2. They are unlikely to ask questions going that far back, but a nosy IO might ask.

#3. Once your wife got the green card, I do not think her parents' status matters.

You do not need many of these documents while submitting the N400. These might be called for in the interview notice or the yellow letter. Send the bare minimum unless they are pertinent to her situation (when you marked YES/NO on an N400 question where the obviously correct answer would be the reverse ... for example, have you been a communist ... and if you have been ... then only you submit the documentation as part of filing).
 
thanks sanjoseaug20

#2 is what I am most worried about.. because honestly, we do not have a convincing story on the absence for 2 years there given that she did not complete the diploma course and does not have a certificate, nor did she apply for a re-entry permit for that long absence.

Her case is otherwise clean - no criminal activity, no past divorses, etc.. but if the IO decides to quiz her about her 2 yr absence, I am worried about how to answer it.. :-(
 
With continuous residence for naturalization purposes, if she applies when it's 5 years beyond the end of that trip that ended in August 2006, that 2 year trip will be irrelevant.

However, theoretically the interviewer could dig deeper into that trip, find out that she didn't have a reentry permit or SB-1 visa, and challenge the validity of her green card because she shouldn't have been readmitted at the end of that trip. But the chances of them choosing to do that are remote; they would have to take her to court to revoke the green card. As long as she didn't lie by giving the POE officer false information about her trip (e.g. saying she was gone for 5 months), she shouldn't worry about it. I don't know of any cases where somebody was gone for more than a year without a reentry permit or SB-1, been readmitted to the US without lying, and then 5+ years later had their green card revoked for that trip.
 
Thanks Jackolantern!

That does help, and makes me less worried. I did not understand one part that you mentioned though: "if she applies when it's 5 years beyond the end of that trip that ended in August 2006, that 2 year trip will be irrelevant".

In 2006, she entered the U.S. around August 15 and left late September. Then she was back in Jan 2007. Are you suggesting that it is safe to apply after August 15 or after late september? One month will not make a huge difference, but I just want to be sure I apply at a time when the chances of IO asking about her multi-year absence is reduced.
 
If that trip ended in August 15, 2006, applying after August 15, 2011 would put it entirely outside the 5 year window and thus it will be ignored when evaluating continuous residence.
 
Hi,
Sorry for bringing back an old thread... but I had one more question. I spoke to my wife's brother, and he is fairly certain (though not 100% sure) that my wife *did* apply for a re-entry permit during the 2004-2006 absence. However, we searched all our records, as well as the file that her dad has.. and could not find the permit anywhere. So, is there any way I can get a copy of an old/unexpired re-entry permit from USCIS?

Also... now we are confused - whether she entered with or without re-entry permit.. so if the interviewing officer asked her about it - we are not sure what to answer. We can probably tell that she did not re-enter because of her studies, but if the officer asked whether or not she applied for a re-entry permit, we are not sure whether the answer is Yes or No... so what should we do about it?
 
You can request copy of reentry permit via FOIA, but considering the trip was so long ago and outside of statutory period I don't see why an IO would question whether she entered with or without one.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks :)

So I went to the safety box and looked at everything again this morning. She had two trips >6 months:

One between 2001-2003
2nd between 2004-2006

She *does* have the re-entry permit from the 2nd trip, but is missing the one from the first trip (I had it backwards in the OP). Is it possible that one needs to send the original re-entry permit when applying for the 2nd one - so she does not have it? I know she should have copies somewhere... but we cant find it so far.

I am particularly nervous after listening to stories like this one: forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?321374-Citizenship-interview-Missing-re-entry-permit
 
walletless said:
Thanks :)

So I went to the safety box and looked at everything again this morning. She had two trips >6 months:

One between 2001-2003
2nd between 2004-2006

She *does* have the re-entry permit from the 2nd trip, but is missing the one from the first trip (I had it backwards in the OP). Is it possible that one needs to send the original re-entry permit when applying for the 2nd one - so she does not have it? I know she should have copies somewhere... but we cant find it so far.

I am particularly nervous after listening to stories like this one: forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?321374-Citizenship-interview-Missing-re-entry-permit
Click to expand...

Yes, when you apply for a new re-entry permit, you have to return the old one (this is standard procedure, see I-131 instructions).
So it is not unusual that your wife would not have her 1-st reentry permit now - she most likely returned it when she applied for the 2nd one.

In any case, as others have said, it is rather unlikely that the IO would ask for copies of the reentry permits going that far back. In any case the info should be in her A-file anyway, which the IO will have during her naturalization interview.
 
Cool.. I have all ducks lined up then :) All the documents are ready so we can send it out on August 15, 2011. Is this date correct based on her travel records:

Departed U.S. Arrived U.S. Days outside U.S.
03/29/2011 | 05/29/2011 | 51
02/14/2011 | 02/17/2011 | 03
01/07/2009 | 01/27/2009 | 20
10/25/2007 | 12/22/2007 | 58
09/27/2006 | 02/07/2007 | 133
11/14/2003 | 08/14/2006 | 1,004
06/24/2001 | 09/28/2003 | 826
 
Just an update. I happened to find a copy of wife's missing re-entry permit. So now I have all the documents to prove that she has legally returned to U.S. from every international visit :-)

I did sent a FOIA request and received a notice with the case number. However, their processing times are upwards of 90 days. Luckily, my father in law was cleaning up old documents, and opened a very old education file of hers which had a copy of her first re-entry permit in it.

Thanks everyone who replied to the thread. We will be sending out her N-400 on 8/15 :-)
 
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