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N-400 days outside the U.S.: the 913-day, 6-month and 1-year rules

Your trips decide two separate requirements: physical presence and continuous residence. Each has its own threshold and its own way of counting days. Here are both, in USCIS’s words.

Facts checked against the sources below on October 14, 2026. A drafting guide, not legal advice; not affiliated with USCIS or CBP.

Physical presence: 913 days (or 548)

Under the general rule you must have been “physically present in the United States for at least 30 months out of the five years immediately preceding” filing. The Policy Manual puts that at “at least 913 days.” If you file as the spouse of a U.S. citizen, it is 18 months, 548 days, out of the last 3 years.

This is a total: add up every day outside across all your trips and subtract from the period. The day you leave and the day you return count as days in the United States. In USCIS’s words: “We will count the day that you depart from the United States and the day you return as days of physical presence within the United States.”

TripDays outside
Leave June 1, return June 108 (June 2–9)
Leave and return the same day0 (and a day trip does not go on the form)
Leave March 30, return March 310

Continuous residence: the length of each single trip

This rule looks at each trip on its own, not the total. The Policy Manual sets two thresholds:

  • More than 6 months but less than 1 year (“more than 180 days but less than 1 year (less than 365 days)”): the absence “is presumed to break the continuity of such residence.” The presumption can be rebutted, for example by showing you kept your U.S. job, your immediate family stayed in the United States, or you kept your home here.
  • 1 year or more (“365 days or more”): the absence “will automatically break the continuity of residence,” unless you had an approved Form N-470.

For these rules USCIS also does not count the travel dates. The Policy Manual’s example is a departure on January 1, 2010 and a return on January 2, 2011, counted as time outside from January 2, 2010 through January 1, 2011.

A reentry permit does not change this: “Approval and use of a Reentry Permit or Refugee Travel Document for extended absences does not preserve continuous residence for naturalization purposes.”

Doing the count

  1. Pick the period: 5 years back from the date you plan to file (3 for spouses of citizens).
  2. For each trip, days outside = return date minus departure date, minus 1.
  3. Flag any single trip over 180 days. That is the continuous residence question, and a reason to talk to an attorney.
  4. Add the days outside of every trip in the period and check that what is left is at least 913 (or 548).

TripRebuild runs this count on the trips you confirm: days outside per trip the USCIS way, a flag on any trip over 180 days, and your total against 913 or 548. It reports the numbers; it does not decide whether you are eligible. The trips themselves come from your passport stamps and your own records.

Sources