U.S. citizenship application and job abroad

[mlt]

Hello,

My husband and I are planning to apply for U.S. citizenship next month (we meet all requirements). We are originally from France and have been permanent residents for a little over 5 years (through DV lottery). We have one child who was born in the U.S. and has dual citizenship.

I have just been approached by a recruiter for a position based in France. Even if I accept a job offer, I am not considering moving back to France permanently. I have a few questions:

- Can you go through the U.S. citizenship process while living abroad? (even if this means coming back to the U.S. for interviews, etc.)

- If not, how long can you live abroad as a U.S. permanent resident without losing your green card benefits? What steps should be taken in order to preserve those benefits?

- If we are naturalized and have another child while living abrod, is the child a U.S. citizen?

- If we have another child while living abroad as U.S. permanent residents, can the child be a U.S. permanent resident as well?

Thank you!

 

[boatbod]

- Can you go through the U.S. citizenship process while living abroad? (even if this means coming back to the U.S. for interviews, etc.)

Not reliably, especially if you happen to be working abroad. There have been numerous discussions covering this topic, so I'm sure you'll be be able to find some with the "search" tool.

- If not, how long can you live abroad as a U.S. permanent resident without losing your green card benefits? What steps should be taken in order to preserve those benefits?

Up to 2 years, assuming you have a valid reentry permit (I-131). Note however, that preserving one's GC is NOT equivalent to preserving one's ability to meet the naturalization eligibility criteria.

- If we are naturalized and have another child while living abrod, is the child a U.S. citizen?

Maybe, maybe not. The rules are complicated, and you'd be well advised to do some research into various documents published by the State Dept.

- If we have another child while living abroad as U.S. permanent residents, can the child be a U.S. permanent resident as well?

You'd have to petition for I-130 + CP, with the associated not-very-short wait time for the priority date to become current. I'd really advise against something like that... make sure the child is born in the US, or at least one parent (preferably both) is a USC before the birth.

 

[Jackolantern]

- Can you go through the U.S. citizenship process while living abroad? (even if this means coming back to the U.S. for interviews, etc.)

No. The requirement for continuous residence persists through the citizenship application process, and spending the vast majority of the time outside the US after applying for citizenship is practically a guarantee of rejection (unless you have an approved N-470, or the citizenship is approved in a very short time like under 6 months ... which is unrealistic these days).

 

[McMahon]

Bonjour mlt!

I was born and grew up in France and I was naturalized last month.

I have just been approached by a recruiter for a position based in France. Even if I accept a job offer, I am not considering moving back to France permanently. I have a few questions:

- Can you go through the U.S. citizenship process while living abroad? (even if this means coming back to the U.S. for interviews, etc.)

You pretty much need to have your residence in the United States during the whole naturalization process. You still can travel abroad for vacation like many other folks but you cannot move your residence to an address outside the United States during the whole process.

- If we are naturalized and have another child while living abroad, is the child a U.S. citizen?

I am no child immigration specialist however the M-476 - A Guide to Naturalization sheds some light into the issue:

some rights are only for citizens, such as:
• Obtaining citizenship for children born abroad. In most cases, a child born abroad to a U.S. citizen is automatically a U.S. citizen.

The State Department is a little clearer about this:

Birth Abroad to Two U.S. Citizen Parents in Wedlock:
A child born abroad to two U.S. citizen parents acquires U.S. citizenship at birth under section 301(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). One of the parents MUST have resided in the U.S. prior to the child's birth. No specific period of time for such prior residence is required.

As you wrote, you are not considering moving your permanent residence back to France. On the long term, it would make more sense to reside in the United States as naturalized United States citizens.

To achieve this, you can:
- Either wait until your Naturalization process is complete and have temporary jobs in France and return home to the United States when they are completed
- Or have temporary jobs/assignments in France but you would need to maintain residence in the United States, going through the naturalization process once you are back in the United Stated for good. The issue is that even with a simple re-entry permit, an absence of six months or more is presumed to break the residence continuity; an absence of twelve months or more breaks the residence continuity. There are numerous threads dealing with this; to put it shortly, once the residence continuity is broken, you need to reside a number of years (4 years + 1 day) to reestablish the Naturalization cintinuous residence requirement.

In my case, the choice was simple: my wife is from the United States and we know we are living the very vast majority of the time in the United States ( we were only 18 days outside the country in the last 5 years) so it was a no-brainer for me to apply for citizenship.
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Laurent
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Detroit DO - NSC
09/28/98 Entered on K-1 (Fiance) Visa
12/19/98 Married with US Citizen (still happily married 9 years after )
12/24/98 Filed I-485, I-130, I-765 in OKC (NSC)
01/03/99 Moved to Texas (TSC)
05/xx/00 Moved to Eastern PA (VSC)
11/xx/00 Moved to Central NJ (VSC)
03/19/01 LPR
03/xx/03 Received GC dated 03/19/2001
03/20/07 N-400 Priority Date
04/12/07 FP done
09/19/07 Interview passed
10/26/07 Naturalized Citizen