In re Petition for Naturalization of Vafaei-Makhsoos

Vafaei-Makhsoos, an Iranian national who became a lawful permanent resident (LPR) in 1977, left the United States in mid-1979 to attend his mother's funeral in Iran; the hostage crisis and resulting travel ban trapped him there until mid-1981, nearly two years later. Upon return he was initially refused admission as an LPR because his permit had expired, though an immigration judge later found he had not abandoned his LPR status and let him remain. When Vafaei-Makhsoos filed a naturalization petition in 1983, the INS sought to deny it under § 316 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which requires five years of continuous U.S. residence and treats an absence of a year or more as breaking that continuity, subject only to a few narrow statutory exceptions.