Continuous residence concern

[Proxyon 0]

Guys,

I am still in the early stages of my naturalization process (was fingerprinted that week). Tonight I saw some old postings in this forum by people which application was denied, because of the continuous residence. Whilst I know every case is different and special (most people's applications were denied, because they stayed overseas longer than 6 months or worked in a foreign country) I am still concerned my case might be denied because of that. In my particular case, I have 3 trips to my country (none of them longer of 180 days, but close to it) and they by the way are not even closer one after another (there is at least 6 months stay in the US between the trips). However, I have left my job, which is my biggest concern, they may think I have abandoned my residence. Has somebody else similar situation like mine ? Can they make problem because of this ?

Edited March 12, 2012 by Proxyon

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

Proxyon,

you need to chill. I can absolutely assure you, with 100% certainty, that your worries are totally unfounded. It's a non-issue. You'll be fine.

[warlord 73]

Again, 6 months is meaningless. All that means is the IO has to prove that someone broke continuous residency before 6 months. After that time, the individual would have to prove to the IO they did not break residency. That's all that 6 months things means. You can break residency for being out of the country 2 months or even 1 month depending on the nature. Or you can be out of the country 9 months and be totally fine.

It's all the nature of the visits and trips that is the deciding factor.

In your case being under the 6 months mark, the IO then would have to get evidence of your trips and such to prove that you were in fact breaking residency and or abandoning your GC during your trips. That would be up to the INS though to do all the work and find and hard core evidence of you doing so. Likely they would not bother unless there is any huge red-flags in your interview process...

[warlord 73]

Again, 6 months is meaningless. All that means is the IO has to prove that someone broke continuous residency before 6 months. After that time, the individual would have to prove to the IO they did not break residency. That's all that 6 months things means. You can break residency for being out of the country 2 months or even 1 month depending on the nature. Or you can be out of the country 9 months and be totally fine.

It's all the nature of the visits and trips that is the deciding factor.

In your case being under the 6 months mark, the IO then would have to get evidence of your trips and such to prove that you were in fact breaking residency and or abandoning your GC during your trips. That would be up to the INS though to do all the work and find and hard core evidence of you doing so. Likely they would not bother unless there is any huge red-flags in your interview process...

[Proxyon 0]

And why would the IO want to prove that you have broken your continuous residency ? The more I read about this stuff, the more I persuade myself how subjective the success of the whole naturalization is. It is all about whether or not the IO will like you and will want to make your life hard or

easy.

Again, 6 months is meaningless. All that means is the IO has to prove that someone broke continuous residency before 6 months. After that time, the individual would have to prove to the IO they did not break residency. That's all that 6 months things means. You can break residency for being out of the country 2 months or even 1 month depending on the nature. Or you can be out of the country 9 months and be totally fine.

It's all the nature of the visits and trips that is the deciding factor.

In your case being under the 6 months mark, the IO then would have to get evidence of your trips and such to prove that you were in fact breaking residency and or abandoning your GC during your trips. That would be up to the INS though to do all the work and find and hard core evidence of you doing so. Likely they would not bother unless there is any huge red-flags in your interview process...

[warlord 73]

And why would the IO want to prove that you have broken your continuous residency ? The more I read about this stuff, the more I persuade myself how subjective the success of the whole naturalization is. It is all about whether or not the IO will like you and will want to make your life hard or

easy.

Because to prove that you invalidated your residency status. The Green Card is a privilege, not a right. Anyone found abusing it or not abiding by the laws can have consequences bestowed upon them. One of the big rules is continuous residency for Citizenship. If something looks fishy when someone is out of the country, for instance things don't match up with what they're saying, it seems they're working overseas and actually living there etc. Immigration wants to find out if someone is abusing the GC status. So they go out and try and find out if in fact someone is abusing the GC. People have lost their GC for only being out of the country a few months. Again, it all depends on the nature of the trip. Nowdays so many people are trying to skim the laws of the GC by trying to get the benefits without doing the time so to speak. Immigration is attempting to put a stop to people that are taking advantage of the system and breaking the rules...

[CatherineTheGreat 0]

So what happened with your citizenship application? Can you update us so othe VJ users can learn from your experience? Thanks!