Evening all,

As mentioned previously I've made a DCF application following circumstances that led to my having to submit an I-407 abandonment. I've provided all of my information from the previous bout of residency, and I'm idly curious whether I'll be allowed to count time spent living in the US under that residency towards the time before I can apply for citizenship upon return given that this app is based on the same relationship.

My assumption is a big fat no - that would make sense, since in effect it's an application from scratch, regardless of the circumstances - but one can but ask.

(Medical fee is 200 quid these days?? That's gone up quick...)

Cheers as usual.

Targaff

How much time did you spend outside the USA so far?

Rene

Hi Rene,

Hard to say exactly, but it's measured in years - we came back to the UK so I could do a postgrad course I'd already been accepted on, and then right as we were looking at coming back my wife became pregnant, so we stayed longer. I believe about 4 years in total? Of that, I had a re-entry permit for all but the first 4 months and the last 11.

Targ

Go to www.uscis.gov and look for the "USCS Guide To Naturalization". In that document, there is a part that talks about time spent outside the USA and how it pertains to resetting the clock towards naturalization. I am thinking even if you could show that you retained your PR status all this time, by now your clock would have reset anyway, so you probably have to start either the 3- or 5-year time period again.

I'm not a lawyer, so this is just my best guess.

Rene

I suspect (as per my original post) that you might be right. I did have a look through the document (M-476), and it does state "3 years as a PR without leaving the US for trips of 6 months or longer", albeit the physical presence requirement is only 18 months. While it doesn't outright address the situation of having renewed your residency in this manner I imagine that'll probably apply given the time periods involved.

My continuous residence was only a year anyhow, I think.

Hi:

If you had done the returning resident thing rather than DCF with an I-407, you would have come to the US with 364 days on the natz clock. You will come in with zero unless you want to try after two years -- it probably won't work and will take over a year to resolve anyways.