Definition of "American Firm or Corporation" for Preserving Residence Clarified

On October 20, 2010, the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) issued a precedent that clarifies the meaning of "American Firm or Corporation" in N-470 applications if the corporation in question is a publicly held company.  Under current immigration law, a legal permanent resident (LPR) needs to file N-470 Application Preserve Residence for Naturalization Purpose if the LPR needs to be absent from the United States to work overseas for an employer that is an American firm or corporation. But how do we define "American firm or corporation" when the corporation is a publicly held company and its stocks are sold in the market? The AAO clarifies the law in this new precedent, Matter of Chawathe.  In this decision, the AAO held that if a N-470 applicant can show that his/her employer is incorporated in the United States and its stocks are EXCLUSIVELY traded in the United States, then the N-470 applicant does not need to show that the majority of the corporation's shareholders are U.S. citizens (51% of shares are owned by U.S. citizens).  As a result, many potential naturalization applicants who work for these publicly held and traded companies can have one fewer thing to worry about when they decide to work for their companies overseas.

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在2010年10月20日，負責處理移民局上訴的行政上訴辦事處(AAO) 判下新的案例，闡明在N-470申請中「美國公司」的定義。根據現行法例，永久居民/綠卡持有人如果會因被美國公司雇主派往海外工作而無法滿足在美國連續居住五年的入籍條件，那他們應該到移民局遞交N-470申請表。但是在N-470申請中如果美國公司是一家上市公司，其股份可以在市場公開買賣，那麼申請人應如果證明他的雇主是一家美國公司？行政上訴辦事處(AAO) 在Matter of Chawathe一案中裁定N-470申請人只要能夠證明他們的雇主是一家上市公司，而公司是在美國註冊，及其股份只可以在美國買賣，那就已經可以證明其雇主是一所美國公司。這對很多N-470的申請人真是一項喜訊！

以上資料僅供參考之用，並非法律意見。如有個別問題，請致電本所查詢。