Question about days out of country

[shinebright 5]

Hello,

I'm applying for naturalization after being married for 4 years and being a green card holder for 3 years.

I'm a little confused about the process, because I read you're supposed to have a certain amount of time in the US.

During 2016 I did a lot of traveling back and forth to my hometown because my mom had major surgery and health complications.

In total I spent around 70 days out of the country back then (like 4 trips), would that set me back a little over 2 months before my window to apply for N-400?

I hope I'm making myself clear, my post is confusing because I'm confused myself lol sorry.

[nightingalejules 678]

In short, no. You're good to apply 90 days before the 3 year anniversary of your green card.

 

A little longer version:

1. Physical Presence Requirement: You need to have been in the US for at least 18 months (half of the 3 years) in the US to establish residency. You have that (in fact, you have spent 33.5 months of the past 3 years in the US) so you qualify to apply under this requirement. This requirement is not relevant to the "resetting of the clock" that people talk about.
2. Continuous Residency Requirement: You cannot (except in very rare circumstances) have spent more than 1 year outside of the US all at once. You have not, obviously, so you qualify here too. People who have spent over a year (and in some cases, 6 months or more) out of the US all on one trip, even if they spent the whole remainder of the 3 years inside the US, may be considered to have "reset the clock" and they have to wait to apply, but this isn't you, so you're fine.
3. Jurisdictional Requirement: You must have (at the time of your application) lived in your current USCIS jurisdiction for at least 3 months before you can apply. I can't tell from your original post if this applies to you. 

I include the last one because it applied to me. I qualified under both of the first 2 requirements, but we moved from Oregon to Arizona just as I would have qualified to apply. So if we'd still been in Oregon, I could have applied in August, but since we moved to Arizona, I had to wait 3 months after we moved to qualify (so in my case, the earliest I could have applied would have been November - although I waited a few months after that to make sure we could afford the application fees comfortably.)

 

Good luck! If you've lived in your current jurisdiction for at least 3 months, and it's 90 days before your 3 year "Green Card-iversary" you're good to go!

 

[shinebright 5]

Thank you for taking the time to reply! 

Yes, last one also applies to me. I moved to another state, but that was 2 years ago so I'm good 

[nightingalejules 678]

6 hours ago, shinebright said:

Thank you for taking the time to reply! 

Yes, last one also applies to me. I moved to another state, but that was 2 years ago so I'm good 

No problem! Good luck!

[kw1997 1]

I am wondering about the time "spent outside "  in a year rule . Does it mean a calendar year or just the period even if it overlapses two years. Example would be,   Left USA  08/06/2016   Entered USA 01/26/2017 .  Total time out 5 months 02 days. Would all be counted in a year or 4 months in 2016 and rest in 2017. I hope I explained it clearly Thanks 

[Going through 5,671]

10 hours ago, kw1997 said:

I am wondering about the time "spent outside "  in a year rule . Does it mean a calendar year or just the period even if it overlapses two years. Example would be,   Left USA  08/06/2016   Entered USA 01/26/2017 .  Total time out 5 months 02 days. Would all be counted in a year or 4 months in 2016 and rest in 2017. I hope I explained it clearly Thanks 

Not calendar year.  It refers to any 12-month period, so yes it can overlap.