If a traveler stays in a country, is he permitted to avail himself of the dispensations for travel?

Question : May Allah reward you. The questioner says: We are a group of teachers from Makkah who teach in an area approximately three hundred and fifty kilometers from Makkah. We stay there for the school days during the week and return on Thursdays and Fridays. So, during this period, do we shorten the prayer or complete it? Knowing that the minimum duration of our teaching there is one year.

Answer : Yes, the scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) differed on this issue: if a traveler stays in a country, does his state of travel end after a certain period, or does it not end until he returns to his home country? There are multiple opinions on this, which al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned in al-Majmu' Sharh al-Muhadhdhab, numbering more than twenty. The most likely opinion in my view is that a person remains a traveler as long as he has not returned to his home country, even if he stays for a week, a month, or a year, provided he does not intend to reside in the country where he is. However, if he intends to reside, such as ambassadors, whose affairs are not in their own hands and whose duration is not fixed, these are considered residents and do not avail themselves of the dispensation for travel. But if one has fixed his travel to a specific time or job, after which he returns to his home country, then he is a traveler. Accordingly, our answer to this question, which the questioner dislikes, is that they may shorten the prayer, they may combine prayers, and they may wipe over their socks. For how long?
Three days. But I tell them and others that a traveler is not excused for leaving the congregation. It is obligatory for them to pray with the Muslims. And if they pray with the people, they will complete the prayer, because the one praying behind an imam follows his imam. So it is obligatory for a traveler, if he prays behind an imam who completes the prayer, to complete the prayer, even if he catches only two rak'ahs of a four-rak'ah prayer. He must perform the remaining two rak'ahs, due to the generality of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and this is general.
Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) was asked: What is the matter with a man who prays two rak'ahs while the imam prays four? He said: That is the Sunnah. I tell these brothers: It is obligatory for you to pray with the Muslims without shortening and without combining. But if the prayer is missed, you may pray two rak'ahs because you are travelers, just as you may wipe over your socks. For how long? Three days. Yes.