Question about Naturalization eligibility

[latvian]

Hello everyone,
I am planning to apply for naturalization soon. I will be thankful if you could tell me whether, you think, I would eligible for naturalization or not.

I became a LPR on 03/25/2007. Since that date, I have had a total of 7 trips outside the US, of which one of them was more than 6 months and less than a year. Below are dates of my trips:

01/17/2011 - 07/06/2011 = 170 days
08/08/2010 - 01/10/2011 = 155 days
07/24/2010 - 08/1/2010 = 8 days
08/22/2009 - 07/08/2010 = 320 days (The longest trip)
06/10/2009 - 06/28/2009 = 18 days
04/28/2009 - 05/14/2009 = 16 days
08/07/2008 - 08/17/2008 = 10 days

I have been a LPR of 5 years, and have been physically living in the US for 38 months. According to the naturalization guide, I can apply before 90 days which is 12/25/2011. My ties to the US are: I have a sister who lives here with her family, I have bank accounts, credit cards and I have paid taxes from 2007-2010. i used to have a job 2007-2009 but then I was laid off because of the economy.

Any ideas or tips would be appreciated and I apologize for the long post.

Thanks in advance.
Latvian

 

[nwctzn]

Hello everyone,
I am planning to apply for naturalization soon. I will be thankful if you could tell me whether, you think, I would eligible for naturalization or not.

I became a LPR on 03/25/2007. Since that date, I have had a total of 7 trips outside the US, of which one of them was more than 6 months and less than a year. Below are dates of my trips:

01/17/2011 - 07/06/2011 = 170 days
08/08/2010 - 01/10/2011 = 155 days
07/24/2010 - 08/1/2010 = 8 days
08/22/2009 - 07/08/2010 = 320 days (The longest trip)
06/10/2009 - 06/28/2009 = 18 days
04/28/2009 - 05/14/2009 = 16 days
08/07/2008 - 08/17/2008 = 10 days

I have been a LPR of 5 years, and have been physically living in the US for 38 months. According to the naturalization guide, I can apply before 90 days which is 12/25/2011. My ties to the US are: I have a sister who lives here with her family, I have bank accounts, credit cards and I have paid taxes from 2007-2010. i used to have a job 2007-2009 but then I was laid off because of the economy.

Any ideas or tips would be appreciated and I apologize for the long post.

Thanks in advance.
Latvian

You meet the physical presence requirement, however, your long trip (320 days) might have reset your continuous residence requirement clock. The continuous residence requirement states that you should not have a single trip lasting more than 180 days within the last 5 years. Did you have a special re-entry permit for that long stay? If not, it will be hard to convince the interviewing officer that this did not violate the continuous residence requirement.

 

[walletless]

You meet the physical presence requirement, however, your long trip (320 days) might have reset your continuous residence requirement clock. The continuous residence requirement states that you should not have a single trip lasting more than 180 days within the last 5 years. Did you have a special re-entry permit for that long stay? If not, it will be hard to convince the interviewing officer that this did not violate the continuous residence requirement.

Even if you had a re-entry permit, a single trip over 6 months is enough to reset your 5 year clock. The re-entry permit only serves to prove that you did not abandon your ties here. There are some exceptions that apply to such a trip resetting, but its rare, and I doubt the OP falls in that.

 

[raevsky]

How much is your case different from http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=19951556890FSupp666_11483.xml&docbase=CSLWAR2-1986-2006 ?

A. The applicant did not terminate his or her employment in the United States;

With respect to application of the factors to rebut the obvious "breaks" in continuity, Petitioner contends that she has presented evidence that she did not terminate her U.S. employment during her absences from the country. However, on her naturalization application, she indicated "none" in the space for listing employers, and she (and her brother) both state in their affidavits that she only "helped out" in the family restaurants and was never treated as an "employee". Therefore, the Court finds that there is no persuasive evidence satisfying the "no termination of employment in the U.S." during her absences.

B. The applicant's immediate family remained in the United States;

As for the second factor, Petitioner also contends that her "immediate" family remained in the United States during her absences. However, as the INS found, Petitioner's "immediate" family are her children and her husband, not her mother and her siblings. Ms. Abdul-Khalek's husband was (and apparently still is) in Lebanon, and after her children were born, they did not remain in the U.S. when she traveled to Lebanon. Rather, they went with her.

C. The applicant retained full access to his or her United States abode; and

With respect to the third factor, applicant's retention of full access to her U.S. "abode", as indicated above, as of her June 1994 INS review hearing, Ms. Abdul-Khalek stated that she was still living in her brother's house. Although she had been deeded a house in Dearborn two years earlier, in 1992, there is no indication that she ever made any preparations to move into that house.5

D. The applicant did not obtain employment while abroad.

The only factor which Ms. Abdul-Khalek has satisfied is the fourth factor, i.e., she did not obtain employment while abroad. However, under the circumstances of this case, the Court finds that this factor should not be given much weight since her husband appears to have substantial holdings in the Middle East (see documents attached to the INS's Motion for Summary Judgment), thereby obviating any need for Mrs. Abdul-Khalek to seek employment to support herself and her children while in Lebanon.

 

[baikal3]

Hello everyone,
I am planning to apply for naturalization soon. I will be thankful if you could tell me whether, you think, I would eligible for naturalization or not.

I became a LPR on 03/25/2007. Since that date, I have had a total of 7 trips outside the US, of which one of them was more than 6 months and less than a year. Below are dates of my trips:

01/17/2011 - 07/06/2011 = 170 days
08/08/2010 - 01/10/2011 = 155 days
07/24/2010 - 08/1/2010 = 8 days
08/22/2009 - 07/08/2010 = 320 days (The longest trip)
06/10/2009 - 06/28/2009 = 18 days
04/28/2009 - 05/14/2009 = 16 days
08/07/2008 - 08/17/2008 = 10 days

I have been a LPR of 5 years, and have been physically living in the US for 38 months. According to the naturalization guide, I can apply before 90 days which is 12/25/2011. My ties to the US are: I have a sister who lives here with her family, I have bank accounts, credit cards and I have paid taxes from 2007-2010. i used to have a job 2007-2009 but then I was laid off because of the economy.

Any ideas or tips would be appreciated and I apologize for the long post.

Thanks in advance.
Latvian

You need to provide more information than you have above to get substantive advice.

What exactly were the reasons for the three long trips? (note that a trip below 6 months may still disrupt continuous residency) Did you continue renting/owing housing in the U.S. during those trips?
Did you obtain employment abroad during those trips? What was your source of income during those absences?

Apart from the sister (who is not an immediate family member), did you have any immediate family members stay in the U.S. during those absences?

 

[dxie_us]

(note that a trip below 6 months may still disrupt continuous residency)

baikal3:
In what case a trip less than 6 months may disrupt continuous residence?
Thanks

 

[baikal3]

baikal3:
In what case a trip less than 6 months may disrupt continuous residence?
Thanks

There is no simple answer to this question, it all depends on the particular circumstances of an applicant, as the IO examining the N-400 application has rather wide discretion in making continuous residency determination.
For example, if somebody has several extended trips abroad that are closely spaced in time, that is, separated by short periods of presence in the U.S., the IO may, depending on the particular circumstances, view these trips as essentially one single long trip for continuous residence purposes, even if the absences are less than 6 months each.
If the applicant takes a job abroad (particularly a non-temporary job), that could be regarded by the IO as evidence of having broken continuous residency, even if the trip lasted less than 6 months.

E.g., as a hypothetical situation, if somebody moves abroad, takes a job there, rents an apartment there, but keeps coming back to the U.S. every 4-5 months for a few weeks, that would almost certainly be regarded by the IO as having broken continuous residency (with some exceptions, such as having an approved N-470).

Like I said, the IO has rather wide discretion in making the continuous residency determination and will look at the totality of circumstances regarding a particular trip/series of trips in making that decision.

 

[madh4]

Hello everyone,
I am planning to apply for naturalization soon. I will be thankful if you could tell me whether, you think, I would eligible for naturalization or not.

I became a LPR on 03/25/2007. Since that date, I have had a total of 7 trips outside the US, of which one of them was more than 6 months and less than a year. Below are dates of my trips:

01/17/2011 - 07/06/2011 = 170 days
08/08/2010 - 01/10/2011 = 155 days
07/24/2010 - 08/1/2010 = 8 days
08/22/2009 - 07/08/2010 = 320 days (The longest trip)
06/10/2009 - 06/28/2009 = 18 days
04/28/2009 - 05/14/2009 = 16 days
08/07/2008 - 08/17/2008 = 10 days

I have been a LPR of 5 years, and have been physically living in the US for 38 months. According to the naturalization guide, I can apply before 90 days which is 12/25/2011. My ties to the US are: I have a sister who lives here with her family, I have bank accounts, credit cards and I have paid taxes from 2007-2010. i used to have a job 2007-2009 but then I was laid off because of the economy.

Any ideas or tips would be appreciated and I apologize for the long post.

Thanks in advance.
Latvian

you can apply under 4 yr 1day rule on 08/08/2014 . No 90days advance filing is permitted.

 

[baikal3]

you can apply under 4 yr 1day rule on 08/08/2014

Not necessarily.

The OP had two extended trips
01/17/2011 - 07/06/2011 = 170 days
08/08/2010 - 01/10/2011 = 155 days,
separated by just one week in the U.S.
These two trips, depending on the particulars, may quite well have broken the OP's continuous residency.

 

[Jackolantern]

Not necessarily.

The OP had two extended trips
01/17/2011 - 07/06/2011 = 170 days
08/08/2010 - 01/10/2011 = 155 days,
separated by just one week in the U.S.
These two trips, depending on the particulars, may quite well have broken the OP's continuous residency.

In addition, those two trips were preceded by the 320-day trip (08/22/2009 - 07/08/2010), with just 1 month in the US before leaving on 8/8/2010. So there is a time frame of about 22.5 months from 8/22/2009 to 7/06/2011 during which less than 2 months total were spent inside the US.

I'd say the chances of approval are less than 1% if applying before 8/9/2014 (4 years and 1 day after the 320-day trip). And even then, the chances still aren't very good because of those back-to-back trips of 170 days and 155 days. To have a good chance of approval, apply on or after 7/7/2015.

You can still go ahead and apply at the end of this month and see what happens. If denied, the only harm is wasted time and money, and you're free to apply again after you've waited long enough that those long trips are out of the picture.

 

[Jackolantern]

baikal3:
In what case a trip less than 6 months may disrupt continuous residence?
Thanks

It's very rare for a single isolated trip of under 6 months to break continuous residence. For that to happen, there would have to be other aggravating circumstances such as the individual buying a house and acquiring permanent resident status in the other country.

However, if the long trip of under 6 months is part of a larger pattern of multiple long trips close together, the combination of those trips may be found to break continuous residence even if each individual trip is under 6 months (for example, 5 trips of 4 months each with 1 or 2 weeks in the US between trips).

 

[BigJoe5]

If your wanderlust has subsided and you remain in the U.S. without any further long trips, the earliest possible somewhat reasonable attempt to file for naturalization is after August 8, 2014. Even safer would be to wait until after July 7, 2015. This is applying the 4 yr and 1 day rule found at 8 CFR 316.5(c)(1)(ii). As folks on this forum have made clear to me they don't care about the reasoning behind my answers, so that's all I am going to say.

You will do as you please anyway, it's your money. You could file an N-400 today and when it's denied file an N-336, and when it's denied file a petition in court and when all that is over, you can file a new N-400 because you will have reached the safe dates described above IF you have not gone a broad again.

 

[latvian]

Thank you all for your reply and help..

You meet the physical presence requirement, however, your long trip (320 days) might have reset your continuous residence requirement clock. The continuous residence requirement states that you should not have a single trip lasting more than 180 days within the last 5 years. Did you have a special re-entry permit for that long stay? If not, it will be hard to convince the interviewing officer that this did not violate the continuous residence requirement.

No, I never applied for a re-entry permit as I thought that I never needed one!

You need to provide more information than you have above to get substantive advice.

What exactly were the reasons for the three long trips? (note that a trip below 6 months may still disrupt continuous residency) Did you continue renting/owing housing in the U.S. during those trips?
Did you obtain employment abroad during those trips? What was your source of income during those absences?

Apart from the sister (who is not an immediate family member), did you have any immediate family members stay in the U.S. during those absences?

The reason for the long trips was to be with wife and son. No, I didn't continue to rent nor own a house in the US!
No, I never got an employment there and the source of income was my savings.
My mother is a US citizen but she wasn't in the US during my absences but she is now, could that be an advantage that she is now here in the States?


Now my question is: how much my case and the whole interview process would be changed if I hired an attorney? Would an attorney's representation have any advantage during my interview?

Thanks again to all of you...

 

[Jackolantern]

No, I never applied for a re-entry permit as I thought that I never needed one!

Although you didn't absolutely need it, it would have been a good idea to have one for the 320-day trip, in case anything like an illness or family circumstances caused 320 days to turn into 365 days or longer.

The reason for the long trips was to be with wife and son. No, I didn't continue to rent nor own a house in the US!

Both those facts will count against you. Having your wife and son remain in the US while you were gone, and renting or owning a house/apartment in the US while you were gone, would have helped your case.

I hope you filed I-130 for them long ago, because you'll have to wait for visa bulletin movements to bring them to the US since you're probably not getting citizenship until 3 or 4 years from now.

No, I never got an employment there and the source of income was my savings.

Good.

My mother is a US citizen but she wasn't in the US during my absences but she is now, could that be an advantage that she is now here in the States?

You're a married adult, so where your mother is or was during your trips abroad doesn't matter. However, when she became a US citizen could matter. Did she become a USC before you turned 18?

 

[baikal3]

Thank you all for your reply and help..



No, I never applied for a re-entry permit as I thought that I never needed one!




The reason for the long trips was to be with wife and son. No, I didn't continue to rent nor own a house in the US!
No, I never got an employment there and the source of income was my savings.
My mother is a US citizen but she wasn't in the US during my absences but she is now, could that be an advantage that she is now here in the States?


Now my question is: how much my case and the whole interview process would be changed if I hired an attorney? Would an attorney's representation have any advantage during my interview?

Thanks again to all of you...

In my opinion, you have basically 0% chance of N-400 approval if you file N-400 before July 7, 2015. [After that you can file under the 4 year+1 day rule].
If you file earlier and use a lawyer, the main difference is that you will spend a lot of money but your application will still be denied.
You had extremely weak ties to the U.S. during your three long back-to-back absences: no job or source of income in the U.S., no house/apartment in the U.S., plus your immediate family (wife and son) did not stay in the U.S.


About your mother: when and how did she become a U.S. citizen? What was your age at the time she became a U.S. citizen and where did you live then? As Jackolantern notes, it is possible that you derived U.S. citizenship through her but don't know about it.

 

[raevsky]

However, if you really have a lot of savings and lived on those savings without taking employment, that could be the only advantage over the case mentioned. I have no idea whether that would be enough or not for you to naturalize. There are not a lot of cases like that to make precise opinion.