Thanks for providing the answers Deepa, my first advise to you is to please use the US Citizenship Forum because not only it is more active than this one, but also you have people who are either going through the Citizenship Process (like me) but also there are several knowledgeable members who are already Citizens and you will get valuable sincere advise from them.
Your answers tell me that did not have any ulterior motive during the Citizenship and of course your documentations will come to your rescue (if needed). If you have the same job descriptions for the employers atleast a year that was on the GC petition, AC21 similarities (even though you are under 6 months) will work in your advantage. Like I had said earlier, USCIS has acted in favor of applicants where a similar job was acquired even less than 6 months. If you have read the successful outcome of reddyrx, then I would also like you to read the outcome of the applicants obongo (who did not use AC21 and changed job before 6 months) and PR2001Cit2007 (who did file for AC21).
You have multiple choices and it depends on your risk taking profile:
(Option A): Most Risky:
Since you had GC for about 7 years, file for the N-400 application listing your Employment for last 5 years. Chances are that the I/O will not even ask you Employment related questions for your GC Petitioner and you would be fine. But if s/he does, this is the line of questioning that they go through (this is taken out of USCIS’s field manual):
- Did you ever work for the petitioner?
- How long did you work for the petitioner?
- In what capacity did you work for the petitioner?
- Why did you leave the position?
- What were you paid?
- Where did you work for the petitioner (location)?
- Where did you go or work after you left your job with the petitioner or instead of working for the petitioner?
- When did you first learn that there would not be a long-term position for you?
If you have all the documentation and feel comfortable to answer the above, you can make your choice. You need to be aware of the fact that if USCIS suspects you of a fraud and move to rescind your GC (which they absolutely can), your husband GC (a derived one) will go through the same process as well.
(Option B): Less RISKY: File N-400 for your husband. Even though he has a derived GC, USCIS will ask him questions mainly related to him. However, they can very well ask him questions about you (less chance) since it is a derived GC.
(Option C) Least RISKY:
Wait for another 5-6 years or beyond before you apply. Since you would have moved 10-11 years from your Employment Related gray area, you have very less chance of being confronted for that issue. But there is still a chance.
And of course, you can always choose to live here as a GC Holder as you are under no-obligation to apply for the US Citizenship. Please continue to monitor immigration forums as you ‘may’ encounter similar cases and even find out about their outcome and decide what is best for you. There were two recent posts where they found out more information and decided to act on it accordingly. In the first case, the applicant decided to withdraw the N-400 application because he had not worked (at all for anyone) one week after receiving the GC. The forum (and the attorneys) advised that there was a high probability for denial (for obvious reasons). While in another case the applicant had changed the job after few months (and even the job field) before completely stopping work after two years of GC Petition. Now this N-400 case will not have a problem in N-400 approval at all. The idea is that even if you apply for the N-400 now (choosing Option A), forum members do help in providing more insight for your individual cases, you can always choose to withdraw it later if you find out more information and decide to go in its favor. So you see you have lots of choices, you can consult several Immigration Attorneys (at least three for sure) and then decide what you want to do.