impact of travel on citizenship

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RM2002

Registered Users (C)
Gurus,
Recently one of my friends told me that if you travel within 1 year of your GC approval, time does not count and you have to wait four years from date on which you return to US. However, if you travel 1 year after approval this rule does not apply. It looks odd to me. Can someone with expertize in this field clarify?
Thanks
rm2002
 
I think the rule says that if you are out for more than a year at any give point in time, then that period does not count towards your 5 years period. Does not matter when.
 
RM2002 said:
Gurus,
Recently one of my friends told me that if you travel within 1 year of your GC approval, time does not count and you have to wait four years from date on which you return to US. However, if you travel 1 year after approval this rule does not apply. It looks odd to me. Can someone with expertize in this field clarify?
Thanks
rm2002
Click to expand...

You friend is incorrect. To be eligible for citizenship, you need 5 years of LPR status and 2.5 years of contineous residency. That's all.
Contineous residency breaks when a person stays more than 6 months abroad. For example, if you don't travel abroad after GC approval for, say, 2 years and then stay 7 months abroad, that means your contineous residency time is reset to zero. In that case, you need to earn 2.5 years contineous residency again to be eligible for citizenship. If you can earn 2.5 years of contineous residency before your 5 years of LPR status, there is no impact on your eligibility of citizenship. However, if you passed 5 years of LPR status but haven't earned 2.5 years of contineous residency (due to repeatative contineous residency resets) you need to wait longer for being eligible for citizenship.
 
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