Fulfilling requirements of residency for Naturalization

[yaluru]

             My parents are green card holders. They obtained the GC through me. They are permanent residents of US since December of 2011. However they divide their time in the year between India and the US. They have been fulfilling the requirement for Naturalization of staying in the United States for six months of each year since they became permanent residents  - until this year.

This year they would have completed their required 5 years so they could put in an application for Naturalization. However, before the required six-month stay they had to leave US. Instead of the the required 30 months they only have 28 months.

My question is when they come back in 2017 can they apply for Naturalization? Will they qualify? Does their 30 month count start all over again? Also they are above 75+ years of age....if that matters.

 

 

[JoeF]

The rule is not "six months each year" in the US. The rule is no trip abroad should last more than 6 months. It doesn't matter if the trips cross calendar years, the duration matters.

Also, it is not 30 months physical presence. It is 1/2 of the 5 years before applying. That means a certain number of days. Months have different numbers of days, so depending on which months you count (e.g., February), you may get less than the required number of days. Count days, not months.

The physical presence is counted for the 5 years before applying.

BTW, USCIS has a work sheet on their website for this.

[yaluru]

Thank you Joe F for the reply.

 

This means as they got close to the 5 years requirement they missed. So the question is does their count start all over again? Or If they come in May 2017 can they start the process of Naturalization?

I check the USCIS sheet but that does not clarify my question. I will take an appointment with them to ask....

 

Thanks once again

[JoeF]

For the continuous residence requirement, absences over 6 months generally break it, and then things would have to start from scratch.

For the physical presence requirement, the person has to be in the US for at least 1/2 of the 5 years before applying, so that's a moving window.