question for citizenship application ??

R

rsrgc

Registered Users (C)
I have read somewhere that

a) You can apply after 4 years 9 months of getting GC for Citizenship provided you have not been out of the country for a long period.
b) That you are currently above 18 years of age

Am I correct ?

Also since I am residing at San Jose will I be asked the old 100 questions or the new 144 questions ?

Happy New Year !!!!
 
Download the "Guide to Naturalization" from the USCIS web site. Your assumptions are more or less right, but the rules are more explicit (for example, if you are married to a US citizen, it's not a 5 year thing, it's a 3 year thing).

The "not being out of the country" part is actually 2-pronged (continuous residence and physical presence). It's all explained in the guide (including nice charts). If you have questions after reading all that, this is the right place to ask.
 
Flydog,

The Continuous Residence and Physical Presence is kind of vague, at least to me.

From the Naturalization Guide
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is the difference between
“physical presence” and “continuous
residence”? “Physical presence”
involves the total number of days you
were outside the United States on all
of your trips. “Continuous residence”
involves the number of days you were
outside the United States during a
single trip. Even if you never took a
trip that was long enough to disrupt
your “continuous residence,” you may
have taken so many short trips that you
do not meet the “physical presence”
requirement.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now could you please tell if my wife would be eligible or not.
Got GC on 2/20/02.

Trip1: Sept 2003 - Mid Feb 2004 (Approx 165 days)
Trip2: Mid Nov 2004 - Mid Jan 2005(Approx 60 days)

So total days of "Physical Presence" is around 225 days.

I know that she did not break the "Conitinuous Presence" because bot trips
were less than six months(or 183 days).

Am I right?

Thanks
Srinivasa
 
padmanu said:
Flydog,

The Continuous Residence and Physical Presence is kind of vague, at least to me.

From the Naturalization Guide
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is the difference between
“physical presence” and “continuous
residence”? “Physical presence”
involves the total number of days you
were outside the United States on all
of your trips. “Continuous residence”
involves the number of days you were
outside the United States during a
single trip. Even if you never took a
trip that was long enough to disrupt
your “continuous residence,” you may
have taken so many short trips that you
do not meet the “physical presence”
requirement.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now could you please tell if my wife would be eligible or not.
Got GC on 2/20/02.

Trip1: Sept 2003 - Mid Feb 2004 (Approx 165 days)
Trip2: Mid Nov 2004 - Mid Jan 2005(Approx 60 days)

So total days of "Physical Presence" is around 225 days.

I know that she did not break the "Conitinuous Presence" because bot trips
were less than six months(or 183 days).

Am I right?

Thanks
Srinivasa
Click to expand...
The Continuous residence requirement states that in the last 5 years one should not take trips longer than 6 months or longer outside USA. Your wife is fine with the Continuous residence requirement.

Physical presence requirement states that in the last 60 months (5 years) your wife should have been in the USA for 30 months. I believe your wife also meets this requirement.

I believe your wife is fine. However, please read other posts before sending your wife's N-400.
 
The semantic differences between continuous residence and physical presence (as I understand it (and, I am not a lawyer)) are not that complicated -- they measure different aspects of the requirements for naturalization.

One of the requirements is that you are a "permanent resident". The first condition you need to have to meet this requirement is a green card (i.e., that the INS or the USCIS rules that allowed them to grant you "Legal Permanent Resident" status). However, that is not sufficient - you must have been a permanent resident for 5 years and you must continue to be a permanent resident. Permanent residents must stay in the US continuously (within reason) or they abandon their status. If you've never left the country for 6 months or more, then you've probably met the bar. If you've left for 6 months to 1 year, you might be considered to have abandoned your status. If you have left for between 1 and 2 years, then you will likely be considered having abandoned your status. If you left for 2 years, then I believe that the USCIS will consider you no longer a permanent resident.

Another thing that you need to show is that you are attached to the US and committed to being a good citizen. The physical presence rules are one of the measures that they have for judging that commitment. If you are a green card, but you spend more time out of the country than in, then the USCIS will say "you are not attached to the US" and deny your naturalization request.

That's my understanding - for what it is worth.
 
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