In our Ask Visalaw.com section of the SIB attorney Ari Sauer answers immigration law questions sent in by our readers. If you enjoy reading this section, we encourage you to visit Ari’s blog, The Immigration Answer Man, where he provides more answers to your immigration questions. You can also follow The Immigration Answer Man on Facebook and Twitter.

If you have a question on immigration matters, write Ask-visalaw@visalaw.com. We can't answer every question, but if you ask a short question that can be answered concisely, we'll consider it for publication. Remember, these questions are only intended to provide general information. You should consult with your own attorney before acting on information you see here.   

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This week we received two similar questions that were so similar, we thought I would answer them together.

Question 1: I am a US Permanent Resident and I am considering applying for my citizenship. Years ago, shortly after I received my green card I got a voters registration card through the mail. I thought I received this as a result of becoming a permanent resident and that I was supposed to register to vote, so I did. I later learned that voting is only for citizens. Is this going to cause a problem with my naturalization application?

Question 2: I am 32 years old and I am planning on applying for naturalization. I have been a permanent resident since the age of 22. I never registered with Selective Services because I did not know that I had to. Will this cause a problem with my application for U.S. citizenship?

Answer: In order to be eligible to become a U.S. citizen through naturalization, the permanent resident applicant must show that they are a person of good moral character. One reason why someone would be considered to be lacking good moral character is if they claimed to be a U.S. citizen. Claiming to be a U.S. citizen, whether verbally or in writing, for any reason, can create a bar to becoming a permanent resident. This includes registering to vote and voting.

However, USCIS has discretion to forgive this bar where it is clear that the applicant did not intend to make a claim of U.S. citizenship. A permanent resident who accidently registers to vote should contact the voter’s registration authority and cancel their registration as soon as they learn of their error. When applying for naturalization, they should consult with an experienced immigration law attorney in their area who is familiar with the local USCIS office’s views on such errors. For example, some local offices will forgive registering to vote, but will not forgive the person if they actually voted. Other offices will forgive registering to vote or even voting, but only if the registration or vote was outside the 3 or 5 year period where an applicant is required to show good moral character. If you decide to apply, you will want to include with your application a statement explaining your error.

Another reason for USCIS to find that an applicant is lacking good moral character is if the applicant failed to register with the Selective Services Administration. Male residents and citizens who are between the ages of 18 and 26 must register with Selective Services. However, it is common for permanent residents to be unaware of this requirement. If the permanent resident is between 18 and 26 years old when they learn about the requirement, they should register. If they do not learn about the requirement until after their 26th birthday, they can no longer register. Any time where the permanent resident was between 18 and 26 and they didn’t register cannot be counted toward the required 3 or 5 years of good moral character.

Therefore, if you never registered with Selective Services, then your obligation to register ended on your 26th birthday. You will therefore not have 5 years of good moral character until your 31^st birthday. At that point you can apply for naturalization. It is recommended that you hire an experienced immigration law attorney to put together the application for you, so that this issue can be addressed correctly. With your application you will need to include a statement explaining that you did not know about the requirement to register.

Question: I am a Permanent Resident. I travel a lot outside the U.S. I have been making sure to spend at least half the year in the U.S. Someone told me that there is a way to convert the green card to a visa that will allow me to stay outside the U.S. for a couple years without having to spend half the year in the U.S. Is this true?

Answer: Not exactly. What you heard about is a Reentry Permit. A Reentry Permit is a travel document that allows a Permanent Resident to stay outside the U.S. for more than a year and still allow them to keep their permanent residence.

Generally, trips outside the U.S. that last longer than a year create a presumption that the foreign national has abandoned their permanent residence. The Reentry Permit creates an exception to this rule. However, the foreign national must still maintain their permanent residence in the U.S. so if the foreign national is acting in a way that shows that their permanent residence is outside the U.S., the foreign national can still be found to have abandoned their U.S. Permanent Residence. Also having a Reentry Permit does not maintain a foreign national’s “continuous residence”, one of the requirements for naturalization.