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I would always advise you to talk with a lawyer before you take any steps of going outside USA for an extended period of time. It protects your Green Card as much as humanly possible. It gives you one year off from those five years.
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When you come back, you have to establish your US residence for four years and one day instead of five years and apply after you have accumulated physical presence in USA for 2 ½ years. But, if you had filed your I-131, you don’t lose your Green Card, and you also get a respite of one year. You could have even lost your Green Card. If you did, ordinarily, if you had not filed I-131, you would have to start five years all over again, if you have not lost your Green Card. I am just going outside temporarily.” Once you file the I-131, things change for naturalization purposes.ĭid you stay outside USA for one year continuously? I am not abandoning my permanent residence. Basically, the I-131 tells the government, “Look. So you use your 1-131 to apply for a Reentry Permit, which is typically given for two years at one go, and you can get that extended, depending on the circumstances. It’s also the same form used for protecting your Green Card through a process called Reentry Permit. It’s the same form you used for filing for Advanced Parole when you are in need of Advanced Parole during your Adjustment of Status. I also want to make a quick note about I-131 and N-470. Why were you gone that long? So this is for people who have not filed these special forms called I-131 and N-470. So, physical presence of 2 ½ years, no visit outside USA for a year or more, any visit outside USA for six months or more but less than one year, you have to explain. If you are outside USA for one year or more, for naturalization purposes, you have to start your five years all over again, except in the following two circumstances, I-131 and N-470, which are these. I’m not going to go into that in too much detail, but just to give you an idea. Not impossible, but what you will have to do if you end up staying for a year or more outside USA is, you will have to go to the consulate and convince them that you have not abandoned your US permanent residence, your Green Card, and you can do that by a process called SB-1 (Returning Resident Permit). If you go outside USA for a year, your Green Card is gone. You should not have visited outside USA for a year or more. After that, you must have stayed in USA for at least 30 months physically. In case you got your Green Card through marriage, then it is three years, when you are married to a US citizen. You can apply 90 days before your 5th year anniversary of Green Card.
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Actually, it is a little bit more complicated than that. You must have received your Green Card approval five years ago. So, first of all, let’s look at the requirements for somebody to get naturalized in USA. But I want to focus primarily on people who have gotten an employment-based Green Card, because those are the inquires I receive the most and I don’t want to miss anything, because N-470 typically does not apply to people in non-employment situations, except for missionaries. Many of the criteria here are common to people who have obtained their Green Card through any other method such as through marriage or through political asylum. I wanted to talk with you folks about requirements for naturalization for people who get their Green Card based upon employment and then have to stay outside USA for a certain period time.