Question for immigration expert, US Citizenship for Canadian?

Question

Hi, I am a green card holder (originally from Canada) and a little confused while filling out the N400 form to apply for my US Citizenship. I began my permanent residency in the US on 02/02/01, so I have resided here almost 6 years. At no point have I taken a single trip outside the US that was more than 6 months (always 5 mos and under), and my total number of days out of the country going back 5 years from today's date is 197. However, the year I obtained permanent residency (01 - which now takes us back beyond the 5 year period) my mother was quite ill in Canada and I spent a total of 250 days out of the country traveling back and forth to take care of her. My residence was in the US for that year, I have a bank account, and I have an official "exit" paper from Canada saying that I no longer reside there. However I am concerned that the total number of days away in 01 might have jeopardized my green card requirements and I may not be eligible for citizenship. Any advice? Thanks

Answer 1

You sound like you could use my club's help for your situation. I am the founder of a Yahoo Club called Canadians living in the US.... These kinds of questions are asked everyday on our forum and you will get the answers you need. In fact, we have an Immigration lawyer who is constantly helping out...he is from Canada, but now lives in Nebraska and specializes in Immigration - both ways. His yahoo user name is dzbrown5502, I'm sure he'll help you out. Good luck!

Answer 2

Easy--contact an immigration lawyer. Immigration matters are extremely complicated, especially when you're going back a number of years and you have special circumstances. Yes, it can be expensive, but if you get it wrong you could be barred from the U.S., barred from citizenship, etc. Don't ask for legal advice on this kind of forum--you're putting your life at risk.

Answer 3

what status did you have before you got your green card...as long as you we not a permanent resident at the time of your departure that was longer than 6 months then you should be alright...once you are a PR and leave then you are in trouble

consult an attorney good luck!

Answer 4

Why don't you just enter the US illegally, join the armed forces and get automatic citizenship? Of course, you will get a wealth of benefits to boot!

Or you could just wait for the US/Canadian Union to kick in and viola! you are a citizen! (slave)

Further Thoughts on US-Canadian Union

Since we've agreed that the US and Canada should merge first, the question then becomes: how do we go about it? The first problem is selling it to the public, but that should be easy - tell the (US) Americans it's a sneaky continuation of Manifest Destiny, and tell Canadians it’s the only way to get Gretzky back. That settled, we need to figure out how to go about it.

Start small. I propose that Canada be incorporated as the 51st state, and, at the same time, the US become the 14th (yes?) province. Each country would have representatives in the others legislature (although the international representation in the House of Representatives/Commons would have to be discounted pretty heavily - maybe 10:1 or more, to avoid radically unbalancing the systems). The Canadian PM and the POTUS would have the same official standing as governors in the other country. Citizens of country B could legally run for any national office in country A, although, let's face it, lots of luck winning.

You can't have people voting to spend other people's money, so there would have to be some reciprocal financial arrangement. I’m not sure quite how this should work. On the one hand, most money a country spends is spent domestically, so the semi-foreign representatives probably wouldn’t bother much about how it’s spent, so maybe there’s no need for any provisions. On the other hand, this fact really opens the door for corruption: if you don’t care how the money is spent, and your constituency doesn’t care, that pretty much puts your vote up for sale, doesn’t it? I suppose this isn’t a different situation than what arises in parliaments everyday, but it seems that the opportunities for abuse – even sabotage - may be worse here. Something to keep an eye on.

A common currency is easy – we both use dollars. I don’t understand economics, but something could probably be rigged up to make Canadian and US American dollars have equal value, and then integrate the national banks so that the money policy is identical. Keep printing both kinds of money, and have them both be legal tender on both sides of the border, although I really, really, really recommend that the Canadians think about taking the Queen’s picture off of everything, or poor Lyndon LaRouche’s head might explode.

I think, at this point, symbolic union would be more trouble than it’s worth. Keep two Olympic teams, two national anthems, two flags, etc. In this respect, I think the way Britain handles things is a good way to go: Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland all get to keep their national identities pretty well separate, although their political independence is pretty minimal. We’re still not proposing anything as grand as Great Britain – just a modest political diffusion, and a common currency, albeit with national distinctions intact. Immigration restrictions would vanish.

The plan is infinitely extensible. Any democratic country could be considered for this kind of partial union, and, while the offer will have to modified somewhat based on the particularities of the system of government, population, economic situation, etc. It can grow vertically as well as horizontally. At some later date, Canada and the US could agree to double their respective share in the other’s government – each country would become two states/provinces, the president/PM would get to vote twice at governor’s conferences, and so on. The logical conclusion of this would be a complete union, with 63 (yes?) province/states and a single government, but there’s no about getting this far, and it may very well be that such a result isn’t desirable, and that some intermediate solution is most efficient. And, of course, any union could be re-negotiated, or even dissolved unilaterally, at any point, and this would be built in to the agreement (although the work involved in undoing the union would prevent this from happening too much.)

Wait until Mexico joins up too:

The Expansionist Party of the United States advocates merger of Mexico into the United States, whereby the 31 states and Federal District of Mexico would become up to 10 states of the Union, the boundaries of which would be decided by Mexicans before petition for statehood, or by Mexicans and Americans in good-faith consultation after such petition.

We believe that such a greater Union would be in the very best interest of all people of good will, but the initiative for such a grand marriage of lands and peoples must come from private persons, because the public leaders of both countries are unlikely to propose such a merger for fear of angering nationalists in Mexico on the one hand or isolationists, racists, and cultural chauvinists in the United States on the other.

Illustrations do not necessarily relate to the text they adjoin, but are intended to help Americans visualize the people, places, and culture of Mexico. If any of the illustrations we have used is copyrighted and the copyright owner objects to its use, we shall remove offending illustrations upon request of the copyright owner. Nowadays it is sometimes impossible to know if something is copyrighted.
The United States is the most populous English-speaking country on Earth; Mexico, the most populous Spanish-speaking country. Both are hugely dynamic and influential cultures, hugely interactive nowadays. Mexican food, once a well-known cuisine only in California, Texas, and other border states, is loved all over the Nation, and taco chips, nachos, guacamole, and salsa are staple foods for superbowl parties and other "All-American" events. Mexican-Spanish words and concepts have entered American English in significant numbers in recent decades, from the names of foods ("burrito", "fajita", in addition to the pervasive "taco" and long-established "tortilla") to concepts like "machismo" and idioms like "whole enchilada". More are on their way, even with the border well in place ostensibly to "protect" our two cultures. But borders don't protect cultures, and cultures don't ossify. They change or vanish. And neither the Spanish-influenced English culture of the United States nor the English-influenced Spanish culture of Mexico is in any danger of disappearing.

Do your own research on this serious subject!

Answer 5

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