PHYSICAL PRESENCE AND CONTINUOS RESIDENCE

[Mario Leon]

Hi, I've been a Legal Permanent Resident since 1/20/2011 and my job requires a lot of traveling abroad. I did my count, and as today October 8, 2014 I've been in the United States for 1,007 days and out the United States for 351 days, on trips no longer than 16 days each.

As far as I know I already met the 30 months physical presence and maintained my continuos residence status. Is this correct?

Following the 90 day early application I'll be free to apply for citizenship on 10/20/2015, is this correct?

But what I really want to validate is that know, that I think I already met the physical presence requirement, Am I free to travel all I want for the rest of 2014 and 2015 as long as my trips are shorter than 6 months?

Thank you for your help

 

[cafeconleche]

You are on track for a simple naturalisation application, yes. You can apply on 10/20/15, but to be safe, wait a couple of weeks because CIS is not always good at counting, and may reject your application if they THINK it's too early. You can travel as much as you like, but the greater your physical presence, the better. Also, you can travel for less than 6 months at a time, but back-to-back trips of around 6 months could arouse suspicion that you're breaking up very long trips with short trips back to the US.

 

[ripcurl]

You shouldn't have any issues. I had close to 800 days away and IO didn't even ask a single thing. As Cafeconlache mentioned just be safe and apply a bit later than 90 days. However even if you do it shouldn't be an issue. I did it as well.

 

[baikal3]

Hi, I've been a Legal Permanent Resident since 1/20/2011 and my job requires a lot of traveling abroad. I did my count, and as today October 8, 2014 I've been in the United States for 1,007 days and out the United States for 351 days, on trips no longer than 16 days each.

As far as I know I already met the 30 months physical presence and maintained my continuos residence status. Is this correct?

Following the 90 day early application I'll be free to apply for citizenship on 10/20/2015, is this correct?

But what I really want to validate is that know, that I think I already met the physical presence requirement, Am I free to travel all I want for the rest of 2014 and 2015 as long as my trips are shorter than 6 months?

In the answer to the last question: No, not really.

First, the fact that you have satisfied the physical presence requirement as of this moment is completely irrelevant. The physical presence requirement must be satisfied on the day that the USCIS received your N-400 application (and it is not sufficient that the applicant may have satisfied the physical presence requirement at some earlier date) . That is, you have to subtract 5 years from the day that the N-400 application is received by the USCIS, and see whether or not it is true that during that 5-year period you spent more than half of this period in the U.S.

Second, the continuous presence requirement must be satisfied all the way from the date the N-400 application is file to the date of the naturalization oath. Again, it is not at all sufficient that you may have maintained continuous residency up to the present moment.


Also, it is false to assume that if you "travel all you want" in 2014-2015 by just keeping "all trips shorter than 6 months" each, that your continuous residency will not be disrupted. Trips under 6 months, especially if they are long trips separated by short periods of presence in the U.S., may still be judged by the IO adjudicating your N-400 as having disrupted your continuous residency.In cases of doubt the IO will question you about the specific purpose of these trips, what was your source of income during them, whether you took a job/source of income abroad, whether you continued to rent/own and apartment/house in the U.S. during those trips, whether your immediate family members (such as the spouse and children) stayed in the U.S. during those trips, etc.