Extended absences from USA ahead of filing I751

[F1_to_Green 5]

Happy new year!

My green card 'anniversary' is not until November (2017), but I'm currently abroad doing fieldwork. My wife and I are both PhD students, and both doing our fieldwork research here in Africa. We were here for three months last summer (2016), came back to the US for a couple of weeks, and have been here again since October (2016). We will take a quick trip home to the USA for Easter later in the year, but apart from this we will be here in Africa until mid-November. We'll arrive back in the States a couple of weeks before our deadline to file the i751, so we will be able to take care of that and mail it as soon as we get back. We've been together here the whole time, so I anticipate no problems in that regard. My only concern is that we will have been out of the country for about 17 months out of 24. Should we expect any problems in regards to this? I know we need to show that I intended to make the USA my home - we are still affiliated with our university in the States and are registered with the University on 'study abroad' programs, and we will be returning to our university to write our theses. I can't find any rules anywhere that suggest that we will have any problems, but I wanted to see if there was anyone else out there who has spent significant time abroad before applying to remove conditions.
Many thanks, and I hope 2017 is off to a great start for everyone!

[Hypnos 6,576]

I can certainly envisage it coming up at your interview. 

 

17 months out of 24 is a long time to be outside the US whilst still claiming a green card. 

[Sukie 1,439]

3 hours ago, F1_to_Green said:

Happy new year!

My green card 'anniversary' is not until November (2017), but I'm currently abroad doing fieldwork. My wife and I are both PhD students, and both doing our fieldwork research here in Africa. We were here for three months last summer (2016), came back to the US for a couple of weeks, and have been here again since October (2016). We will take a quick trip home to the USA for Easter later in the year, but apart from this we will be here in Africa until mid-November. We'll arrive back in the States a couple of weeks before our deadline to file the i751, so we will be able to take care of that and mail it as soon as we get back. We've been together here the whole time, so I anticipate no problems in that regard. My only concern is that we will have been out of the country for about 17 months out of 24. Should we expect any problems in regards to this? I know we need to show that I intended to make the USA my home - we are still affiliated with our university in the States and are registered with the University on 'study abroad' programs, and we will be returning to our university to write our theses. I can't find any rules anywhere that suggest that we will have any problems, but I wanted to see if there was anyone else out there who has spent significant time abroad before applying to remove conditions.
Many thanks, and I hope 2017 is off to a great start for everyone!

 

While your time outside the US is certainly not ideal, you are connected to a University in the United States.  I think you will need to explain all of this in a cover letter - point to the time (and study program) to which you are attached, and then show that the program will end on xx/xx/xxxx and you will return to the US on a full-time basis.  The fact that you are with your spouse is a good thing.  Be sure you  send in plenty of evidence of your financial life together.

 

Good luck!

 

Sukie in NY

[F1_to_Green 5]

Apologies for the delay in my response - I've been out of range of internet for quite a while -  but thank you for the responses above! I have tons of evidence, so whilst I'm sure I'll be flagged for an interview, I hopefully won't have any problems other than perhaps having to give some lengthy explanations. Many thanks again for your help and advice!