Why Do Some People Have to Wait Four Years and a Day to Naturalize?
- One of the requirements to naturalize is maintaining continuous residence.
- CR involves keeping a permanent dwelling in the U.S. over a minimum period of time required by statute.
- It’s the same legal concept as “domicile”
- Intent to stay in U.S. doesn’t matter
- Actual physical location of green card holder and tie and connections to the US is what matters.
- How is Continuous Residence Broken?
- Claim non-resident alien status on tax return or fail to file a federal or state tax return because views self as not a resident of the U.S.
- Can’t have it both ways! (Can’t keep LPR status and avoid paying taxes as a resident).
- Absent from U.S. more than 6 months but less than a year
- Overcome presumption with evidence of ties and connections
- If you can't overcome the presumption, then the statutory period re-starts, based upon your last entry to the U.S.
- Earliest can apply is at least 6 months from the 5 year anniversary of the new statutory period.
- Absent from the U.S. one year or more.
- Automatically breaks continuous residence
- Reentry permits don’t help with CR
- Need to bring absence during statutory period under 1 year. So if you have a 5 year statutory period of CR to natz, then you need to wait 4 years and a day from your long absence from the U.S.
- But to avoid having to overcome the presumption of a break in residence, it’s best to wait for 4 years and 6 months to file (so then there’s no presumption of break in CR since outside U.S. less than 6 months during statutory period).
