Travelling before applying for Naturalization

[JoRu16 7]

Hello everyone! I'm new here so I don't really know how to ask properly and I really don't know where to start, so..

Okay, I wanted to ask if my husband can travel/take a vacation a month before applying for Naturalization.

First things first, My husband will be eligible to apply on December this year ( 90 days ahead applied) he wanted to come to our home country and visit me, (October perhaps) for a month. but he said that someone had told him that he will disrupt his eligibility if he went out of the country, and then if he did anyway he has to wait 3 months from the time of his arrival in the US because he has to stay in the same state at that time period. ??? I don't get it. I think that person who told him is referring to the time of stay in a state where an individual resides before he/she can apply for Naturalization which is 3 months. SO, he is so concern, because according to him this person knows a lot of 'lawyers' and he doesn't want to jeopardize his eligibility and prolong it because we are also going to apply for spouse visa after he gets his citizenship. I don't know what to tell him because I myself don't know much about it, so here I am asking for some advice.

But I am pretty sure that by December he can definitely apply for Citizenship. Let me provide a bit of his info:

- he became a permanent resident on November 2007

- went back to home country 2009-2010 for 10 months to finish studies (disrupting his continuous residence, there is also some problems here when he came back because according to him his passport didnt get stamped on when he arrived in home country, that is another story)

- came back to the US March of 2010

-traveled to home country November 2011 for 9 days

-ever since then traveled to home country every year for 2 months for christmas and new year (2012, 2013)

Can he really delay his application by mere travelling and just for a month? Does he really need to wait another 3 months once he comes back to US, before applying for naturalization to fulfill the 3months residence?

Thank you so much.

[Dave&Roza 748]

Hello everyone! I'm new here so I don't really know how to ask properly and I really don't know where to start, so..

Okay, I wanted to ask if my husband can travel/take a vacation a month before applying for Naturalization.

First things first, My husband will be eligible to apply on December this year ( 90 days ahead applied) he wanted to come to our home country and visit me, (October perhaps) for a month. but he said that someone had told him that he will disrupt his eligibility if he went out of the country, and then if he did anyway he has to wait 3 months from the time of his arrival in the US because he has to stay in the same state at that time period. ??? I don't get it. I think that person who told him is referring to the time of stay in a state where an individual resides before he/she can apply for Naturalization which is 3 months. SO, he is so concern, because according to him this person knows a lot of 'lawyers' and he doesn't want to jeopardize his eligibility and prolong it because we are also going to apply for spouse visa after he gets his citizenship. I don't know what to tell him because I myself don't know much about it, so here I am asking for some advice.

But I am pretty sure that by December he can definitely apply for Citizenship. Let me provide a bit of his info:

- he became a permanent resident on November 2007

- went back to home country 2009-2010 for 10 months to finish studies (disrupting his continuous residence, there is also some problems here when he came back because according to him his passport didnt get stamped on when he arrived in home country, that is another story)

- came back to the US March of 2010

-traveled to home country November 2011 for 9 days

-ever since then traveled to home country every year for 2 months for christmas and new year (2012, 2013)

Can he really delay his application by mere travelling and just for a month? Does he really need to wait another 3 months once he comes back to US, before applying for naturalization to fulfill the 3months residence?

Thank you so much.

First you must understand the difference between "residency" and "physical presence". Residency means the place you will return to even after a long absence. Think of a college student who still lives at home with her parents, but travels to another state (or country) for the time spent at school. Where is her residency? Certain things must be done in order to change residency. The first is where to you claim your residency to be? The second is documentation. Have you changed any government issued IDs to reflect the new location? So this college student can still be a resident at her parent's home even though she lives or has a physical presence in another state.

As long as your husband is only visiting for a short period of time and he maintains his ties to his current residence, he does not have to worry about that part of the Naturalization requirements. As long as he also meets the physical presence requirements after this trip, he is eligible to file for USC. HIs time in 2009 and 2010 to finish studies may or may not have disrupted his residency depending on how he handled the situation in regards to where he considered himself a resident. It does have implications on his physical presence in the US as he was not present inside the US for 10 months. Typically, if you move to another location that is when you have to wait for the 3 months as you changed your place of residence. Just leaving the US for a trip does not necessarily impact your residence--unless you claim to be a resident of another country, but that opens up a whole other can of worms.

Have him go on his trip and file for USC when he returns.

Good luck,

Dave

P. S. He may be eligible to apply for citizenship now. Have a look at this website and have him look at the time since he returned to the US in 2010 until now and apply the rules listed by the USCIS. If he can claim the period from 2009-2010 was for school and he did everything to maintain his LPR status, he should be eligible in 4 years plus 1 day or March 2014. He does not have to wait 5 years minus 90 days. See page 23 of this document

Edited May 17, 2014 by Dave&Roza

[furiousng 2]

His one month visit will not invalidate his continuous residency and physical presence requirements if he applies as spouse of us citizen. Let him just file when he returns from his visit.

[christeen 966]

The 90 day thing is that he must be a resident (legal address) where he is applying for at lease 90 days prior to filing, to that he must be physically present there for 90 days. His trip to visit will not in any way impact this as his legal residence and address is the same... Example, Prior to naturalization my husband traveled every week out of country... No issues (except he had to keep updating them on the application of his trps outside the USA.

[JoRu16 7]

First you must understand the difference between "residency" and "physical presence". Residency means the place you will return to even after a long absence. Think of a college student who still lives at home with her parents, but travels to another state (or country) for the time spent at school. Where is her residency? Certain things must be done in order to change residency. The first is where to you claim your residency to be? The second is documentation. Have you changed any government issued IDs to reflect the new location? So this college student can still be a resident at her parent's home even though she lives or has a physical presence in another state.

As long as your husband is only visiting for a short period of time and he maintains his ties to his current residence, he does not have to worry about that part of the Naturalization requirements. As long as he also meets the physical presence requirements after this trip, he is eligible to file for USC. HIs time in 2009 and 2010 to finish studies may or may not have disrupted his residency depending on how he handled the situation in regards to where he considered himself a resident. It does have implications on his physical presence in the US as he was not present inside the US for 10 months. Typically, if you move to another location that is when you have to wait for the 3 months as you changed your place of residence. Just leaving the US for a trip does not necessarily impact your residence--unless you claim to be a resident of another country, but that opens up a whole other can of worms.

Have him go on his trip and file for USC when he returns.

Good luck,

Dave

P. S. He may be eligible to apply for citizenship now. Have a look at this website and have him look at the time since he returned to the US in 2010 until now and apply the rules listed by the USCIS. If he can claim the period from 2009-2010 was for school and he did everything to maintain his LPR status, he should be eligible in 4 years plus 1 day or March 2014. He does not have to wait 5 years minus 90 days. See page 23 of this document

He really did spent those 10 months out of the country for school and there won't be a problem attesting that, his relatives stayed in the US while he finishs school, so I guess that could be use for maintaining his LPR status. But he said that his passport didn't get stamped on his entry in our home country, I don't know how could that happen but, that's what he said when we were actually preparing his application last year. I wasn't sure if that will affect his application back then, so we just decided to wait and go for the 5-year road.