Conditional Permanent Resident Approved for Naturalization under INA §319(b)
April 30th, 2012 by Brian D. Zuccaro
Earlier this month, our client, a conditional lawful permanent resident since January 2011, was approved for naturalization under INA §319(b) and administratively sworn in the same day as her naturalization interview. As background, after our client successfully entered the U.S. with a K-1 fiancé visa and married her I-129F petitioner, our office had prepared her adjustment of status paperwork. Shortly after being approved for conditional lawful permanent resident status, our client learned that her husband’s employer was about to transfer him to China for the next 2-3 years.
After researching the situation and exploring the couple’s options to preserve our client’s lawful permanent resident status, including applying for a re-entry permit, we determined that our client met the qualifications for naturalization under INA §319(b), which waives the continuous residence and physical presence requirements of naturalization for those lawful permanent resident’s who are temporarily residing abroad with their U.S. citizen spouse, who is employed by an American corporation engaged in foreign trade and commerce.
After the couple had left for China, we filed her naturalization application together with evidence of her eligibility under INA §319(b), including evidence of her husband’s temporary employment assignment abroad with an American corporation, and requested that her naturalization interview be scheduled at the USCIS Buffalo office so that we could accompany her to the interview. We were able to accompany the couple to the client’s naturalization interview earlier this month where she successfully passed the naturalization interview and was administratively sworn in. The couple left the U.S. the next day, with our client’s Certificate of Naturalization in hand. Now that our client is a U.S. citizen, she no longer has a need to worry about either obtaining a re-entry permit or needing to remove the conditions on her permanent resident status.
