Was Outside US for 6 Months, About to Apply N-400

[tuanius 0]

Hello there VJ,

I am about to put in the N-400 for my wife after three years as a permanent resident and married to a US citizen (me!). She spent six months (183 days to be exact) outside the US. Will this set back her 3-year continuous residence? Is this going to effect her N-400 since we was out of the country for 6 months?

The instructions says to provide all proof and evidence of my wife's ties to the US if she's outside of the country for 6 months or longer. We can easily provide those evidence in our application; but I am not sure if her six months outside the US sets back her clock to zero; or if it means she has to wait for another six months to make up for those 6 months of being outside the US.

Please advise.

Thanks!

Edited March 21, 2015 by tuanius

[JimmyHou 610]

Hello there VJ,

I am about to put in the N-400 for my wife after three years as a permanent resident and married to a US citizen (me!). She spent six months (183 days to be exact) outside the US. Will this set back her 3-year continuous residence? Is this going to effect her N-400 since we was out of the country for 6 months?

The instructions says to provide all proof and evidence of my wife's ties to the US if she's outside of the country for 6 months or longer. We can easily provide those evidence in our application; but I am not sure if her six months outside the US sets back her clock to zero; or if it means she has to wait for another six months to make up for those 6 months of being outside the US.

Please advise.

Thanks!

Unfortunately there's no such thing as waiting six more months to make up for the six months that she spent outside the US. She either broke her continuous residency and has to start her three-year o'clock from scratch, or she didn't break her continuous residency. Since she spent more than six months outside of the US, it is really up to her interview her to decide. If she had spent more than a year outside the US, then her continuous residency would have been broken, but since the trip was between six and 12 months, this is a bit of a gray area. Since you have the evidence you need, all you can do is apply and hope for the best.

So to recap, your choice is basically to apply now or apply teo years + 1 day after she returned to the US. Waiting six months will make no difference at all. If you apply now you'll have to convince the interviewer that the six-month trip did not break her continuous residency. All of this assumes that she has enough days in the US to meet the physical presence requirement.

While not all people i've read about in similar situations have been successful, I would say that more than half get their applications approved.

Edited March 21, 2015 by JimmyHou