Hi,

I got my first coditional green card 3/15/2005, I renewed it in 2007 and no I have one till 3/15/2017. Mu husband is american so from what I know it takes 3 years from the first green card. March 15 2008 it will be 3 years. December 2007 we went for christmas to Canada for a week. My questions are?

Do I need to wait till March 15 2008 to apply for citizenchip or I can do it now ( February 2008)?


My visit to Canada is it going to be a problem some how? Was I suppost to let immigrations know that I am going to be out of the country?

Thank you

Assuming you've been married to and living with your US Citizen husband for a full three years, and assuming he's been a citizen the entire time, you can probably apply now. You can apply 90 days before meeting the three year "continuous residence" requirement, if you meet all the other requirements at the time of filing. See the M-476 for details, especially the box at the bottom of page 22.

A week long trip outside the country will not present a problem. You do need to report it in the space on the N-400 where it asks about trips you've taken outside the US, but that's all. It doesn't disqualify you from naturalization; you didn't have to report it earlier, you won't get in trouble about it.

Again, you can see the M-476 for details. Long trips out of the US could have caused a problem with the continuous residence requirements, or a whole lot of short trips put together could have caused a problem with the physical presence requirement, but a single week long vacation isn't an issue at all.

If you take any other trips outside the US between now and the time you actually get citizenship, be sure and keep a record of the dates, so you can tell them about the trips at your naturalization interview. Again, short vacations won't cause a problem.

Thank you very much

It was so helpfull

Ok I have a question again if you could help me understand it please. I read M-476 and it helped me a lot but I am not sure about one thing and it`s even difficult yo explain.

In my case again I need 3 years to apply for citizenship since I am marrried to american citizen. I came in US March 2005, I got my first green card 3/15/2005 , I got later the 10 year one, so I should be ready to apply 30 days before 3/15/2008. OK, but what confused me is that they still ask for 30 months physical presence, well in this case I have 30months so I should be OK. What do you think?

Thank you

If married to and living with a US Citizen spouse for three years, the continuous residence requirement is 3 years, and the physical presence requirement is only 18 months (see the table in the M-476, page 19, second line). But you have enough time to meet both an 18 month and a 30 month requirement, so you have no problem either way. You easily pass this test.

But there's another issue. Have you been living with your US Citizen spouse for a full three years? I ask because you say you came to the US in March 2005, which is just a bit less than three years ago. Were the two of you living together abroad? If you only started living together when you came to the US in March 2005, then I believe you must wait until you have a full three years living together to file for citizenship. Carefully read the box at the bottom of page 22 of the M-476, especially the sentence where it says you must "have been married to and living with your U.S. citizen spouse for 3 years before you may file your application."

If you've been living together for more than three years, then you're OK on this point.

Okay! what if i just become a new resident and i been here with my spouse 3 years ! still i can apply for my C.S ?? and we been marrried more than 4 years ! why i am asking this, because USCIS messed up with us so much, they hold my I-130 to approve it more than 3 years! and each time we go to ask about it, they say nothing happend! till we Decided to send the I-485. and we explained to them that our I-130 was on hold for no reason, so in our I-485 interview. we were told that "We Are Sorry" ur I-130 was in the warehouse all this long by mistake !!!!!!!!!!!!! i cont believe itttttttttttttt

so in this case should to apply for my S.C now ! or wait ! or hire Attorney!!!!

Thanks alot.

You don't say how long you've held your green card. It sounds like you'll be ready to file 90 days before the three year anniversary of gaining LPR status (Green Card).

To gain citizenship, you've got to meet ALL of the requirements listed in the M-476 for your circumstances, and a primary one is the "continuous residence" requirement, that specifies an amount of time you must have been a resident. The clock starts ticking on that requirement on the day you get your LPR status (green card).

If they were late granting you LPR status, even if it's because of their stupid incompetent mistake, it doesn't matter. You still start counting your LPR status on the day you actually gain it, not the day you would have gained it if they'd been doing their job well. You've still got to wait until you've actually held LPR status for the required time before you can file for citizenship. That's the way Congress wrote the laws.

Thank you.