My mother recieved her green card 5 year ago and ready to submit her Citizenship application. In 2007 her husband passed away in Russia and she flew to Russia to conduct the burial services and to wait for a legal inheritance papers which by Russian Federation Inheritance Law “The certificate for the right of inheritance is usually issued by the notary public after the expiration of six-months.” She came back to US immediately after 6 months. In total she spend 6,5 months in Russia. Does this break a citizenship residency requirement and if yes, what supportive documentation would be helpful? I can send her husband's death certificate..
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Residency requirements for US Citizenship
- Thread starter NadiaF
- Start date
namecheckvictim
Registered Users (C)
No need to send Death Certificate with N-400, she an take it to the interview, stay for over 6 months just one time will be ok, the IO might want to see that she was maintaining her residence in US while she was away, like residential lease, bills, etc for that period.
My mother recieved her green card 5 year ago and ready to submit her Citizenship application. In 2007 her husband passed away in Russia and she flew to Russia to conduct the burial services and to wait for a legal inheritance papers which by Russian Federation Inheritance Law “The certificate for the right of inheritance is usually issued by the notary public after the expiration of six-months.” She came back to US immediately after 6 months. In total she spend 6,5 months in Russia. Does this break a citizenship residency requirement and if yes, what supportive documentation would be helpful? I can send her husband's death certificate..
By law any absence over 6 month and less than a year (during the statutory period before submitting N-400) is presumed to break the continuous residency requirement and may be used as a basis to deny the application. However, the applicant may overcome this presumption by convincing the IO that the absence in question did not break the continuous residence. The burden to do that is on the applicant (in this case your mother), and she should bring to the interview (or submit with the application) whatever supporting documents she can, including the documents related to the inheritance issue. Other things that could help her case are her U.S. apartment/house lease/mortgage statements for the period of the trip to Russia, tax return transcripts for the year in question, utility bills, bank statements, etc, plus any documentation related to her source of income for that period. If she had some immediate family members living in her house/apartment back in the U.S. during that trip, that would be a plus too.