wantmygcnow
Volunteer Moderator
This is from my lawyer as I had asked him about this issue. I was planning to do the 5 month out since my wife's h1 is about to expire and her GC is still pending(cuz of the LPR backlog)
For citizenship you have to maintain physical residence - 2.5 years of being physically present in the US. You also have to maintain continuous residence, which in essence means that a single trip outside the US cannot be more than 6 months in duration (although there are exceptions for a trip of 6 months to a year and almost no exceptions for a single trip of greater than a
year). So legally, you could do something like stay outside for 5 months come back for a few weeks and then again leave for 5 months.
Note, that if you do this business of 5 months abroad then coming back, you absolutely need to have a reentry permit. Since otherwise they could stop you at immigration entry and deem that you have abandoned your permanent residence and take away your green card. You need to have a Rentry Permit for that. BUT, THE IMPORTANT POINT IS THAT REENTRY PERMIT IS NOT ENOUGH WHEN YOU APPLY FOR CITIZENSHIP
In practical terms, during the citizenship process they interpret continuous residence as "living" - which means maintaining a house, having utility bills, paying resident state and federal taxes, and "living for majority time in the US - open to immigration officer interpretation.
The only way to circumvent continuous residence issues if you are going to stay most of the time outside is to get your US company to file N-470 (application for preserving residence for naturalization) for you. Note that N-470 has a lot of attached conditions and it is best to find before hand if you are eligible for it or not. Also, note that if you are working for a non US corporation outside US they will almost certainly interpret it as breaking continuous residence.
I had a case where a person maintained residence, utility bills, worked for a US corporation, filed state and federal taxes, had a reentry permit ... but except for N470. During his naturalization interview the 2 year stay outside US with visits every 5 months to the US was a big issue because of non filing of N-470. The IO made a great fuss and finally he adjudicated in his favor because of all the other evidence we presented.
So, in essence don't do this 5 months thing:
- Unless you can file for N-470.
- If you cannot file for N-470 and you really desperately need to go
then come back for 2.5-2 months stay in the US after 3.5-4 months
stay outside. Make sure you do all the stuff that I mention above
reentry permit, maintain house..., working for a US company etc.
Let me know if you have any follow on questions. Say hi to your wife.
For citizenship you have to maintain physical residence - 2.5 years of being physically present in the US. You also have to maintain continuous residence, which in essence means that a single trip outside the US cannot be more than 6 months in duration (although there are exceptions for a trip of 6 months to a year and almost no exceptions for a single trip of greater than a
year). So legally, you could do something like stay outside for 5 months come back for a few weeks and then again leave for 5 months.
Note, that if you do this business of 5 months abroad then coming back, you absolutely need to have a reentry permit. Since otherwise they could stop you at immigration entry and deem that you have abandoned your permanent residence and take away your green card. You need to have a Rentry Permit for that. BUT, THE IMPORTANT POINT IS THAT REENTRY PERMIT IS NOT ENOUGH WHEN YOU APPLY FOR CITIZENSHIP
In practical terms, during the citizenship process they interpret continuous residence as "living" - which means maintaining a house, having utility bills, paying resident state and federal taxes, and "living for majority time in the US - open to immigration officer interpretation.
The only way to circumvent continuous residence issues if you are going to stay most of the time outside is to get your US company to file N-470 (application for preserving residence for naturalization) for you. Note that N-470 has a lot of attached conditions and it is best to find before hand if you are eligible for it or not. Also, note that if you are working for a non US corporation outside US they will almost certainly interpret it as breaking continuous residence.
I had a case where a person maintained residence, utility bills, worked for a US corporation, filed state and federal taxes, had a reentry permit ... but except for N470. During his naturalization interview the 2 year stay outside US with visits every 5 months to the US was a big issue because of non filing of N-470. The IO made a great fuss and finally he adjudicated in his favor because of all the other evidence we presented.
So, in essence don't do this 5 months thing:
- Unless you can file for N-470.
- If you cannot file for N-470 and you really desperately need to go
then come back for 2.5-2 months stay in the US after 3.5-4 months
stay outside. Make sure you do all the stuff that I mention above
reentry permit, maintain house..., working for a US company etc.
Let me know if you have any follow on questions. Say hi to your wife.
