megansh

Hi Everyone,

Looking for some advice on when I should apply for Citizenship - obviously I know I should have applied after 3 years of marriage and I wouldnt be in this predicament, but I didnt and well, thats my own mistake that I'm kicking myself in the buttocks for now.

Facts:

• Married Since September 2008.
• Resident Since March 2009.
• I worked for my husbands small business from 2009 through to mid 2011.
• I worked for a US company in CO from June 2011 through to May 2012.
• Short trips outside of the US since March 2009 - roughly 2 months total - I visited Canada a few times (1 week, and a couple of weekend trips) and 2 trips to Australia - 2 week trip in 2009 and a 5 week over Christmas in 2012.
• Departed the US in June 2012, returned to the US in April 2013 - 9 months 21 days outside of US (I posted in another forum here as I was nervous that I would have issues coming back in to the US after an extended amount of time and was given some excellent advice). I went to visit my parents as they are elderly now and my Dad retired, so I wanted to spend some time with him. Also undertook a contract job whilst I was there (I now know that may/will cause issues now that I'm looking to apply for citizenship, especially if im asked under oath if I worked whilst I was in Australia for this extended amounth of time).
• Currently working for an Australian based company and paid into an Australian bank account.
• I have jointly filed taxes every year, maintained my CO drivers license, bank accounts, social security, health insurance, rental insurance/paid rent etc.

Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Everyone,

Thought I would update this post and let you know the following (thanks again for your help).

I just returned to the US after 9 months and 28 days outside. I came prepared with my Tax filings since I became a PR (2009-present, including the one that I just filed for last year - 2012), rental lease agreement, car insurance, rental insurance, US bank account & Credit Card details, Social Security Card & current Drivers License and current address.

I landed in LAX and the CBP officer only had 4 questions:

1. How was I today? - I said Good.

2. My final destination? (Colorado)- I said it was snowing in Colorado and I should have worn better footware (I was in flip flops) - the CBP officer laughed.

3. If I had returned to Australia (my home country) for vacation? - I said yes.

4. If my surname on my passport was my maiden name - I said yes. I asked if he wanted to see my marriage certificate to verify my married name/greencard and he said no.

He made no mention of the time I had spent out of the US (I was nervous about this) or anything else. He took my fingerprints, photo and I was through in under 10 mins including waiting in line.

I didn't have to show him any of my documentation and I barely said a word, apart from the bolded words above.

Thanks again to everyone for their help - much appreciated

@sweetysheila

I just returned to the US after 9 months and 28 days outside. I came prepared (due to other peoples guidance/suggestions on this forum) with my Tax filings since I became a PR (2009-present, including the one that I just filed for last year - 2012), rental lease agreement, car insurance, rental insurance, US bank account & Credit Card details, Social Security Card & current Drivers License and current address.

I landed in LAX and the CBP officer only had 4 questions:

1. How was I today? - I said Good.

2. My final destination? (Colorado)- I said it was snowing in Colorado and I should have worn better footware (I was in flip flops) - the CBP officer laughed.

3. If I had returned to Australia (my home country) for vacation? - I said yes.

4. If my surname on my passport was my maiden name - I said yes. I asked if he wanted to see my marriage certificate to verify my married name/greencard and he said no.

He made no mention of the time I had spent out of the US (I was nervous about this) or anything else. He took my fingerprints, photo and I was through in under 10 mins including waiting in line.

Hope this helps. Id also be interested to see what the "inspection" is as well that you mentioned.

@sweetysheila

I just returned to the US after 9 months and 28 days outside. I came prepared (due to other peoples guidance/suggestions on this forum) with my Tax filings since I became a PR (2009-present, including the one that I just filed for last year - 2012), rental lease agreement, car insurance, rental insurance, US bank account & Credit Card details, Social Security Card & current Drivers License and current address.

I landed in LAX and the CBP officer only had 4 questions:

1. How was I today? - I said Good.

2. My final destination? (Colorado)- I said it was snowing in Colorado and I should have worn better footware (I was in flip flops) - the CBP officer laughed.

3. If I had returned to Australia (my home country) for vacation? - I said yes.

4. If my surname on my passport was my maiden name - I said yes. I asked if he wanted to see my marriage certificate to verify my married name/greencard and he said no.

He made no mention of the time I had spent out of the US (I was nervous about this) or anything else. He took my fingerprints, photo and I was through in under 10 mins including waiting in line.

Hope this helps. Id also be interested to see what the "inspection" is as well that you mentioned.

@hmh33- Thank you for your reply. I definitely wont be volunteering any information.

@Brother Hesekiel - Thank you for your reply and explaining the 6 month mark clearly for me. I think I have read it so many times, I confused myself and made up my own interpretation!

I have proof (hope I have enough) that I it was my intention to come back to the US / maintain my residency. I have filed taxes for 2012 jointly with my husband, maintained a mailing address (with husband still there), joint bank accounts, car insurance, rental insurance and I'm still on the lease for the apartment (although its only month to month for the past 12 months as we rent from our landlady who lives in the same condo complex and for the first year, we had a year lease). I resigned from my job in the US at the end of May 2012, before coming back to Australia at the end of June 2012. I will seek out employment once I return to the US in a few weeks. Any other suggestions for proof? I was still getting mail to my US address, but think my husband has tossed most of it into the trash (magazine subscriptions and the like).

Thanks again - love this forum, you are all so helpful and thorough with your answers!

Megan (aka, keeping my mouth shut!)

@mandixon - thank you for your information and response. Glad you had an effortless first time and good luck with your citizenship pursuits. I feel I'm going to have some issues as well now

@Brother Hesekiel - thank you for your response as well. Good assumption as you assumed, I did take my "residency" here is aussieland (im an aussie citizen) back for taxation purposes when I took my part time job, but being that our tax period/financial year is from july 1st 2012 - june 30th 2013 - i can still say as we lodge our taxes from 1st July, for taxation purposes, that I was a non-resident during this time and will just be taxed at a much higher percentage (like 39 cents in the dollar). Honestly, i didnt even think about my residency here and the impact it would have on my US residency

I shall not mention that I worked if asked and say that either my parents supported me, and that I have existing money in Australia (which I do) to support myself. Do you know if they would check my status in Australia or would ever check my status? Do they have a system or functionality to do this?

Also, being that I have been out of the country for this period of time + the fact that I worked here in Australia, will make it difficult to obtain citizenship? What are your thoughts on that? Would I have to wait a certain period of times/years until I could apply for it? I see 3 years for being married, and 5 years for other, but those are based on not being out of the country for more than 6 months at a time.

Many thanks in advance.

You will probably be ok as it's your first longer trip abroad and you ahve clear ties to the US- be sure to have those ready in case they ask.

Thank you for your response!!! Just finished taxes for 2012, so will get a copy ready (with prior years) and the other doco's and hopefully I wont have an issue!

Forgot to mention that I have had my PR since March 2009 and havent had other extended trips pitside the US.

Hello All,

I have my Permanent Residency - Green card and am married to a US Citizen.

I had to leave the US at the end of June, 2012 due to illness within the family.

I now wish to return to the US in early April 2013 (next month), and would have been out of the US for just under 10 months.

Note: I did not apply for the waiver at the time of leaving, as I a) didnt have the time as I had to return home quickly b) didnt know about the waiver until I left the US.

I lived at home with my parents whilst I was in my home country, and also took on a part time job in my home country from Nov till present to support myself.

My question is, will I have any issues at immigration in LAX (point of entry) in the US when I return? I have maintained my bank account, filed taxes, kept my mailing address and a valid US drivers license etc. I'm not sure how to present this as evidence?

I have the read the USCIS website, and it says:

"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"

Any help would be appreciated - Thank you in advance.

Hi All,

After nearly 4 years of marriage we have filed for divorce (we have been together for over 10+ years). Currently I hold permanent residency which is set to expire in 2021.

My (current) plan is to go home to Australia for a while and regroup with family/friends. Ideally I'd like to come across to the US in December for a vacation and to look for a job and then move back here within the next 12 months.

My questions are:

Do I have to notify USCIS that I am divorcing? (I read somewhere here that I don't have to, but wanted to double check)

Do I need to submit a change of address to USCIS for my Australia address?

At what point is it considered abandonment of PR?

Social security - do I need to tell them anything?

Also, I don't want to even think about changing my name back to my maiden name as yet - any issues with that?

For filing taxes for this year, we will be doing separate - no issues there

Thanks very much for any comments/responses!

Card received on 04/18..... much better looking photo than the conditional green card, except I have somehow morphed into getting Brooke Shields eyebrows in the 80's.... wow.... I wonder if they took a sharpie to my photo and decided I needed eyebrows!! ha ha ;-)

Good luck to all those still waiting for their approvals, and many thanks to those who managed this thread! Much appreciated.

Thought I would check my status this morning online and low and behold, card production ordered on the 12th April! How exciting! I'll eagerly stalk the mailbox until my card is here!

FYI this is the (bare minimum) evidence I submitted:

Copies of joint tax returns 08-09

Copy of rental leases

Copy of car registration/health insurance

Copy of both our drivers license

2 sworn affidavits from friends attesting to our marriage

Thats about it.... we don't have joint bank accounts and I didn't include photos over the past 2 years since we got married either.

Could you please update my dates? I'll post when I actually receive the card.

Good luck to all :-)

Could you please update my biometrics - date for bio 02/25/2011.... yay!

Hopefully this time round my photo will be alot better than the previous one on my conditional card....

I look like Charlize Theron......................

...................................................

in Monster :-)

Please add me to the Calfornia list:

Sent 01/16/2011

NOA 01/18/2011

Yes, you need to fill out the WHITE I-94 form and as usual the blue customs form. Ask your flight attendant for the WHITE I-94 form.

The immigration officials at your point of entry, will stamp your WHITE I-94 form and attach it to your passport and take your sealed envelope.

When I had my AOS Interview 2 weeks ago, the officer took out my WHITE I-94 form and added it to my STACK of documentation.

So i guess i shud ask them not to wrry abt the dates. So they can tell the immig. tht they did the party on 15 according to their traditional and registered the marriage on 4th . I hope immig will not create a prob for this - or is it?

I had a wedding "ceremony" with my USC, friends and family in late sept and we were married by a friend (in the State of Colorado, you can marry yourselves once you have your marriage license in hand and do not need to be married by a priest/officiant etc). A few days later in early october we went to the court house and were married legally by the magistrate. This is only due to the fact that we wanted to get the magistrate to fill in our marriage license so that we would have no issues with USCIS not knowing about the different state laws for marriage :-))) and with our AOS.

For our AOS, we used the date of when the magistrate married us as this is the date on our marriage license, which you will need to submit for your AOS.

During our AOS interview, I stated that we had a ceremony in sept, but our official wedding date was that in october. Now we have two dates to celebrate ;-)

Hi All,

Just to let you know that I was able to reschedule my flight and got the last seat on the plane to arrive back in the US on the Monday 9th March, so was able to go to my original interview on the 10th March.

Even though I did go and do an infopass session and requested a reschedule of my interview (the officer even wrote down on my original interview letter that I requested a reschedule and stamped it), I never received a reschedule notice.

During my interview, I asked if they had received my reschedule request and the officer said no!!!!! The officer approved my case and I received my welcome to the USA letter on Thursday 12th March. After an hour of waiting in the waiting room, we spent less than 10mins in our actual interview and the only questions that were asked were my date of birth and parents names. I didnt show any evidence other than our lease with both our names on it and our car insurance document (we have been together for 7 years though)

Thankfully all worked out in the end for me being able to change my flight.

I think a lesson learnt to all of the people wishing to reschedule their interview is, dont do it! :-)

Thanks, Megan

Schedule an Info pass appointment to your field office, bring your travel itinerary, AP doc, and appointment letter.

Thanks for the info, I will schedule my Info pass session and will keep fingers crossed.

I am going home for 3 weeks for a friends wedding on the 7th March, so can't really cancel the trip or postpone because I'm one of the bridesmaids.

I'll try the airline again this evening (Qantas) and see if they have any availability.

Do you know how long a infopass session takes for them to schedule?

Thanks again, Megan

Hi All,

Wanted to know if anyone has had any success in rescheduling an AOS interview.

I received a letter yesterday stating that my interview was scheduled for the 10th March at 8:50am at the Denver office. The problem with this is that I will be out of the country until the following day (this was even in my Advanced Parole application that I will be returning on the 11th March!)

In my advanced parole application (which I received a few weeks ago) I specified that I will be in Australia (my homeland) from the 19th Feb until the 11th March..... and they scheduled my interview for the 10th March!!! grrrrrrr!!! I've tried to change my ticket but they dont have any availability for the 8th or 9th March......

What do you think I should do? I've read some horror stories about people being denied because they have missed their original appointment although they have rescheduled.

Any help would be appreciated. Should I try an infopass? Not sure on these either.

Thanks Megan.