Duration of Stay and absence before Citizenship Application

T

tmh203

New Member
I have a question about citizenship rule regarding the duration of stay and absence. Here is the situation.

A friend of mine came to US with his family after obtaining family class green card from abroad in February 2011. He will be staying in the US till January 2014 (35 months). He will then leave for 1 year with permission. After that he will come back and continue to stay up to Feb 2016.

Q. Will he be able to apply for the US citizenship after 5 years of his arrival with green card, i.e., February 2016? OR Will this one year break reset his clock and he will have to start over again?
 
He will be eligible to apply 4 years + 1 day after he returns in Jan 2015. His 1 year absence will reset his clock.
 
nkm-oct23 said:
He will be eligible to apply 4 years + 1 day after he returns in Jan 2015. His 1 year absence will reset his clock.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response. If he returns to US before 1 year, will the time spent before he left be counted? In other words, what is the maximum length of absent that will not reset the clock?

Thanks again.
 
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