Living in marital union - does the time living together after marriage but before arriving in the U.S. as LPR count?

[caustaxguy 2]

By the time I apply for the N400, I would have spend ~120 days outside the U.S. without my USC spouse while visting my relatives abroad. Once eligible, I would like to apply under the 3 year rule. Before my arrival in the U.S. as LPR, we cohabitated for 6+ years abroad (joint lease, joint bank accounts, co-mingled finances, etc.- the evidence for which was shared during the I-130 application). We have maintained cohabitation, joint finances, joint lease, etc. while living in the U.S. and have a U.S. born USC child together as well. My question is that since I will have ~120 days apart, am I still good for the 3 year "living in marital union" condition given cohabitation after marriage but prior to arrival in the U.S. as LPR or do I have to make sure I wait additional ~120 days in the U.S. before applying to offset those days I spent outside the U.S. before I apply? Thanks!

Edited September 17 by caustaxguy

[OldUser 6,607]

A strict IO may deny you on this basis. I'd wait extra 120 days.

Edited September 17 by OldUser

[Dashinka 24,480]

Personally, I would not worry about it as by the time you apply you will have been married 9-10 years, so you will have plenty of marital evidence.  Back when my wife applied, she had taken multiple trips outside of the US alone to visit our family there which was more than 120 days in total over three years (I joined her on a couple of those trips), and we had no issues.  Also, back then, my wife filed by paper, and the marital evidence was only required at the interview, so we did not include any of that evidence of our marriage with the filing, but we did bring it to the interview, with the online filing, most people upload all that information up front which is fine.  Now to be absolutely safe, you might want to wait 120 days, but IMO that is not necessary in your case unless the 120 days was spent all at one time.

 

Good Luck!

[caustaxguy 2]

7 hours ago, Dashinka said:

Personally, I would not worry about it as by the time you apply you will have been married 9-10 years, so you will have plenty of marital evidence.  Back when my wife applied, she had taken multiple trips outside of the US alone to visit our family there which was more than 120 days in total over three years (I joined her on a couple of those trips), and we had no issues.  Also, back then, my wife filed by paper, and the marital evidence was only required at the interview, so we did not include any of that evidence of our marriage with the filing, but we did bring it to the interview, with the online filing, most people upload all that information up front which is fine.  Now to be absolutely safe, you might want to wait 120 days, but IMO that is not necessary in your case unless the 120 days was spent all at one time.

 

Good Luck!

Thank you. To answer your question, 120 days were more like - 40, 50, 10, 10, 10 over separate visits although all of them were by LPR (USC spouse did not accompany).

[Dashinka 24,480]

23 minutes ago, caustaxguy said:

Thank you. To answer your question, 120 days were more like - 40, 50, 10, 10, 10 over separate visits although all of them were by LPR (USC spouse did not accompany).

A lot like my wife, and we were only married 3 yrs when she naturalized.  You should be fine, the N400 only requires you to be living in marital union, trips abroad alone to visit family do not break that.

 

Good Luck!