Will my vacation effect citizenship eligibility

[osac]

Hello all,

I currently live in USA and I will be eligible to apply for citizenship in March 2020 but due to some personal family related problems I want to take a 3 month vacation and go abroad to live with my family. If I take this vacation from June 2019 to September 2019, will this in any way affect my eligibility to apply for citizenship in March 2020? Also, how long do I have to live in USA during the 5 year residency requirement before I can apply for citizenship? Please help me with these questions.

Thank you.

[newacct]

Hello all,

I currently live in USA and I will be eligible to apply for citizenship in March 2020 but due to some personal family related problems I want to take a 3 month vacation and go abroad to live with my family. If I take this vacation from June 2019 to September 2019, will this in any way affect my eligibility to apply for citizenship in March 2020? Also, how long do I have to live in USA for during the 5 year residency requirement before I can apply for citizenship? Please help me with these questions.

Thank you.

There are two main requirements for naturalization: continuous residence and physical presence. An absence of less than 6 months generally does not interrupt continuous residence, so you are fine there. For physical presence, you only need 2.5 years out of the last 5 years, and unless you have been outside the US a lot, chances are you have way more than that, so a little vacation won't cause you to go below.

[osac]

Continuous presence

Thank you for the answer. I have heard that it is the last 2.5 years that you have to spend continuously in the US before applying for citizenship. Is that true or is it a total of 2.5 out of 5 years?

[newacct]

Thank you for the answer. I have heard that it is the last 2.5 years that you have to spend continuously in the US before applying for citizenship. Is that true or is it a total of 2.5 out of 5 years?

No. It's "continuous residence" for the last 5 years, and "physical presence" for a cumulative total of 2.5 years out of the last 5 years.