Residency/physical presence question

[cardinal 1]

Hi all,

We are currently waiting for my husband's 10 year GC (filed I751 in March), but I figured we should think ahead to the next step, and I want to make sure that I am understanding the residency requirements correctly.

Husband received his conditional GC 05/2012. He is getting his PhD from the University of Paris (remotely - you don't need to live there to do your PhD there) in a field that requires international travel to a field site. He has maintained a continuous residence in the US since we were married in 2011 - we've maintained a lease/mortgage and paid federal and state taxes filing jointly every year. However, he has travelled a lot for his degree. I think his longest continuous absence was about 5 months. He was out of the US for 5 months in 2012, about 4 months in 2013, and 2.5 months in 2014. He is close to finishing and his travel should be greatly reduced going forward!

If I understand correctly, we can't count the months he was out of the US towards the 30 months of physical presence? Will he need to explain this time out of the US in his application for naturalization? Any other concerns that this may raise re residency?

thanks for any help!

[NancyNguyen 1,657]

He will apply naturalization based on marriage, so he only needs 18 months physical presence and no trip longer than 6 months. He will be fine on N-400 if no trips over 6 month, and total out of time is less than 18 months (approx 530 days)