N-400 - Time outside the US and information about residence

[Little_My 464]

Haven't been here in a while, but it's time to turn to the knowledgeable VJ community for some info and advice again!

It's time for us to start the N-400 journey! I am applying as a spouse of a US citizen, based on the 90-day rule applied to 3 years as a permanent resident. I have a couple of questions about the N-400 form:

1. Part 4 - Information about your residence

During my three years as a permanent resident, my husband and I temporarily lived in India due to his job for about 11 months in total. We kept an address in the US (at his parents house), maintained our bank accounts and filed taxes, and my absences were always less than 180 days at a time. Should I still list our address in India here - or just the address at his parent's house which was our mailing address in the US during that time, and which I also notified to USCIS via the address change form?

2. Part 8 - Time outside the US

This asks me to list my time outside the US during the past 5 years - but I have only been a resident for 3 years. It seems that some people still list their time outside the US for the whole five years, others cross over the "5 years" and write "3 years" and then list time outside the US for the applicable three - so which should I do? I personally am leaning towards just listing it for the past three years since I became a resident, as that is the time they care about and that way the total numbers of days outside will be correct - but what's the general consensus about this among VJ peeps?

Many thanks!

[Messybrownhair 251]

You need to list India as an address and also as a time away from the US because that's where you were, they will check your passport to verify dates as well during the interview. As long as you were in the US for 18 months of the 3 years and you were not away for 6 months each time then you'd have met the requirement. I wrote trips outside of the US from the moment I became a permanent resident since before I moved here it wasn't really "time away from the US" it was just time prior to moving to the US.. Goodluck!

[warlord 72]

I am confused. You said you were living outside of the US for 11 months, but then stated no more than 180 days at a time? What exactly does that mean? Did you live in India for 11 months with a few short trips back to the US every 180 days or so, or does this mean you would go to India for a few months (less than 180 days), come back to the US for a long period and go back etc so that it eventually totaled about 11 months in a period of a few years?

Yes you need to only document the past 3 years if going by a marriage based GC. The 5 years is for the non-marriage one.

And to clarify the above post, you can be outside of the US for longer than 6 months as long as you can document you can prove you didn't abandon your GC by documenting ties to the US which it seems you have (home here still, bank accounts, filing taxes, etc). But that's only if you were outside longer than 6 months and less than a year at a time (which you said total was 11 months, but just not sure if that was 11 months in one year or 11 months in 3 years)...

[belinda63 2,981]

They want to know your residence......where you were when you went to sleep that night. They ask for information about any trips of 24 hours or more so certainly your time in India would meet the need to list it.

[Little_My 464]

What I meant was that I was never out of the country for more than 180 days consecutively - and, in total, spent about 11 months in India, meaning that I meet both the continuous residence and the physical presence requirements. I have made other short (2-3 week) trips abroad, mainly to see my family in Finland, in the three year period I have been a GC holder, but have made sure that the total time I have been outside the US is not over 18 months - I think in total it will come to around 12-13 months, with all trips included.

Many thanks for the advice!