confused about what I want to do

[agileflower]

Hi. I am a USC who until v. recently was living in the UK with my UKC spouse (and our son, who is with me now). I had ILR when I left and have been going back/forth a couple of times in the last few months of being here.

Even though my spouse really wants to come to the US, (has lived here on/off and really loves it and has lots of friends etc). I really miss living in the UK and want to go back. We are drumming up scenarios.

I would have to go back for 9-10 mos before applying to naturalize as a UKC as I have been out of the UK for more than 90 days (like 96 now...). He has no job, neither do I, we sold our flat but are renting it back. We could find someplace cheap to live and I could finish up my Masters degree (good anywhere with this particular one!) if only he could get work. We could do it on savings but not ideal (eaten up fast in London!)

He is in the process of doing the whole US immigration thing, getting ready to send his checklist in. He could put it off until closer to the time I could get my UKC, then activate his LPR, and--if he had work--he could come wrap it up in the UK as I finished my residence period. My question is this:

If I decided to stay in the UK, could he still apply for US citizenship after 3 years if we retained all of our stuff 'together' in the US? We always kept bank accounts, houses etc here in the US....We'd basically 'commute' for a while until I decided where I really wanted to be....but I wouldn't want that time to NOT accrue toward his ability to apply for USCitizenship.

As I don't know where I want to be and I REALLY don't want to prevent him from having very very frequent contact with our son, I am willing to come back to the US and live with him as long as necessary for us to both be able to live in both places or come/go as we want. But I think I might want other options. I just don't know what they could look like. I really might prefer to live in the UK and he really wants to live here. I worry that he might get really upset if we divorced and never apply for citizenship or work and I'd be on the hook for his Affidavit of Support for the rest of his days. He is 56 and would have just enough time to earn the remaining credits he needs for medicare....so its important that he come back soon to do that (and wants to).... so its a tossup between what I think is best for my son and whats riskiest for me....I am just not sure what to do, hence the preference for wanting the max time possible to accrue towards his ability to apply. I know HE has a residency requirement, but do I?

Ugh!