US Citizenship Requirements

[guest46]

In order to apply for US citizenship is there a requirement on the number of days in a Calendar year that a person should be in the US? Do they count the count the 30 months of the 5 years or do they also look at individual years and how many months that you are away from the country.
My father has gone to India and I am trying to decide whether he should return early so that he is not away from the US more than 6 months in the year 2012.
Thanks!

 

[Jackolantern]

The physical presence requirement is a total of 30 months (913 days, to be exact) presence in the US in the past 5 years, without regard for how many days inside/outside the US were in a particular year.

Continuous residence is an additional requirement, with the main condition that you don't spend 6 consecutive months (or more) outside the US. But those 6 months have nothing to do with the calendar year; it is based on the length of the trip.

But the 6 month requirement isn't hard and fast rule like physical presence. They look at the entire pattern of trips and ties to the US, and it is possible to break continuous residence even if each individual trip is under 6 months (for example, 4 trips of 5 months each, with one week in the US in between trips), or found to NOT break continuous residence with a 6+ month trip.