There's a question in the application that says " how many days have you been outside the United States in the past 5 years".... I am applying based on marriage, which means I've been in the U.S only 3 years of the past 5 years... how do I answer this question??, do I add the 2 years I haven't been in the country?? Help!!

Similar, earlier thread

If you're applying based on three years married to a US Citizen, the only requirement written in the law concerns the past three years. But the form says five years.

You have two choices:

1. Take the question literally, and answer for the past five years. Include time spent out of the country before getting the green card. They seem to understand this; they'll ignore your answer and calculate their own answer based on the dates of travel which you provide.

2. Take the question for what it's REALLY getting at, which is the amount of time spent out of the country during the legally required period of continuous residence, which would be three years for someone filing based on three years married to a US Citizen. If you do this, cross out the five and write "three", and answer for three years. Several immigration attorneys have suggested doing it this way. That's the way we did it, and we were approved.

Whatever you do, don't lie or mislead. As long as you don't lie or mislead, and you do provide them with the list of trips and dates, they'll figure it out. If they have any trouble figuring it out, they'll ask you about it at your interview, and you'll be able to clarify it there.

They really ought to revise the form concerning this point.

What happens if the applicant's first entry (ever) into US was at the 3-year mark, and they simply mark the 2 years prior to that as being in home country--even if they have travelled to third-country destinations during that time?

Here are the questions from the latest N-400:

A. How many total days did you spend outside of the United States during the past five years?

B. How many trips of 24 hours or more have you taken outside of the United States during the past five years?

C. List below all the trips of 24 hours or more that you have taken outside of the United States since becoming a Lawful
Permanent Resident. Begin with your most recent trip. If you need more space, use a separate sheet(s) of paper.

A. Can be answered literally, nothing about traveling from country to country, just the number of days you were not in the USA for the last five years.

B. Should be the same number of trips compiled in C, how can you take trips out of the USA if you are not even here? But you can read this as trips outside of the USA if you say took a trip from the UK to Turkey because that is a trip out of the USA in which case, if you did, the number of trips listed in C would be the wrong answer. That question whether intentional or not, does have a double meaning.

In the science field giving an incorrect answer is considered much worse than giving no answer at all, but this isn't the science field, it's the USCIS field where no answer would be considered as an incomplete form which is reason for rejection.

C states to list the trips in reverse chronological order that you took them which is exactly opposite if you made a diary of your trips, not quite normal to list events with the most recent first since when you start, that has not even happened yet unless you are a time traveler.

I just assumed with B you are inside of the USA and you take a trip out of the USA, but assume also means, ###-u-me and can be dead wrong as my wife did take several trips from one country to another, outside of the USA before she came here, but didn't take any trips from the time she arrived to the time she became a permanent resident. If she did, that would get awfully confusing as those trips do not have to be listed in C but shown in B.

Probably shouldn't use logic, even though I do not drink, after thinking about this, I think I need one. We will go in with her new and old passports, fall flat on our faces, and beg for mercy.