Which spouses of citizens working overseas are eligible to apply for express naturalization?

Nowadays, many Americans have their own businesses overseas, and their spouses often follow them, and the family temporarily settles in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other places. Although the family can enjoy the joy of family reunion, if the spouse has a green card status, a problem arises: he often lives overseas and cannot be naturalized; how can he keep it if he only has a green card? How many times a year do you need to make sure your green card is safe? Will it be confiscated if I run around accidentally? Or should we simply give up our green card, wait until we move back to the United States, and then reapply as a spouse?

In fact, there are some problems with the above methods, but since every family situation is different, we will not analyze them one by one here. USLawChina will mainly explain in this article that if the citizen meets certain conditions, the spouse can directly apply for citizenship without meeting the requirement of "continuous residence for 3 years and actual residence for 1 and a half years", and can have their fingerprints taken and interviewed overseas. The oath is often scheduled on the same day, which is much faster than ordinary naturalization! Once you obtain citizenship, you don’t have to worry about living overseas.

Who can enjoy the benefits of expedited naturalization (Spouses of certain U.S. citizens who are regularly stationed abroad to naturalization)? The two most basic conditions that need to be met are

1) The spouse is a U.S. citizen and works overseas regularly and is employed by: U.S. government agencies; U.S. research institutions; the United States that develops U.S. foreign trade and commerce Companies, sent overseas; public international organizations that the United States has signed a treaty to join, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; or missionaries sent overseas by religious organizations in the United States are generally employed by American companies and sent overseas Work situations are the most common.

2) I have a green card.

If the applicant has just married a U.S. citizen and received a temporary (conditional) green card, can he also apply for express naturalization? In response to this issue, the Immigration Bureau recently issued a special memorandum stating that conditional permanent residents (CPR) can also be naturalized if they meet the conditions for rapid naturalization of "spouse of overseas citizens"; moreover, if they have held a temporary green card for two years If you apply for naturalization within the first 90 days, you do not need to submit an I-751 application to remove conditional status (removal of the conditions). However, this type of application requires a lot of effort to prove the authenticity of the marriage relationship. But in any case, allowing conditional permanent residents to apply for rapid naturalization and eliminating the I-751 application procedures is already a great benefit to foreign spouses who have just married and received green cards, opening up a convenient way for her/their naturalization. Door.

Of course, although the rapid naturalization of spouses of overseas citizens has great benefits, the conditions to be met are naturally relatively complicated. If you think you have the qualifications but are not sure whether you are eligible to apply, it is best to seek help from a professional lawyer or expert.

Hezhong Immigration