I have been a GC Holder since January 2007 and i am thinking applying for naturalization but my concern is that i took 2 trip in July 2007 for 6 months &15 days out of US and came back in January 2008.Also in January 2011 i took a 5months 22 days trip out of US again.
I was just wondering in light of these 2 only trips i took do i qualify for naturalization or not...During my GC process i have been stuck in Name Check , do you think i will have the same delay for my N-400??
Thanks for advance for your help
The answer to your question depends on the additional information which you have not provided.
What exactly was the purpose of each of these trips? Did you retain a U.S. job during those trips? Did you rent/own a house/apartment in the U.S. during these trips? What was your source of income during that time? Did you take on a job abroad then? Did your immediate family members remain in the U.S. during that time? Etc.
A trip over 6 months but less than a year is by law presumed to break continuous residence. But this is only a presumption and it may be overcome, depending on the circumstances, if you can convince the IO that you retained close ties to the U.S. during that trip and that the trip did not in fact break continuous residence.
Note that a trip or a series of trips below 6 months in duration may still break continuous residence under some circumstances. It is a dangerous but popular misconception that as long as the absences are less than 6 months each, they do not break continuous residency.
In reality, the IO looks at the totality of circumstances in each individual case in making the continuous residence determination.
The USCIS Adjudicator's Field Manual is specific on this point:
http://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/AFM/HTML/AFM/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-22380/0-0-0-22483.html#0-0-0-731
"Every applicant has the burden of establishing by the overall context of facts and evidence that he or she has complied with the continuous residence requirement.
However, section 316(b) of the Act specifies two types of absence from the United States that are automatically presumed to break the continuity of residence for purposes of naturalization."
(The two types in question are a trip over six months but less than a year and a trip over one year).
