how do I know if I am eligible to apply for citizenship (presence) in the United States

[Villanelle 4,121]

2 hours ago, Prawninator said:

From what I understand, if you come back before you hit the continuous 180-day mark, that timer resets, essentially meaning you did not break continuous residence. That being said, I'm not an immigration lawyer nor do I know this for a fact, would anyone else be able to corroborate / disprove?

yes. this is correct. The problem was that the OP kept posting how many total days he spent outside/inside US. He couldve taken a trip that covered the last months of one year and the first few months of the next year. He would be calculating the trip a bit in each year instead of looking at the trip as a whole.

[SusieQQQ 11,585]

Thanks Prawninator for the calcs. Ok, so continuous presence doesn’t seem an issue (just), but physical presence might be depending when the 3 years is counted backwards from. I haven’t done the calculations precisely but it seems to be it’s been about 32 months since he entered (so too early to file anyway) and of that about 16 months has been spent out the country and same amount in. Is the 18-month requirement necessary as at time of filing or only as at the 3-year eligibility mark? Whatever, he can’t file now but may be eligible in a couple of months. We’ve seen before people on this forum get rejected for one or two days under the requirement so he does need to be sure he’s calculating correctly.

[Villanelle 4,121]

you must be physically present in the United States for at least 18 months out of the 3 years immediately preceding the date of filing N-400