Maintaining health insurance while traveling on I-131?

[loesch 3]

My German husband has an unconditional green card. We are traveling to Germany to see his family including his elderly mother. We may be there 1-2 years so we submitted the I-131 for reentry permit. At the same time we submitted the N-400 for naturalization since he's already been living here with me for 4 years (only 3 needed if married to a US citizen). That's estimated to take 21 months to process anyways but 

 

Does anyone know whether it's advisable to maintain his/our US health insurance while we're gone? We could cancel it to save some monthly premiums, but if it'd be helpful to "maintain presence" here then maybe we should just continue with it. We'll still be filing US taxes while we're away, and we own property and have bank accounts & family ties. Because we were already here for 4 years together, he should have enough "continuous presence" for the N-400, we're just confused about what to do here.

 

Thanks for any thoughts!

[HRQX 4,145]

20 minutes ago, loesch said:

That's estimated to take 21 months to process anyways but

Just a reminder that there is a risk of breaking continuous residence even after N-400 is filed: https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-d-chapter-3 "...prior to filing the naturalization application and up to the time of naturalization." A Reentry permit does not necessarily prevent that (i.e. assuming the absence is less than two years, the last 364 days of the time out of the US counts toward the continuous residence requirement).

Edited August 18, 2021 by HRQX

[Boiler 45,525]

There are two very different issues that are not the same.

 

Maintaining permanent residency for LPR purposes.

 

Maintaining permanent residency to naturalise.

[loesch 3]

.

 

Edited August 18, 2021 by loesch
I mixed up the 2 replies!

[loesch 3]

Thank you both! 

 

I will have a closer look at that link soon but from skimming it, it does look very relevant. The 5 years stated there is only 3 for spouses of US citizens and we've done 4 before filing the N-400, but I see both your points, very helpful.

 

That link also mentions Application to Preserve Residence for Naturalization Purposes (Form N-470), but it says that's only for employment purposes. Hmm. I have asked the Q to USCIS so let's see if they'll reply.

Edited August 18, 2021 by loesch