Citizenship for wife of US Citizen (spouse has been US Citizen for less than 3 years)

[sn7]

Hi

I am trying to apply for citizenship of my wife. I am US Citizen since July 2022. We have been married for ~9.5 years and my wife has been on GC for about ~8 years now. My wife was out of the US for more than 1 year during Covid so we could not apply for citizenship before.

She returned in May 2021 and has been in the US since then. I believe she is eligible to apply for US citizenship as a wife of a US citizen who has been in the US for more than 3 years.
According to the information at the link here (see the second table in section 3, also pasted below).

Provision - INA 316 5-year statutory period	Absence During Statutory Period - More than 1 year	May Apply After… 4 years and 6 months, or 4 years and 1 day (but must overcome presumption of break in continuity of residence)[27]
Provision - INA 319 3-year statutory period	Absence During Statutory Period - More than 1 year	May Apply After… 2 years and 6 months, or 2 years and 1 day (but must overcome presumption of break in continuity of residence)

However, I have been a US citizen for less than 3 years now, but will be a US citizen for 2 years and 6 months in Nov 2024.

Will she be eligible for application in Nov. 2024? For personal reasons, we would like to apply as soon as possible and would not like to wait till May 2025. Any guidance here would be helpful!

Thanks
SN7

[newacct]

No. She cannot qualify under the 3-year rule until you have been a citizen for 3 years, so after July 2025. At that point, she would have continuous residence for the preceding 3 years.

To apply under the 5-year rule, she would have to wait until either 4 years and 1 day after her return (May 2025) if she has strong enough evidence to overcome the presumption, or 4 years and 6 months after her return (November 2025) otherwise.

[PenelopeJames]

Thank you so much for the information.

[TedDHaskins]

Yes, your wife should be eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship in November 2024, as you'll meet the 2 years and 6 months requirement by then. Since she's been a permanent resident for about 8 years and has met the residency requirement, you can proceed with her application once you reach that milestone. Recently, I needed to find out more about Manitoba casino locations for a trip I was planning and this https://onlinecasinomanitoba.com/manitoba-casinos-map/ site provided a clear map of all the major casinos in the area. It was great because I didn’t have to search through multiple sources everything was in one place. Now I know exactly where to go when I’m ready for a night out.