Citizenship - Mom

[wajid shafi]

Greetings Everyone,

My Mother has been a Green Card Holder for more than a decade. During this whole time she maintained her immigrant status and would visit me once a year. But she never really accumulated any time for her citizenship(staying away outside US for more than 6 months). i was finally able to convince her to stay longer and apply for citizenship. so since Feb 2020 she has left the country only on (2) Occasions with each stay not exceeding 6months. The sole intent was to accumulate her time which now is close to 23 months. I know per citizenship rules you need to have active immigrant status and total continuous presence of 30 months in United States for the last 5 years. i was doing the citizenship availability check for my mom on the USCIS website and it asks questions that i have listed below in numerical number

1. "Have you left the United States in the past 5 years?" I answered "YES"

2.Have any of your trips outside of the United States been longer than 6 months? I answered "YES"

Then it asked about conditions that may apply in her case and nothing really applies for her. the last question being if she is US nationalist which she isn't. So the online eligibility tool determined that SHE IS NOT ELIGIBLE FOR CITIZENSHIP.

My question is since my mom has been active immigrant green card holder for more than a decade and has been accumulating her time since Feb 2020, why isnt she eligible for Citizenship?
She will be at 30 months accumulation time during the summer of 2023 but i am not really sure why the eligibility tool is only taking trips longer than 6 months into account while not looking at the accumulated time.

Can anyone please respond to my query? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You

[newacct]

There are two separate requirements: continuous residence for the last 5 years, and physical presence for half (2.5 years) out of those 5 years. It seems you know about the physical presence requirement but not about the continuous residence requirement. Usually an absence of 6 months is presumed to interrupt continuous residence (meaning it starts over from scratch), but for an absence of between 6 months and 1 year, it may be possible to overcome the presumption with certain strong evidence. An absence of more than 1 year definitely interrupts continuous residence (except for employees of certain organizations; this is not relevant here).

[wajid shafi]

Newacct:

thanks a lot for your reply. so basically what you are trying to say is that her physical residence is on track but her continuous residence has taken a hit because she didnt maintain that for the last 5 years. Given that the cycle resets itself based on what you are saying, i take it that from Feb 2020 she has maintained her continuous residence and that she will eligible for citizenship in Feb 2025 provided she dosent stay outside the country for more than 6 months. did i say that correct?

[newacct]

Newacct:

thanks a lot for your reply. so basically what you are trying to say is that her physical residence is on track but her continuous residence has taken a hit because she didnt maintain that for the last 5 years. Given that the cycle resets itself based on what you are saying, i take it that from Feb 2020 she has maintained her continuous residence and that she will eligible for citizenship in Feb 2025 provided she dosent stay outside the country for more than 6 months. did i say that correct?

Yes, if her continuous residence is interrupted, it resets. It seems you are saying she had absences of between 6 months and 1 year. An absence of between 6 months and 1 year is presumed to interrupt continuous residence, but it might be overcome with certain strong evidence. Have you determined that she is not able to overcome that presumption, and thus her continuous residence was interrupted (or her absence was more than 1 year, and therefore her continuous residence was definitely interrupted)?

The date when she will be able to apply for naturalization is either 4 years + 1 day after her return, or 4 years + 6 months after her return. It depends on whether she is able to provide strong evidence to overcome the presumption of interrupting continuous residence during the last year of her absence. If she is able to provide such evidence, she can apply 4 years + 1 day after her return; if not, she will have to wait until 4 years + 6 months after her return.

[wajid shafi]

Newacct:

Thanks again for your reply. when you say "but it might be overcome with certain strong evidence", can you please explain a bit more in detail as to what strong evidence you mean? Can you provide an example of strong evidence? She was definitely outside the country for more than 6 months but NOT MORE THAN A YEAR. infact i also renewed her green card few years ago.
can you please explain the last para once more? i didnt get it fully. All i had thought the my mom is having an active green since she got and her 30 months will be complete next year so she would be eligible for citizenship but from you response it dosent seem like that. please respond at your earliest convenience.

Thank You

[newacct]

Read USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 12, Part D, chapter 3, section C-1