physical presence in US to maintain the continuous residency for citizenship

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ram_perl

Registered Users (C)
Hi ,
I am GC holder since 2003. I am out of country for 4 months now and I want to continue for another 4 months. Due to the limitation I cannot reside out of the country for more than 6 months, so I wanted to come to USA for few days and comeback and stay for another 4 months. My question is how long should i stay in USA ? what all the things I need to do during my stay in US? I heard that 24 hrs stay in US is enough. Anybody has any suggestions?

Appreciate your great help.

Regards,
RamPrasad
 
You need to prove you are living and residing in the US. You need to prove you are not living and working elsewhere and then comming back for a short time and leaving again. You need to demonstrate you are living here and just taking a leave for a short time (under 6 months) and then stay back here for awhile before re-embarking.

I don't know the specifics, but I'd say if you took 2, 4 month trips in a year, that's going to raise some serious concerns by the IO. 2, 4 month trips in 2 years or more is a lot more understandable.

If I were you I'd wait at least another year before your next 4 month trip. Of course this also depends on the nature. Are you out of the country working for a US company or the US military and they want to extend your stay? If so that might be ok as it's a US company you are working for, then again it might not...
 
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As warlord response suggests, there really is no definitive answer to your question. Viewed strictly from a procedural standpoint, returning to the US for 1 day would appear to satisfy the continuous residence rules, however experience shows this not to be the case, particularly in situations where people are truly living/working abroad and a simply trying to play the system for their own benefit.

Based on your assertion that you really only intend to take an 8 month trip, you may well be successful following the strategy you outlines, provided you can furnish additional proof that your trip was always intended to be temporary in nature.

The outcome of your interview will likely depend very much on how understanding your IO is to the reason for your trip. If the IO buys-in that you were temporarily absent for a specific purpose, you will stand a much better chance than if he thinks you were living abroad for an indeterminate period.
 
As I understand it, the important thing is where your "residence" is. For example, I used to work in a turnkey computer systems job where we'd create the software for a year or two, and then go to the customer site and install it.

We did some international work. In one case, the main project manager probably spent 9 or 10 months one year at the customers site, in one case spending more than 6 months out of the country (he even brought his girlfriend with him and married her there). Then he came home to his house (which he owned and he'd left empty) and never went back again. While away, he lived in a hotel. Also while away, someone at the company went to his house once a week, collected his mail and made sure his bills were paid.

I can't imagine he would have had a hard time proving that he hadn't given up his residence (not that he needed to).
 
Thank you for your valuable responses. My case is like , I am working for a US based company, I am temporarily working in offshore development center for 5 months now in India. I am getting the pay in US dollars. Except physically staing abroad, everything is in USA.
THats the reason why i wanted to come to US for few days and comeback to India and stay for another 3 months and return to USA.
DO you think this is a risky idea?
Regards,
Ramprasad
 
Since you work for a US company, you really should investigate an N-470 as it would make your life immeasurably easier.
 
........ and a re-entry permit in addition to the N-470. With these, I had many business trips overseas, including temporary overseas residency and my US residency was preserved intact (except, of course, for the physical presence requirement).
 
Thank you again for the valuable responses.
Initially They said I can stay for 5 months thats why i didn tapply for re-entry permit nor N-470, now after 5 months of stay, They said I can stay for another 3 months. thats the reason why I got into this dilemma. If I was in US I could have taken some legal suggestion, But I am out of US. THats the reason why I posted this.
Regards,
RP
 
ram_perl said:
Thank you again for the valuable responses.
Initially They said I can stay for 5 months thats why i didn tapply for re-entry permit nor N-470, now after 5 months of stay, They said I can stay for another 3 months. thats the reason why I got into this dilemma. If I was in US I could have taken some legal suggestion, But I am out of US. THats the reason why I posted this.
Regards,
RP
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Just remember that free online advice is worth exactly what you paid for it. :p
 
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