Overseas stay exceeding 6 months but less than 12 months

A

aaronsm

Registered Users (C)
Hello,

My questions pertain to the 6 month limit on overseas trips.

My wife and I are permanent residents for a little over 2 years. My wife is currently on an overseas trip that may exceed a duration of 6 months (but will be much much less than a year). An unforeseen need has arisen with the family, requiring her to extend her overseas stay.

I read through the M-476 Guide to Naturalization. Here are the extracts from the guide pertinent to absence from the United States (for a permanent resident at least 18 years old, aspiring to be a citizen):

Page 18, “Requirements”: Continuous residence requirement states: “5 years as a Permanent Resident without leaving the United States for trips of 6 months or longer.”

Page 22, Definition of Continuous Residence” states:
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Begin(quote)
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Continuous Residence
“Continuous residence” means that you have not left the United States for a long
period of time. If you leave the United States for too long, you may interrupt
your continuous residence.

What if I was outside the United States between 6 and 12 months?
If you leave the United States for more than 6 months, but less than 1 year, you have broken or disrupted your continuous residence unless you can prove otherwise. Read the “Document Checklist” in the back of this Guide to find out what information you must give to prove you did not break your continuous residence.
---------------
End(quote)
---------------

Note that the above paragraph accommodates absences of duration between 6 months and 1 year, and preserves continuous residence, upon furnishing certain documents as proof of maintaining residence in the US.

Lastly, “Document checklist” on page 48 includes the following:
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Begin(quote)
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If you have taken any trip outside the United States that lasted 6 months or more since becoming a Lawful Permanent Resident, send evidence that you (and your family) continued to live, work and/or keep ties to the United States, such as:
--- An IRS tax return “transcript” or an IRS-certified tax return listing tax information for the last 5 years (or for the last 3 years if you are applying on the basis of marriage to a U.S. citizen).
--- Rent or mortgage payments and pay stubs.
-----------
End(quote)
-----------

My questions and discussion points:
Has anyone among you or those known to you favorably invoked the above scenario to squeeze in an absence lasting more than 6 months (but much less than 12 months) into a period of continuous residence while seeking naturalization?

In my case, my wife and I both became permanent residents and want to apply for naturalization at the same time. I have been working, paying taxes and rent in the US for both of us. My wife is not on a salaried job, but has gone overseas on a trip that may last 7 months. We are certain to meet all other criteria for naturalization (No other overseas trip will be anywhere near this long for both of us).

I am anxious to ensure that her candidacy is not jeopardized by her current overseas trip. Does my being in the US amplify her case for continuous residence?

Thanks a great deal.

AS
 
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With a trip lasting more than six months but less than a year she should be prepared to prove at POE that she did not intended to abandon her US residence by recent bills, current lease etc.
Having an absence for more than six months one time might just trigger a question at the N-400 interview requiring a explanation but should not bar her to get naturalized.
 
namecheckvictim said:
With a trip lasting more than six months but less than a year she should be prepared to prove at POE that she did not intended to abandon her US residence by recent bills, current lease etc.
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A trip between 6 and 12 months would not automatically bring up any presumption of abandonment of US residency abandonment at POE. You're confusing this with continuous residence requirement for naturalization.
 
After an absence of 6 months (even with a Re-entry permit) an LPR is making an "application for admission" to the U.S. just like any other alien and is checked against all INA 212 inadmissibility concerns. See INA 101(a)(13) about that.

There is further documentary evidence that she can show for naturalization purposes as described at 8 CFR 316.5(c)(1)(i)(A-D).

See www.uscis.gov on the laws tab for the INA and CFR.

Her spouse remaining in the U.S. and working, her maintaining access to her U.S. home, being included on joint tax returns---are all positive factors to overcome the "rebuttable" presumption. She has not taken foreign employment but was there for a family vist with conmplications of some sort...a sick parent perhaps having a heart attack, stroke, surgery or some form of therapy? ???
 
Thanks a lot, BigJoe5!

No, the issue for parents was nothing life-threatening. Having suffered a fall several months ago, her father experienced reduced mobility, and she stayed longer to help around with household affairs till her father could rest a lot and recover. He did not go through any systematic rehabilitaiton therapy.

Will she have to explain and give evidence at the port of entry when she lands back in the US, as to why she stayed away so long?

Will she need any proof of the medical conditions to explain her unusually-long absence when she gets naturalized?

In short: we are talking about two distinct things here: (1) evidence of continued, unbroken residential ties with the US and (2) reasons why she went away for 6.5 or 7 months. My quesstion is: is (2) as important as (1)?
 
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aaronsm said:
Has anyone among you or those known to you favorably invoked the above scenario to squeeze in an absence lasting more than 6 months (but much less than 12 months) into a period of continuous residence while seeking naturalization?

In my case, my wife and I both became permanent residents and want to apply for naturalization at the same time. I have been working, paying taxes and rent in the US for both of us. My wife is not on a salaried job, but has gone overseas on a trip that may last 7 months. We are certain to meet all other criteria for naturalization (No other overseas trip will be anywhere near this long for both of us).
Click to expand...

I presume you are her immediate family and you lived in USA while she was abroad. As you maintained the apartment / house, insurance during that period, she will get benefit of those.

However, some verbiage in your posting indicates it is not as simple. When people say no other trips are as long, they are trying to downplay the other trips. I just want to check it is not the same for you as a pattern of small trips can cause the same issues as a single long trip. How many days of total absence does she have in the 5 year period? And how many multi-month trips has she taken?
 
sanjoseaug20 said:
I presume you are her immediate family and you lived in USA while she was abroad. As you maintained the apartment / house, insurance during that period, she will get benefit of those.

However, some verbiage in your posting indicates it is not as simple. When people say no other trips are as long, they are trying to downplay the other trips. I just want to check it is not the same for you as a pattern of small trips can cause the same issues as a single long trip. How many days of total absence does she have in the 5 year period? And how many multi-month trips has she taken?
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I am her husband, living in the US and paying rent, car + renters' insurance etc, taxes, etc, all along, and not having gone abroad during that time.

Regarding other overseas trips undertaken:

We are now in the fourth month of our third year after obtaining our green cards.

During the first year, we both went abroad for a total of 10 days, in 3 trips of 3-4 days each, all overland camping trips to Canada.

In the second year, we had a similar absence of 10 days broken into two trips of 4-5 days each, also to Canada.

Towards the end of the second year, my wife went away on the trip she is currently on. The current absence straddles years# 2 and 3 after green card for her.

We have a better part of the third year, and another two more years to go before seeking naturalization.

I meant to emphasize that this current absence is extraordinarily long because my wife hadn't seen her parents for more than 3.5 years prior to this trip, and she needed to stay around and help them. This is her only multi-month trip, and we do not foresee any such long trips in the future (before seeking naturalization)-- nothing lasting more than 3-4 weeks tops.

I am anxious to ensure that this current absence of 6.5-7 months will be excused if the other conditions satisfied are strongly.

Regards.
 
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Your first statement about "rent, car, insurance" is the way you would justify her absence saying she did not intend to break residential ties with US. Also, any evidence towards the necessity of taking this trip might help, but some IOs may not care about that.
Many a times, if this one trip is the only issue, they may not require all that evidence. While approving after a break of over 6 months is not "discretionary", many IOs might go easy considering the overall picture.
 
That's quite encouraging, thanks sanjoseaug20! I now believe my wife and I can both apply for naturalization together. I'll collect and organize all relevant supporting documents starting now!

When she returns from her trip now (after 6.5-7 months of overseas stay), will my wife, as a greencard holder, have issues at the airport?
Thanks again.
 
aaronsm said:
When she returns from her trip now (after 6.5-7 months of overseas stay), will my wife, as a greencard holder, have issues at the airport?
Thanks again.
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Expect her to be asked about the purpose of her trip at POE, and where she permanently lives, and where you live. However, she won't be expected to prove extensive US residency ties with rental agreement, tax transcipts, utilities etc... That evidence will be reserved for naturalization interview.
 
At POE she should expect that CBP will give her a "gentle reminder" (verbal warning) about the potential problem of 6+ month trips for natz purposes. CBP may note in her passport "out over 6 months" or something like that. In the absence of any real issues about admissibility (presumable she has none) that should be the end of it with no referral to secondary. Since she did not expect to be gone so long or had very little time to prepare for the trip, she most likely has no re-entry permit and could be informed by CBP of the possibility of obtaining one for a future trip.
 
Thanks again, BigJoe5. She has no other issues that could affect her admissibility.

She did not seek a re-entry permit since I assumed that re-entry permits are required only for absences *exceeding* a full year. Am I correct in that assumption?

In fact, her original return flight to the US was booked to occur about 3 months after her leaving the US (giving a trip of 3 months' duration). We ended up postponing and rebooking the return flight three times so far, each one a month later than the "current" return flight. Perhaps those modified tickets could be offered as proof (at POE and/or Naturalization interview) that the intention was to return sooner but the trip got extended beyond the original intent due to unforeseen factors? Please advise. Thanks!
 
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aaronsm said:
Thanks again, BigJoe5. She has no other issues that could affect her admissibility.

She did not seek a re-entry permit since I assumed that re-entry permits are required only for absences *exceeding* a full year. Am I correct in that assumption?

In fact, her original return flight to the US was booked to occur about 3 months after her leaving the US (giving a trip of 3 months' duration). We ended up postponing and rebooking the return flight three times so far, each one a month later than the "current" return flight. Perhaps those modified tickets could be offered as proof (at POE and/or Naturalization interview) that the intention was to return sooner but the trip got extended beyond the original intent due to unforeseen factors? Please advise. Thanks!
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If a greencard holder is "stuck" outside the U.S. for a prolonged period in excess of one year without a REP, then they would need to visit the consulate and obtain an SB-1 returning resident visa instead. Those are more difficult to get.
 
aaronsm said:
She did not seek a re-entry permit since I assumed that re-entry permits are required only for absences *exceeding* a full year. Am I correct in that assumption?
Click to expand...

Yes, re-entry permits are required only for absences greater than 1 year. However, there is no harm or adverse consequence of applying for the permit but not using it. Anyway, you will do that only when you knew that the trip could be of uncertain length, which obviously you/wife did not seem to believe in the beginning.
 
You are right about our case-- we never thought the trip would last more than three months, let alone a year or more.
Thank you, sanjoseaug20!
 
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