N-400 (Naturalization) Eligibility Question

[tchauhan]

Hello All,

Hope all is well.

 

I have questions about my eligibility for US citizenship. Need your guidance/comments on if I am eligible for it???

Landing details:

·         Immigrated (landed) to the USA based on family category (F3) the first time date: 29^th Nov 2010

 

Details of dates I was OUTSIDE of the USA since I immigrated:

·         29-Mar-11 till 29-Feb-12 (337 days)  

·         18-Jun-12 till 8-Apr-14 (659 days. applied and got approved for TRAVEL DOCUMENT i-131)

·         29-Nov-14 till 22-Apr-15 (144 days)

·         20-Aug-15 till 4-Feb-16 (168 days)

·         30-Sep-16 till 8-Feb-18 (496 days. Applied and got approved for TRAVEL DOCUMENT i-131)

·         17-Jan-19 till 9-Feb-19 (26 days)

·         12-Sept-19 till 14-Oct-19 (32 days)

 

Total # of days OUTSIDE of USA since I immigrated = 1862 days (61.21 months)

Total # of days OUTSIDE of USA since past 5 years (since Jan 1st 2016) = 589 days (19.31 months)

 

Presently, I am in USA and intend to stay and have no vacations/work outside of USA planned.

 

Questions:

·         Please help me understand and guide me if I am eligible for USA citizenship?

·         Am I eligible to apply for Naturalization form N-400?

·         If I am not eligible, when will I be eligible to apply (assuming I stay in USA continuously and do not leave out of country for more than a month)?

 

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

[newacct]

The main issue is the continuous residence requirement. Although an absence of between 6 months and 1 year creates a presumption of interruption of continuous residence that can be overcome with strong evidence of ties, an absence of more than 1 year definitely interrupts continuous residence that cannot be overcome. (There is a narrow exception for people working abroad for the US government or US research organization, who can file N-470 to preserve continuous residence during an absence of more than 1 year. I will assume that that does not apply for your case.)

Since your absence in 2016-2018 was more than 1 year, your continuous residence was interrupted, and you need to start over from 0. The question is how long you have to wait before you are eligible to apply for naturalization. I will assuming that you will be applying under the 5-year rule, and not the 3-year rule for someone married to a US citizen for 3 years. According to the chapter linked above, if you had strong evidence of ties that would have been enough to overcome the interruption of continuous residence if you had been absent between 6 months and 1 year, then after your absence of more than 1 year, you need to wait 4 years and 1 day after your return before you can apply for naturalization. If you do not have such strong evidence of ties, you need to wait 4 years and 6 months after your return before you can apply for naturalization.