Living in the USA duration question

[bamaguy_77]

Hello, I have a quick question. My wife has lived in the USA since April 2007, she came on a spouse visa. We got the greencard after a speedy 2 year process in January 2009. *wipes away excess sarcasam*. She visited China for 3 months during 2011 (Mar-May).

 

My question is this, do we count the time she has lived in the USA from the time she entered on the spouse visa towards the 3 year in country residency requirement or do we just count from the date of issue on her greencard (minus time out of country)?

 

Thanks for any reply.

[dnoblett]

Hello, I have a quick question. My wife has lived in the USA since April 2007, she came on a spouse visa. We got the greencard after a speedy 2 year process in January 2009. *wipes away excess sarcasam*. She visited China for 3 months during 2011 (Mar-May).

 

My question is this, do we count the time she has lived in the USA from the time she entered on the spouse visa towards the 3 year in country residency requirement or do we just count from the date of issue on her greencard (minus time out of country)?

 

Thanks for any reply.

Look closely at the green-card, it should indicate date residency status was granted "Resident Since", If was CR-1 or IR-1 spouse visa that date should be the day arrived at the POE.

 

http://www.green-card.com/assets/Images/American-Dream-Blog/_resampled/ResizedImage263164-green-card-lennon.jpg

 

You do not deduct time away from the USA, unless their was a period more than 6 months. It total time away from the USA exceeded 18 or 30 months, or were out of USA for longer than 1 year at one time, then would also not qualify.

 

http://www.uscis.gov.../PDFs/M-480.pdf (Go to the worksheet and work your way through the true/false flow chart to determine if able to naturalize.)

Edited February 1, 2012 by dnoblett (see edit history)

[tsap seui]

John Lennon's green card.....COOL Dan!!!!

 

tsap seui

[dan1984]

Was about to say the same thing....cool!

[bamaguy_77]

Ah thanks, when we interviewed for the greencard back in 2009 the guy told us any time outside the USA counted against time in the country.

 

One more question. On the G-1151 \"Are you eligible to apply for naturalization\" they have two things that are kind of confusing. One says

\"Demonstrate continous permanet residence in the United States for at least 5 years.(In some cases, this may be 3 years if you are married to a U.S. citizen).

 

Below that it then says \"Show that you have been physically present in the United States for 30 months(In Some cases, this may be 18 months if you are married to a U.S. citizen)\"

 

I don\'t understand, it says 3 years continuous residence (which I took to mean 3 years physically present in the country l) and below it it says 18 months physically present in the country. Soooooooo which one is right? Or does that mean she needs to have not left the country in the last 18 months? Sorry if it seems stupid to ask that. I just hate to loose $700 if I file incorrectly.

[dnoblett]

Residency and presence are two different things.

 

Residency does not stop and start anytime you leave and return to the USA, it starts when granted either at entry at POE on an immigrant visa or when adjustment of status is appproved if arrived in the USA on a non immigrant visa like a K-visa. Need to be a resident for 3 or 5 years, you can be out of the country up to 1 year and still be counted as a resident. (A period of time 6 - 12 months will stop the clock, period longer than 12 months will reset the clock)

 

Presence stops and starts when leave and return to the USA. Need to have total presence in the USA more than 18 or 30 months(more than half residency time)

 

My wife took a 2 month trip, and several trips to Canada 2 to 3 days at a time. We counted this for the presence requirement, it added up well below the 18 month rule.

 

We filed the application at less than 5 years no problems, and could have filed it at 90 days prior to 3 years without issue, my wife took an extra year to make the move.

 

Go ahead and file it, you will not have a problem.

Edited February 2, 2012 by dnoblett (see edit history)

[Mick]

Greetings bamaguy and welcome to Candle by the way. Just curious, do you live in Alabama or are you just a fan of the Tide?

 

I ask this cause I wuz born in Alabama and we live now in what I call Tennerbama, as the state line runs right down Main Street of our little hamlet.

[bamaguy_77]

Thanks for explaining that duration / resident thing to me. I was begining to feel \"sofaking wetodded\" if you catch my drift.

 

I live in Alabama. Don\'t really care for sports to much, I tried liking football, baseball,etc. Oddly enough I\'ve seen so many people act like idiots (screaming, crying, throwing stuff, fighting) that I\'ve never gotten an interest in sports. Like this one guy at work that always screams \" WE WON YEAAAAAAA WE WON!!!\". I asked him how many touchdowns or tackles he made on the field that day after I\'d heard that for like 5 hours.

 

He asked what I meant, and I said you kept saying \"WE\", I just wondered what position you played or if maybe you were like the assistant coach or something. I said when I watch StarWars I don\'t scream \"YEAAAA WE JUST BLEW UP THE DEATH STAR!!!\". I didn\'t hear \"WE\" anymore that day lol.

 

I live way down in Evergreen, Alabama, about 75 miles south of Montgomery. A real small town, one grocery store, drug store, and about 20 gas stations because it\'s right on the interstate.

[Mick]

Thanks for explaining that duration / resident thing to me. I was begining to feel \"sofaking wetodded\" if you catch my drift.

 

I live in Alabama. Don\'t really care for sports to much, I tried liking football, baseball,etc. Oddly enough I\'ve seen so many people act like idiots (screaming, crying, throwing stuff, fighting) that I\'ve never gotten an interest in sports. Like this one guy at work that always screams \" WE WON YEAAAAAAA WE WON!!!\". I asked him how many touchdowns or tackles he made on the field that day after I\'d heard that for like 5 hours.

 

He asked what I meant, and I said you kept saying \"WE\", I just wondered what position you played or if maybe you were like the assistant coach or something. I said when I watch StarWars I don\'t scream \"YEAAAA WE JUST BLEW UP THE DEATH STAR!!!\". I didn\'t hear \"WE\" anymore that day lol.

 

I live way down in Evergreen, Alabama, about 75 miles south of Montgomery. A real small town, one grocery store, drug store, and about 20 gas stations because it\'s right on the interstate.

Wow, you do live down south a ways. I think I have been through Evergreen on my way to Mobile. We have several members who trained down at Ft. Rucker, which I guess is a little southeast of where you live. Our former fearless leader Donahso for one and Tsap Seui for another. On another note, seems we had no fall or winter down here this year - went straight from summer to spring. When you have killer tornados in January, it makes ya wonder.