N400 Denial because of only 2 months

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nsg1000

Registered Users (C)
I am married to a US born citizen, and have a permanent resident car since june 24, 2004. I had to remain out of the country to finish my dental school, however i returned every 6 months, and then returned in feb 2006 to live permanently (with only 2 months out of the country since).

I filed the N-400 in June. I had my interview at the end of August, and then received a denial letter. I had only been in the country for 16 months out of the last 36 months. They said that I had to have 18 months to become eligible. However since it is September, I have already met the 18 month requirement. It seems kind of strange that at the time of my interview i had met the requirements, however they still denied me.

What are my options now? Should I appeal this decision ($600) or reapply for citizenship ($600)? Should I schedule an infopass to see what they tell me?
 
Tough to say. I'd say reapply. It would seem to me that an appeal would be a waste of time. An Infopass doesn't take that much effort, but I kind of doubt you'll get something out of it. Sorry for not being upbeat about your situation. My take on this is that all those continuous residence/physical residence have to be met at time of application and throughout the application period.

My 2 cents.
 
You should meet the physical presence eligibility by the time of the N-400 application filing.

I would reapply for citizenship and not waste my time.
 
Neither option sounds particularly worthwhile at the moment. Most likely you will be denied again because you didn't meet the continuous residence criteria. Fundamentally, you lived abroad from June 2004 through Feb 2006 (20 months) irrespective of how many short return visits you made to circumvent the "6 month" rule.

The only positive thing in all of this, is that you were at least an overseas student. Sometimes USCIS looks upon students more favorably, especially if they can demonstrate strong ties (e.g. family) who remain behind in the US while they were overseas.
 
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