Hello,

Please give your advise, opinion.

Mu husband is american and in 4 months I will have 3 years stay in US. I have never left the country till now. we are planing a trip to Cnada for a week. Can I travel out of the country for a week and come back and in 2-3 months apply for citizenship. Going outside US for a week is it going to be a problem for becoming a citizen. I know that you have to be a resident for 3 monts in the state you are planing to apply for citizenship but just going for a short trip out of US, shouldn`t affect. Is that correct?


Thank you

A 7 day excursion will not have an effect on your application.....

Where you might get into trouble is if you have long trip of six months or more, or a whole bunch of short trips which add up to spending about half your time outside the US. But a single short trip of a week or two is absolutely no problem. Enjoy.

Be sure and keep a written record of the dates of border crossings in both directions. You'll need those dates for the N-400 and/or the interview.

It sounds great,
Thank you very much

By the way,
Do you know when exactly I can apply? My husband is american so I know 3 years, but I read some where I can apply 90 days before the 3rd year anniversary (green card).

Thanks again

That's probably true, but not necessarily. It can sometimes get complicated. See the M-476 for details, especially the box at the bottom of page 22.

If you are applying based on 5 years as a Permanent Resident or 3 years as a Permanent Resident married to a U.S. citizen, you may file for naturalization up to 90 days before you meet the continuous residence requirement. For example, if you are applying based on 3 years of continuous residence as a Permanent Resident married to a U.S. citizen, you can apply any time after you have been a Permanent Resident in continuous residence for 3 years minus 90 days. You may send your application before you have met the requirement for continuous residence only. Therefore, you must still have been married to and living with your U.S. citizen spouse for 3 years before you may file your application. You must also meet all the other eligibility requirements when you file your application with USCIS.

In our case, because we started living together in the US on the very same day that the LPR status was issued (came in on CR-1 visa), we have to wait until we've completed three full years living together before we can file. But most people, especially those who got LPR status through adjustment of status, will have had many months of living together in marital union before LPR status was granted, so three years less 90 days of continuous residence is the critical requirement. In rare cases, something else may hold things up and be the determining factor (90 days in state or district, sufficient days of physical presence, etc.)