When can you file your N-400?
Enter your green card date and the trips you've taken abroad. This tool works out your earliest filing date, your physical presence total, and any trip that might have broken your continuous residence. It counts days the way USCIS actually counts them.
Free. No sign-up. Nothing you enter ever leaves your browser.
Find your earliest filing date
Everything below runs in your browser. Your green card date and your trips stay in your browser and are never sent to us or anyone else.
Enter your green card date above to see your earliest filing date.
Planning a trip?
Add dates for a trip you're thinking about and see what it would do to your filing date before you book it. This doesn't change your trip list above.
Fill in your green card date and trips above first.
Trip
How eligibility for naturalization is actually decided
Naturalization under the general path (INA 316(a)) rests on two separate requirements, and a lot of people applying only check one of them. Continuous residenceasks whether any single trip abroad was long enough to reset your clock.Physical presence asks how many days, in total, you actually spent inside the United States. You have to clear both.
How long can one trip abroad be?
A trip of 180 days or less never raises a continuous-residence issue. Longer than that but under a year, USCIS presumes your residence broke. You can rebut that presumption with evidence such as ongoing US employment or a home you kept here. A trip of a year or more is an automatic break with no rebuttal, unless you hold an approved Form N-470. Full detail on each threshold is on the continuous residence page.
How many total days do you need inside the US?
Under the general path, USCIS requires at least 913 days of physical presence: at least 30 months out of the five years before you file. The spouse-of-a-citizen path (INA 319(a)) shortens this to 18 months, on a 3-year residence period. See thephysical presence pagefor the full breakdown.
Does the day you fly out count as a day abroad?
No. This is the rule most free calculators get wrong. USCIS counts the day you depart and the day you return as days present in the United States, not as days abroad. A tool that simply subtracts one date from the other overcounts your time away by two days on every single trip. Across a handful of trips, that's enough to shift your filing date by weeks. This calculator applies the rule the way USCIS states it.
The full rule-by-rule breakdown, with citations to the USCIS Policy Manual and 8 CFR 334.2(b), is on the how it works page.
Common questions
Does the day I leave the US count as a day abroad?
No. USCIS counts both your departure day and your return day as days you were present in the United States, not days abroad. Only the days strictly between them count against you. A trip from January 1 to January 10 is 8 days abroad, not 9 or 10.
How many days can I spend outside the US without a problem?
A single trip of 180 days or less never raises any issue. A trip of more than 180 days but less than 365 days creates a rebuttable presumption that your continuous residence broke. You can overcome it with evidence like ongoing US employment, family who stayed behind, or a home you kept here. A trip of 365 days or more is an automatic break, with no rebuttal, unless you hold an approved Form N-470.
Can I file my N-400 90 days early?
Yes. You can file up to 90 days before you complete the continuous-residence requirement. But filing early doesn't make you a citizen early. You still aren't eligible to naturalize until you actually reach the full residence period. This calculator shows both dates so the two never get confused.
What happens if I'm outside the US for more than a year?
A single absence of 365 days or more automatically breaks continuous residence, unless you have an approved Form N-470 preserving your residence. Your statutory period restarts on the date you returned, and you generally have to wait years before you can file again. This tool flags any trip like this instead of quietly producing a date as if nothing happened.
How is the spouse-of-a-citizen path different?
If you're still married to and living with a US citizen spouse, INA 319(a) shortens the residence requirement to 3 years and the physical-presence requirement to 18 months, and adds its own rule: you must have been married and living together for at least 3 years before you file. USCIS states the presence requirement in months, not days. This tool's day figure, 548, is our own math, not a number USCIS publishes, and we say so wherever it appears.
Is this legal advice?
No. This is a free calculator built from USCIS's published rules, not a substitute for an immigration attorney or accredited representative. For your specific situation, especially anything involving military service, Form N-470, or a removal order, talk to USCIS or a qualified attorney directly.
Does this tool store or send my travel history anywhere?
No. Every calculation happens in your browser using JavaScript running on your own device. Your green card date and your trips are never transmitted to a server, logged, or stored, by us or by anyone else. Close the tab and it's gone.