N-400 - How many total days have you spent outside the United States in the past five years?

[Hawkeye 0]

Hi Folks,

I'm coming up on my three years mark of being a Permanent Resident in the US. I'm about to apply for naturalization on the basis of being married to an american citizen.

There is a question on the form that reads like this:

How many total days have you spent outside the United States in the past five years?

Obviously, I have been 2 years out of the last five outside the US. I was thinking about answering zero and writing on a separate piece of paper something like:

"I answered zero because I'm applying on the basis of being married to a US citizen and I have not been out of the US at all during the last three years."

What do you all think about my idea? Any suggestions?

Apart from that it's all good and normal.

Cheers,

[aimar10 7]

So basically, you got here based on green card, and haven't haven't left ever since you entered the US? If that's the case then what you are going to do is quite plausible.

[Buckyball 22]

Part 1, Question 2 make it clear

Have been a Permanent Resident of the United States for at least 3 years. In addition, you have been married to and living

with the same U.S. citizen spouse for the last 3 years,

and

your spouse has been a U.S. citizen for the last 3 years at the time

Have been a Permanent Resident of the United States for at least 3 years. In addition, you have been married to and living with the same U.S. citizen spouse for the last 3 years, and your spouse has been a U.S. citizen for the last 3 years at the time of filing your Form N-400

You only need to count time outside the US for the last three years. They are aware of that fact. But can't hurt to put a note to your application when sending it.

[NikosF 6]

Yup - sounds quite reasonable.

I also just applied on the basis on marriage to a USC. I've been a permanent resident for 4 years, but only gave days out the country for the past three years. In my case it was around 140 days (but all short trips).

[alix 20]

You need to give them all the time you were away from the country since becoming a LPR or for the past 5 years, which ever is shorter. If you've been a LPR for 4 years, you need to fill it out for the past 4 years. I also applied based on marriage, but had been a LPR for 7 years when I applied and I put all the time away for the past 5 years. They will probably disregard any time before the 3 years but in my opinion it's better to give them what they ask.

[Hawkeye 0]

You need to give them all the time you were away from the country since becoming a LPR or for the past 5 years, which ever is shorter. If you've been a LPR for 4 years, you need to fill it out for the past 4 years. I also applied based on marriage, but had been a LPR for 7 years when I applied and I put all the time away for the past 5 years. They will probably disregard any time before the 3 years but in my opinion it's better to give them what they ask.

Thank you everyone for your help.

alix, forgive me but what does LPR mean?

In my case, I'll have been in the US without leaving at all for 3 years in January. So you are suggesting including the 2 years (about 690 days) in the "how many total days have you spent outside the United States in the past five years" part? I was simply living in my home country of Australia whilst I was working on my green card application, then when I got here I havn't left.

Also, what do you think? I'm about to submit two tax returns with the N400 packet. Should I simply include the first page with names, address etc or the whole tax return?

Thanks so much.

[Hawkeye 0]

So basically, you got here based on green card, and haven't haven't left ever since you entered the US? If that's the case then what you are going to do is quite plausible.

Yes, that's right. I was going to leave that part blank and include a statement on another page saying: I have not left the US at all in the the last three years.

I was going to do that based on the fact that in the N400 instructions it says if you dont know the answer to a question to leave it blank and include an explanation on a separate sheet.

[kcoyclay1 98]

Thank you everyone for your help.

alix, forgive me but what does LPR mean?

In my case, I'll have been in the US without leaving at all for 3 years in January. So you are suggesting including the 2 years (about 690 days) in the "how many total days have you spent outside the United States in the past five years" part? I was simply living in my home country of Australia whilst I was working on my green card application, then when I got here I havn't left.

Also, what do you think? I'm about to submit two tax returns with the N400 packet. Should I simply include the first page with names, address etc or the whole tax return?

Thanks so much.

The question in in relationship to when you got your green-card (GC). You can only respond based on the three years as you were not a GC holder before that. They want to establish your travel pattern since you got your GC.

They need the entire tax return.

Edited November 22, 2014 by kcoyclay1