B. Your Physical Location During Permanent Residency

• Library: Becoming a U.S. Citizen (Nolo) (2021 Ed.)

B. Your Physical Location During Permanent Residency

In this section, we discuss three separate but overlapping citizenship requirements concerning your physical location—that is, where your feet were planted (on U.S. soil or overseas)—during the required years of permanent residence leading up to your citizenship application. The three requirements are:

• You spent most of your time during your required years of permanent residence on U.S. soil—called the "physical presence" requirement (discussed in Section B1).
• None of your absences from the United States lasted longer than six months—called the "continuous residence" requirement by USCIS (discussed in Section B2).
• You lived in the same U.S. state or USCIS district for three months before submitting your citizenship application (which we've named the "state stay" requirement, as discussed in Section B3).

We'll refer to these three requirements collectively as the "location" requirements.

1. Time Requirements for Physical Presence in the U.S.

In Section A3, we discussed how many years of permanent residence are required before applying for citizenship. But having a green card for the right number of years isn't enough to qualify you for citizenship. You must have spent as much time inside the United States as outside of it during those years.

This is the physical presence requirement, the purpose of which is for you to strengthen your ties to the United States. During those years, you'll become an active participant in U.S. society, start to understand its system of law and governance, and make a transition away from your old country.

Tallying Up Your Time In and Out of the United States

You'll need to know exactly when you were inside and outside the United States—preferably with exact dates.

Unless you have a fabulous memory or haven't taken many trips, you probably can't figure this out without a little research. Get out your passport, your calendar, your credit card receipts, and your frequent flier records and fill in the table below. This table is taken directly from the citizenship application, so skipping over it will only postpone the inevitable.

If your records don't reveal the information, be creative. For example, ask your employer for your time sheets and look for the vacation dates. Try to remember details of your trips that will help establish the dates. For example, think about which house or apartment you were living in when you took each trip and whether any trips were for special occasions that you can attach dates to, like your father's 60th birthday or your brother's wedding.

On the table below, enter every trip that lasted 24 hours or longer. Day trips—if you got there and back within 24 hours—don't count. If you can't determine the exact date, approximate (for example, giving the month and year). If you really can't remember the dates, write down what you can remember, such as "traveled to Mexico for the Christmas holiday every year—spent no more than two weeks each trip." (Although some USCIS officers will not accept approximations, it's better to provide some information than to hide the fact that you took trips.)

Date You Left the U.S. (Month/Day/Year)	Date You Returned to the U.S. (Month/Day/Year)	Did Trip Last Six Months or More?		Countries to Which You Traveled	Total Days Out of the U.S.
		[ ] Yes	[ ] No
		[ ] Yes	[ ] No
		[ ] Yes	[ ] No
		[ ] Yes	[ ] No
		[ ] Yes	[ ] No
		[ ] Yes	[ ] No
		[ ] Yes	[ ] No
		[ ] Yes	[ ] No

If you are required to complete five years of permanent residence before applying for citizenship, then you must have spent two and a half of those years (30 months) in the United States. (This applies to refugees and asylees, too.) If you're required to complete three years of permanent residence, then you must have spent one and a half of those years (18 months) physically present in the United States.

EXAMPLE 1: Jorge was approved for his green card as a skilled worker. He has a five-year wait before he's eligible for U.S. citizenship. During those five years, he takes several business trips outside of the United States, adding up to two years' total time. He is eligible for citizenship, because he was physically present in the United States for more than two and a half years.
EXAMPLE 2: Graciela received her green card as a result of her marriage to a U.S. citizen (she is still married to him). She has a three-year wait from the date she got her green card before she's eligible for U.S. citizenship. She and her husband love to travel, and have spent a total of two of the last three years outside of the United States. This leaves her with only one year's physical presence since getting her green card—she has a physical presence requirement of 18 months. She'll need to spend another six months within the U.S. before she can apply for citizenship.

CAUTION

Your sleeping hours must have been spent in the U.S., too. If you've been working in the U.S. but commuting back and forth to your home in Canada or Mexico, you can't fulfill the continuous residence requirements.

If you fall into one of the exceptional categories of applicants who don't have to spend a specific number of years as a permanent resident, then you probably won't have to worry about the physical presence requirement. We'll talk more about these exceptional categories in Section B4, below.

The physical presence requirement is not the only way you have to prove that you made your home in the United States. Next, we'll discuss the requirement that you've lived here continuously.

2. Continuity: Living Outside the U.S. for More Than Six Months at a Time

Taking short trips outside the United States is fine—in fact, it's one of your rights as a permanent resident. However, if during the required years of permanent residence leading up to your citizenship application, any of your trips lasted six months or more, you've got an eligibility problem. You can be said to have broken the continuity of your U.S. residence. Note that residence "in the U.S." can include living not only in one of the 50 states, but in any of the U.S. territories (Guam, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands).

USCIS presumes that a six-month trip (or longer) means that you made your main home in another country and that your period of U.S. residence is no longer continuous. Even one day more than six months can raise USCIS's concern (though some USCIS offices are less strict than others).

That doesn't mean you're ineligible for citizenship. If your trip was under one year in length, you might be able to persuade USCIS that its presumption was wrong, and that you always intended to make your home in the United States. Your chances are improved if—during your trip—you maintained your primary...