N400 denied due to lack of continuous residence. Short notice.

B

bornot2

Registered Users (C)
After 3.5 years of endless waiting n400 was finally recommended for approval at oct.28th interview.
however as i have learned few days back duing the call to CIS service line to find about hopefully
an oath letter, the very same day of interview a notice of denial was mailed to me
which i've never gotten. Went in person yesterday to get a denial letter dated 10/28.
It states that denial was due to break in continuous residence since: had 3 trips "over6 months" of
180 and 181(they say 182) days long and in addition during my last trip that lasted 177 days i did not keep my employment
(which i just switched from 1099 to w2 after coming back from overseas since company did
not have any projects during that time)

Do you think the appeal/hearing has chances? and what normally lawyers' fees for representation would be.

Also can i file form N-336 without attorney and then add attorney at the later date? looks like this holidays
do not give me time to shop for lawyers as deadline is on monday for uscis to receive it.

anyone could recommend a lawyer in NJ area? please send me a private message.

Thank you.
 
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Were those 3 long trips close together? Did you continue to lease or own a house or apartment in the US while you were outside the US?
 
Unless you have substantial evidence of US residency ties during your trips longer than 6 months, it is pointless to appeal your denial regardless of if the trips were back to back or not.
 
Jackolantern said:
Were those 3 long trips close together? Did you continue to lease or own a house or apartment in the US while you were outside the US?
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those were 3 to 6 months apart.

did not lease or rent while outside, needed to save. however i maintained billing addresses.
 
When did you return to the US after the last long trip? If it was years ago, you're probably better off waiting until 5 years since the end of the last long trip, and then reapply.
 
well, i applied 3,5 yrs ago when i did not have absenses for more than 180 days and uscis was dragging my case ever since. I thought that i was for less than 6 months every time, untill last year i read somwhere on this forum that 180 days is considered 6 months by them. I should say that nowhere in the guide and in the USC pertaining to naturalization it says 180 days, but it is 6 months.
 
bornot2 said:
well, i applied 3,5 yrs ago when i did not have absenses for more than 180 days and uscis was dragging my case ever since. I thought that i was for less than 6 months every time, untill last year i read somwhere on this forum that 180 days is considered 6 months by them. I should say that nowhere in the guide and in the USC pertaining to naturalization it says 180 days, but it is 6 months.
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Remember 6 months is not a hard core line. They can deny you for a trip under 6 months if they feel you are not maintaining US residency. Just because one trip is under 6 months doesn't mean anything. You need to have enough evidence so that the IO can't prove that you broke it. After 6 months you have to prove to the IO that you didn't.

So it seems your under 6 months trip was proven by the IO that you didn't maintain residenncy...
 
For calculation purposes, USCIS considers a month to be 30 days, not a calendar month.
Also, the continuous residency requirement must be met up until oath regardless of how long they take to process your case.
 
so, no chances?

how about other questions:

appeal/hearing, what normally lawyers' fees for representation would be.

Also can i file form N-336 without attorney and then add attorney at the later date? looks like this holidays
do not give me time to shop for lawyers as deadline is on monday for uscis to receive it.

anyone could recommend a lawyer in NJ area? please send me a private message.
 
bornot2 said:
so, no chances?

how about other questions:

appeal/hearing, what normally lawyers' fees for representation would be.

Also can i file form N-336 without attorney and then add attorney at the later date? looks like this holidays
do not give me time to shop for lawyers as deadline is on monday for uscis to receive it.

anyone could recommend a lawyer in NJ area? please send me a private message.
Click to expand...

I am not sure if there are good lawyers in NJ area. How about Rajiv S. Khanna?
 
bornot2 said:
so, no chances?

how about other questions:

appeal/hearing, what normally lawyers' fees for representation would be.

Also can i file form N-336 without attorney and then add attorney at the later date? looks like this holidays
do not give me time to shop for lawyers as deadline is on monday for uscis to receive it.

anyone could recommend a lawyer in NJ area? please send me a private message.
Click to expand...

Before considering appeal, determine if you have sufficient evidence to overcome presumption of break in US residency ties. From what you described before, you don't have sufficient ties so filling an appeal may be useless.
If you still want to file an appeal, lawyer fees will typically range from $1000-2500 on top of the application fee for the appeal. You can search for lawyers on the immigration website:

http://www.aila.org
 
Can you reapply? It would seem much cheaper than appealing. Naturalization takes about 3 or four months now. If you have had better continuous residence record in the past 5 years you should naturalize this time with no problems.
 
is this type of denial going to have any effect on LPR status?
it states that decision is made without any predjudice towards filing application in the future.
 
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if i reapply now and will include sufficient evidence to overcome that presumption is it still going to be automatically rejected or denied during new interview?
last trip of 181days was 1.5 years ago.
 
bornot2 said:
is this type of denial going to have any effect on LPR status?
it states that decision is made without any predjudice towards filing application in the future.
Click to expand...
bornot2 said:
if i reapply now and will include sufficient evidence to overcome that presumption is it still going to be automatically rejected or denied during new interview?
last trip of 181days was 1.5 years ago.
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In your case the denial doesn't affect your LPR status.
If you reapply they will still look at the last 5 years which includes several trips just over 6 months. Unless you have sufficient additional evidence to prove that you didn't intent to break continuous residence, reapplying now will likely result in a denial again. The fact is you lived and worked overseas and did not maintain a US abode. You're safer off waiting 4 years + 1 day from your last long trip before you reapply.
 
Bobsmyth said:
In your case the denial doesn't affect your LPR status.
If you reapply they will still look at the last 5 years which includes several trips just over 6 months. Unless you have sufficient additional evidence to prove that you didn't intent to break continuous residence, reapplying now will likely result in a denial again. The fact is you lived and worked overseas and did not maintain a US abode. You're safer off waiting 4 years + 1 day from your last long trip before you reapply.
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The facts are actualy following:

all my employment was in usa and i did not work while overseas
and during several last trips my employers assured me that they were willing to take me back upon return

i did not live overseas but traveled to visit and take care of my immediate family (wife and children, for whom i filed i-130 petition 2.5 yrs back intending to bring them over, and my elder parents)

i was honestly trying to keep the balance between needs of my family and requirements of citizenship splitting the time between two till the time i hoped i shall be able to bring them over. now this denial is only going to inflict more hardship on my family.

is there any chance it cold be looked at it this way?
 
bornot2 said:
The facts are actualy following:

all my employment was in usa and i did not work while overseas
and during several last trips my employers assured me that they were willing to take me back upon return

i did not live overseas but traveled to visit and take care of my immediate family (wife and children, for whom i filed i-130 petition 2.5 yrs back intending to bring them over, and my elder parents)

i was honestly trying to keep the balance between needs of my family and requirements of citizenship splitting the time between two till the time i hoped i shall be able to bring them over. now this denial is only going to inflict more hardship on my family.

is there any chance it cold be looked at it this way?
Click to expand...

I misread from your original that you worked overseas.
Nevertheless, you did not maintain an abode in the US during those trips and your immediate family (wife and kids) were not in US. These are two major things that go against you in trying to prove continuous residence.
Unfortunately, USCIS doesn't look at it as you trying to balance between family and citizenship requirements. They look at it as you breaking continuous residency by not keeping sufficient US residency ties.
 
Sorry to hear that. I would recomend that you do not try to appeal the case and instead call the (800 number) and ask when you are ellegible to reapply again based on your current residence duration and date of denial.
Good luck.
 
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