N400 Early Filing Presence Requirement

[lavendero9 2]

I hope this question finds everyone well. My husband is a naturalized US citizen. My I-751 was just approved with no issues. The original date for my conditional green card is March 31, 2015. However, because of my husband's academic job, we spent a little over 1 year overseas in 2015-16. During this period I made sure to enter the US every 6 months, had a mailing address, and jointly filed taxes. I also continued freelance work for a US-based company remotely. We returned for good on June 1, 2016, and since then I have been on vacation for one month in 2017 and for work for 2.5 months in 2018 (I am an artist and had to do fieldwork, and like earlier, I maintained addresses, freelance work, taxes, bills, etc. in the US). 

 

My impression is that our absence will look unfavorable if we do the 3-year early N400 filing. (I believe in my case I have to wait until the 30-month continuous presence requirement, which will be 10/18) I just wanted to hear the thoughts of people with experience on whether I should wait 5 years from the issuance of my first GC (03/20), or try and file now due to the mitigating circumstance that we decided to spend time abroad for an academic position, and during this time maintained ties with the US. 

 

PS Still working on filling out my timeline, apologies to everyone who cannot see it - yet.