Physical Presence vs. Continuous Presence

[bulls96 0]

I have been a green card holder since Oct 2001, but was out for more than 6 months within the time period of 2001 and now due to studies (finished med scool in the Philippines)... but have been here in the US continuously since May 2006.

The rest of my family is currently applying for citizenship already...

Looking into my situation, i encounterd these two terms: Physical vs. Continuous Residence. Surely my continuous residence has been disrupted because of my studies... so no question that i have to wait another 4 years at least to be able to apply for USC. That is in terms of Continuous Residence...

But got confused because of the terms under PHYSICAL Residence. because unlike continuous, it states that i have to have Physical Presence of just 30 months in order to apply for USC, which is just 2.5 years.

So now i dont know which "residence term" should apply to me and how long until i can apply for USC already.

hope you can help thanks.

[YuAndDan 153]

If you have a period of time out of the country for more than 6 months you have to wait 5 years from that period before you can file. Exception, marry a US citizen, and the time is reduced to 3 years.

The 30 months applies when a person is in and out of the country, but never out for more than 6 months at a time, again 3 if married to a USC or 5 if not still applys.

Read more here: A Guide to Naturalization

[lucyrich 20]

It's physical presence, not residence.

You may be a resident of the US, but vacationing in Italy for a few weeks. During that time, you're not physically present in the US, but you're maintaining your home in the US.

An occasional vacation doesn't make much difference for naturalization purposes, but consider someone who maintains their residence in Miami and works on a cruise ship, being outside of the US for three weeks every month, and returning to their home in the US for one week per month. That person could be maintaining continuous residence, but they'd only be accumulating physical presence time for the one week per month that they spent at home. After five years on that schedule, they'd have a little over a year of physical presence time, but five years of continuous residence. They'd have to wait until they had accumulated enough physical presence time to meet their naturalization requirement before they'd be eligible to file.

People who spend more than half their time in the US will meet their physical presence requirement before they meet their continuous residence requirement, so continuous residence is the last critical item for most people.