Supporting proof for breaking Continuous Residence

[eyarlaga]

Background:
I work in the IT sector. My wife is a home-maker. We applied for citizenship and my interview is on 9/25 and her's on 10/10. We have been Permanent Residents since 4/2000.

Last year I took my sabbatical and followed it up with a 3 month temporary assignment from my company at our branch in India. In total I spent little less than 6months (147 days) in India and returned to my job at my primary site in US. Though my wife accompanied me she didn't return with me at the same time. She spent a totoal of 212 days (obviously >6months) since her mom was ill and had to be take care of. We have never had extended trips such as these.

We do not have any medical bills tied to he hospital visits last year. In addition, I am skeptical that the immigration officer even gives any credence to such documents.

We have filed a copy of the last 5yrs of tax returns along with her application. We continue to stay in our house which we bought in 12/01.

My questions:
a) How critical is it that she stayed 32days past the 180 day limit?
b) What can take in addition to the tax documents to demonstrate that this was an exception and we had no intent to abandon residence in US?

Please send any other feedback that will help with her upcoming interview.

Thanks.

 

[boatbod]

You should not have any continuous-residence problems with your application since your trip was under the magic 180 day window. The same may not be true for your wife, and the burden of proof rests with her to demonstrate she did not break continuous residency.

The good news is you can show she had family (you) residing in the US while she was abroad, and also you had a house and thus rental agreement or mortgage statements for supporting docs.

 

[neverthere]

Show that your intention was not to break continous residence rules and back it up with evidence.

A very good description of how the interviewer views "continious residence" can be found in the /Adjudicator's Field Manual found at this site

http://www.uscis.gov/lpbin/lpext.dll/inserts/afm_redacted/afm-95-redacted-494-1/afm-95-redacted-13539/afm-95-redacted-13602/afm-95-redacted-13975?f=templates&fn=document-frame.htm&2.0


In case the link does not work I have copied a section for you below.
(C) Absences of Between Six Months and One Year. Absences from the United States for continuous periods of between six (6) months and one (1) year during the periods for which continuous residence is required under 8 CFR 316.2(a)(3) and (a)(6) shall disrupt the continuity of such residence unless the applicant can establish otherwise to the satisfaction of USCIS. This finding remains valid even if the applicant did not apply for or otherwise request a nonresident classification for tax purposes, did not document an abandonment of lawful permanent resident status, and is still considered a lawful permanent resident under immigration laws.



If the applicant claims that he/she did not disrupt the continuity of residence you must ask additional questions about the absence and the nature of his/her claimed continuous residence in the United States. Some of the things that you should ask for are:



• Evidence that the applicant did not terminate his or her employment in the United States;



• Evidence that the applicant's immediate family remained in the United States;



• Evidence that the applicant retained full access to his or her United States abode; or



• Evidence that the applicant did not obtain employment while abroad. Also, this would normally include evidence of how he/she supported him/herself during the absence.



You should ask for other evidence if the items listed above do not cover the issue fully in a specific case.



If the applicant is unable to establish that he/she did not disrupt residence, he/she will be ineligible for naturalization. The applicant will be eligible to re-apply for naturalization, four years and one day (two years and one day if applying under section 319(a) of the Act) from the most recent date that he/she returned to the United States. See the letter from the Headquarters Office of Naturalization and Special Projects to Messr. Kiblan and Battles dated September 22, 1993, located in Appendix 74-13.