Reschedule naturalization interview due to pregnancy

[Davide66 5]

Hello,

 

I received notification that my naturalization interview had been scheduled for September 17.

However I'm currently abroad and pregnant. Because of some complications, the doctors here recommend that I travel no sooner than April of next year.

Is there any way that I can request USCIS to reschedule my interview for next April?

[milimelo 4,192]

You can try but at that time you’ll be past 6 months out of country and potentially not fulfil residency requirements = naturalisation denial. 

Sounds like you’re newly pregnant- what’s preventing you from flying back to the US? 

[Davide66 5]

39 minutes ago, milimelo said:

You can try but at that time you’ll be past 6 months out of country and potentially not fulfil residency requirements = naturalisation denial. 

Sounds like you’re newly pregnant- what’s preventing you from flying back to the US? 

The pregnancy is affecting me both physically and emotionally. There is no way I can tackle an intercontinental flight in my conditions.

I thought that the residency requirement allowed for a 1 year stay abroad, not 6 months.

[gnakr 43]

18 minutes ago, Davide66 said:

The pregnancy is affecting me both physically and emotionally. There is no way I can tackle an intercontinental flight in my conditions.

I thought that the residency requirement allowed for a 1 year stay abroad, not 6 months.

One year (365 days) is just the maximum allowed time that you can stay abroad and still be able to enter the U.S. with a green card, assuming you don't have a re-entry permit. Green card holders who stay out of the US one year or more can get denied entry, and will have to apply for a special visa (which is at their discretion to grant) to be allowed back into the U.S. Staying out of the US for 6 months can still allow you into the US but will likely be scrutinized by CPB because they may see it as a potential abandonment of your green card. With a pending naturalization, staying out for 1 year may potential disrupt the continuous residency requirements required for naturalization.

 

In all, if you can, it's a much better idea come back and naturalize. After that, you can stay out as long as necessary.

[Davide66 5]

44 minutes ago, gnakr said:

One year (365 days) is just the maximum allowed time that you can stay abroad and still be able to enter the U.S. with a green card, assuming you don't have a re-entry permit. Green card holders who stay out of the US one year or more can get denied entry, and will have to apply for a special visa (which is at their discretion to grant) to be allowed back into the U.S. Staying out of the US for 6 months can still allow you into the US but will likely be scrutinized by CPB because they may see it as a potential abandonment of your green card. With a pending naturalization, staying out for 1 year may potential disrupt the continuous residency requirements required for naturalization.

 

In all, if you can, it's a much better idea come back and naturalize. After that, you can stay out as long as necessary.

If I follow doctors' advice, and come back in April, I would stay out of the US for 9 months. If I explain my circumstances, backed up by medical documentation from local doctors and hospitals, that I'm not able to make it back to the US for September 17, nor for any time before April of next year, I don't understand why USCIS would consider it abandoning my green card.

As I said before, because of how I'm feeling right now, there is no way that I can fly back from overseas before September 17.

[Mollie09 1,543]

1 hour ago, Davide66 said:

If I follow doctors' advice, and come back in April, I would stay out of the US for 9 months. If I explain my circumstances, backed up by medical documentation from local doctors and hospitals, that I'm not able to make it back to the US for September 17, nor for any time before April of next year, I don't understand why USCIS would consider it abandoning my green card.

As I said before, because of how I'm feeling right now, there is no way that I can fly back from overseas before September 17.

Then you probably have to delay your naturalization as you will definitely not meet the continuous residency and likely break the physical presence requirement. You should delay and reapply after you return and meet those criteria.

 

Whether or not that break will be enough to consider your green card abandoned, I'm not sure. Up to USCIS. But you definitely won't qualify for naturalization.

Edited August 17, 2019 by Mollie09

[Davide66 5]

19 minutes ago, Mollie09 said:

Then you probably have to delay your naturalization as you will definitely not meet the continuous residency and likely break the physical presence requirement. You should delay and reapply after you return and meet those criteria.

 

Whether or not that break will be enough to consider your green card abandoned, I'm not sure. Up to USCIS. But you definitely won't qualify for naturalization.

This is what I found in the USCIS website:

 

1. Absence of More than Six Months (but Less than One Year)

An absence of more than six months [more than 181 days but less than one year (less than 365 days)] during the period for which continuous residence is required is presumed to break the continuity of such residence. This includes any absence that takes place prior to filing the naturalization application or between filing and the applicant’s admission to citizenship. ^[11] 

An applicant’s intent is not relevant in determining the location of his or her residence. The period of absence from the United States is the defining factor in determining whether the applicant is presumed to have disrupted his or her residence. 

An applicant may overcome the presumption of loss of his or her continuity of residence by providing evidence to establish that the applicant did not disrupt his or her residence. The evidence may include, but is not limited to, documentation that during the absence: ^[12] 

• The applicant did not terminate his or her employment in the United States or obtain employment while abroad.

• The applicant’s immediate family remained in the United States.

• The applicant retained full access to his or her United States abode.

 

1) I am a student at a US university and I'm not obtaining any employment while overseas

2) My only immediate family in the US is my husband who's currently overseas with me nursing my pregnancy

3) We fully own a condo in the US which I left uninhabited and immediately available to me upon return to the US

 

Is this sufficient to "overcome the presumption of loss of continuity of residence"?

 

 

[Davide66 5]

46 minutes ago, Mollie09 said:

Then you probably have to delay your naturalization as you will definitely not meet the continuous residency and likely break the physical presence requirement. You should delay and reapply after you return and meet those criteria.

 

Whether or not that break will be enough to consider your green card abandoned, I'm not sure. Up to USCIS. But you definitely won't qualify for naturalization.

Also this is what I found regarding the physical presence requirement:

 

Physical Presence

Applicants are required to show that they were:

• Physically present in the U.S. for thirty months within the five year period before applying, or (see legal basis)
• Physically present in the U.S. for eighteen months within the three year period before applying in the case of qualified spouses of U.S. citizens (see legal basis)

In addition, applicants are required to show they have resided for at least three months immediately preceding the filing of Form N-400 in the USCIS district or state where the applicant claims to have residency (See 8 CFR §316.2(a)(5) & §319.1(a)(5)).

 

I am married to a US citizen and I have resided for 33 months in the US prior to filing for naturalization (three-year rule).

I don't see how I'm breaking the physical presence requirement here.

[Mollie09 1,543]

It's not me you have to convince, it's not up to me whether your circumstances are enough, but don't be surprised if you have to start over when you get back.

[Davide66 5]

11 minutes ago, Mollie09 said:

It's not me you have to convince, it's not up to me whether your circumstances are enough, but don't be surprised if you have to start over when you get back.

To be honest I would be very surprised if I have to start everything all over again. After reading the rules, it doesn't seem to me that I'm breaking any of them. Maybe the continuous residency requirement, but I believe that I qualify for the exceptions, as I mentioned above.

It would be very useful if somebody who had a similar experience with an extended stay abroad, whether because of pregnancy or any other reason, while the naturalization application was pending would share his or her experience, whatever the outcome turned out to be, either positive or negative.

[Ready to do it 101]

9 hours ago, Davide66 said:

To be honest I would be very surprised if I have to start everything all over again. After reading the rules, it doesn't seem to me that I'm breaking any of them. Maybe the continuous residency requirement, but I believe that I qualify for the exceptions, as I mentioned above.

It would be very useful if somebody who had a similar experience with an extended stay abroad, whether because of pregnancy or any other reason, while the naturalization application was pending would share his or her experience, whatever the outcome turned out to be, either positive or negative.

Staying outside the US for more than 6 months without a re-entry permit is grounds for them to deny admission.  Will they?  It's probably case by case.  Out of curiousity, why April?  I mean, are you like 8-9 months pregnant?  If so, why April?  On the other hand, if you are stating April because you are like 3-5 months pregnant and you want to have the baby abroad before returning to the US, my hunch is that is probably not going to fly. 

[Davide66 5]

23 minutes ago, Ready to do it said:

Staying outside the US for more than 6 months without a re-entry permit is grounds for them to deny admission.  Will they?  It's probably case by case.  Out of curiousity, why April?  I mean, are you like 8-9 months pregnant?  If so, why April?  On the other hand, if you are stating April because you are like 3-5 months pregnant and you want to have the baby abroad before returning to the US, my hunch is that is probably not going to fly. 

This is what the USCIS website states about stays abroad for less than a year:

 

"Permanent residents are free to travel outside the United States, and temporary or brief travel usually does not affect your permanent resident status. If it is determined, however, that you did not intend to make the United States your permanent home, you will be found to have abandoned your permanent resident status. A general guide used is whether you have been absent from the United States for more than a year. Abandonment may be found to occur in trips of less than a year where it is believed you did not intend to make the United States your permanent residence. While brief trips abroad generally are not problematic, the officer may consider criteria such as whether your intention was to visit abroad only temporarily, whether you maintained U.S. family and community ties, maintained U.S employment, filed U.S. income taxes as a resident, or otherwise established your intention to return to the United States as your permanent home. Other factors that may be considered include whether you maintained a U.S. mailing address, kept U.S. bank accounts and a valid U.S. driver’s license, own property or run a business in the United States, or any other evidence that supports the temporary nature of your absence."

 

I fulfill all the requirements mentioned above (Enrollment at US university, ownership of condo in the US, mailing address in the US, bank accounts in the US, driver's license, filed income taxes as a resident) so I don't see why I should have any problem coming back without a re-entry permit. I read in the USCIS website that re-entry permits are required for people who stay abroad for more than a year, which is not my case.

 

I am 5 months pregnant with the baby due in December. The pregnancy is affecting me physically and emotionally. Doctor's orders are not to fly back until April, when the baby will be old enough to fly safely himself. I can provide USCIS with documents from doctors and hospitals which attests the situation.

 

 

[US-UK 32]

I learn so much on VJ about non-Immigration issues. I had no idea the medical advice is now that infants shouldn’t fly. My 1970s mother had me on a flight from LA to the east coast at 10 days old. 

[Davide66 5]

8 minutes ago, US-UK said:

I learn so much on VJ about non-Immigration issues. I had no idea the medical advice is now that infants shouldn’t fly. My 1970s mother had me on a flight from LA to the east coast at 10 days old. 

Obviously your mother didn't have any complications during pregnancy, didn't have a C-section, and didn't put you on a 22-hours, 3-legs intercontinental flight.

[US-UK 32]

I said nothing negative, so why the attitude? Times have changed, that’s all. I am not a parent so had no idea the current medical landscape was so conservative.

 

But now that you have baited me to be snarky:  my mother was just a high risk and geriatric pregnancy with a C, but only flew a 2 leg trans con, so I guess you win. Congratulations.