ALLAN WERNICK: Why travel abroad won’t affect right to become U.S. citizen

Q. I will soon be applying to become a U.S. Citizen. If I travel to my country for a week, will that impact my right to naturalize? I have been a permanent resident for eight years and I meet all the requirements to naturalize. Since getting my green card I have been abroad for about 100 days.

Jose Barrantes, Raleigh, N.C.

A. Your travel abroad will not affect your right to become a U.S. citizen. I often get questions about the impact of travel abroad on naturalization. Here is an overview of the rules.

To naturalize, a permanent resident must have lived in the United States continuously for at least five years. It’s just three years for those who qualify under the special rules for the spouse of a U.S. citizen. “Continuous residence” means that the United States was your home, and you were never abroad for a continuous year or more.

Trips abroad of six months or less are almost never a problem. For trips abroad of more than six months, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services can ask the reason why you were abroad so long. Time abroad of one year or longer usually breaks the required period of continuous residence. Certainly, one trip of five days won’t be a problem.

Also, to naturalize you must have been physically present in the United States for half of the five or three years of required permanent residence. You still meet the physical presence requirement since one hundred days abroad is far less than the time you are allowed to be abroad.

Q. I found someone’s green card at my job, and the owner has not come back to claim it. What should I do with it? It is valid until 2031. I want to make sure someone else doesn’t use it.

Margaret Casey, Brooklyn

A. Thanks for writing. It is great that you are concerned about the card’s owner. Your best option is to send the card to your local USCIS office. In New York City, the address is USCIS, 26 Federal Plaza, 10278. Readers in other cities can find the address of their local USCIS offices by using the search feature at the bottom of this page: uscis.gov/about-us/find-a-uscis-office/field-offices.

Allan Wernick is an attorney and Senior Legal Adviser to City University of New York’s Citizenship Now! project. Email questions and comments @allanwernick.com. Follow him on Twitter @awernick