Seeking advice on eligibility for naturalization under the 4-year-1-day rule.

[hipo_bil]

Background:

Obtained Green Card in 2015 while studying abroad.
Traveled back and forth, maintaining GC through reentry permits and stays under 6 months when necessary.
Have documented reasons for two instances (green rows below) of stays slightly under 6 months.
Always filed income taxes except for 2019 - was broke.

These are my dates. Calculations might be off a day or 2.



Question(s):
- Considering the 5-year continuous residence requirement, am I eligible to file for naturalization under the 4-year-1-day rule due to my absence abroad?
- While I'm aware a Verification of Non-filing Letter from the IRS only confirms the absence of a filed return, I'm considering obtaining one for 2019 as a precautionary measure. Is this advisable?

I've come across suggestions from experts advising to wait until 4 years and 6 months before filing, and I'm personally inclined towards this approach. Thinking of filing in Late Mar/Early April 2024

While there's no immediate rush, I'm willing to risk the application fee and getting this out the way ASAP if I stand the slightest chance.

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to you responses!!

I've searched the internet for similar experiences, but information seems to be rightfully scarce. If I go this route, I'll update my case here. Hopefully it'll be beneficial to the community.

[newacct]

4 years and 1 day is if you are able to overcome the presumption of interrupting continuous residence during the last year of your absence. If you are unable to overcome the presumption, you have to wait 4 years and 6 months. See the example in USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 12, Part D, Chapter 3, section C-2.

It's also possible that some of your stays in the US were so short that they might join the absences on either side into one longer absence that is longer than 6 months.

[hipo_bil]

It's also possible that some of your stays in the US were so short that they might join the absences on either side into one longer absence that is longer than 6 months.

Thanks for your response newacct
Please can you elaborate on this point? Gone through this and didn't see something like that in it. This is my first time seeing it and I was assuming I didn't nreak continuous residence considering none of the trips were more that 6 months. Is it something common or based on the IO that handles your case?
Thanks for your time.

[okccanary]

I think he is referencing C here

https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-d-chapter-3#:~:text=An%20applicant%20for%20naturalization%20under,to%2 0the%20time%20of%20naturalization

"An officer may also review whether an applicant with multiple absences of less than 6 months each will be able to satisfy the continuous residence requirement. In some of these cases, an applicant may not be able to establish that his or her principal actual dwelling place is in the United States or establish residence within the United States for the statutorily required period of time.^[10]"

An officer might make the argument due to the multiple absences between the sept 2019 to dec 2020 you broke the continuous requirement. If i was being a dick I could make the argument that it was more like you were holidaying in the US rather than living and being based in the USA during that period. If i am reading it correctly you only spent 12 days, 8 days and then 21 days in the US during that time frame. People go to the US on holiday for longer periods therefore were you really based in the US during this time? Or were you only coming back so you didnt have a more than 6 month period out? Add that to the fact you had two re-entry requirements directly before it seems like your life was very much outside the US from 2015-2020. From 2021 onwards its very clear your life is based in the US.

This might be a non issue and the officer doesn't bring it up. You might get an officer who does and therefore you will need to make sure you have evidence proving that you didn't in fact break the continuous residence requirement.

[hipo_bil]

Thank you, okccanary, for your response.

I did review reference C, and it's quite puzzling.... It seems like one of those rules that an officer might implement depending on their mood that day, haha.

You raised some great scenarios. When my second re-entry permit expired, I was close to graduating. To avoid breaking the 180-day rule, I made frequent trips back and forth instead of applying for another permit. Looking back, it might have been better to apply for the one-year reentry permit and still make the trips back and forth, but oh well.

to address some of your comments/questions:

An officer might make the argument due to the multiple absences between the sept 2019 to dec 2020 you broke the continuous requirement

• While I understand that concern, I have documentation from my university and department proving my studies/fulfilling graduation requirements at the time necessitated those absences. Additionally, I maintained a valid US ID, driver's license, and bank account (albeit with minimal transactions due to being a student). Although I didn't have any utility bills in my name, I stayed at the same address with my brother. Oh, also, my studies were not in my home country, if that could count for something.
• Please, is there any other additional doc you can think I can prepare that might help this case? Thanks

were you only coming back so you didnt have a more than 6 month period out?

• Yes, I aimed to avoid exceeding the 6-month stay outside the US without a re-entry permit, fearing potential trouble upon re-entry.

This might be a non issue and the officer doesn't bring it up.

• Praying for a lenient officer!

okccanary, So, at this point, I'm guessing it's more of a game of chance. That is, I apply under the 4-year-1-day rule and pray the IO doesn't consider those multiple 2019-2020 trips as one. If that's the case, I'll continue gathering potential evidences and take the chance in April when it will be more than 4.5 years since I got back in 2019.

I appreciate your time.

[okccanary]

Just want to state i am not a lawyer and everything I say is just my personal opinion!!

Awesome that sounds like a valid reason to me why you would be outside the US!! If you were staying in your home country and living with family there then I would have been worried but if this was a requirement by the University then that sounds valid to me why you were outside the US!!

Yeah, this is one of the most frustrating things about this experience is it truly is down to what Officer you get and how they feel on that particular day!! I always like to plan for worse case scenario so I would prep and get as much evidence to prove you didn't break it so you have it at hand if needed. Its great that you already have evidence from the University showing you needed to be outside the US. So make sure you have as much of that as possible. For other evidence I am not totally sure what would be needed but the fact that you still had immediate family in the US would help show that your life was still in the US. So something showing that?. So maybe an affidavit by them saying you were living with them and was planning to go back living with them after the study abroad. Were you married/dating anyone who lived in the US during this period??? If so in my mind showing correspondence with them would also show that your life was still very much in the US. Any old mail being sent to you in the US during that period although I'm guessing that is very unlikely now. Not sure if you signed up to the USPS Informed delivery service but I used their daily emails showing my address as evidence. So if you have, could you find any of their emails from this period. Hope this helps. But, I am not a pro in this area and not sure what truly is needed so take all my suggestions with a grain of salt!

Personally if it was me and time really is not an issue then I would wait for the 4 years and 6 months for hopefully a less stressful experience! Wishing you all the best!!