Citizenship in USA can be obtained through naturalization or through birth in USA.
We filed an applicant's N-400 Petition for Citizenship where the applicant was out of the US for 400+ days. USCIS issued a RFE requesting information about the applicant's stay outside the United States without the requisite N-470. We were able to provide several arguments justifying the out of country stay, demonstrating that the applicant had no intention of abandoning US Permanent Residency.
We filed for Citizenship for a couple living and working overseas on an N-470 for a US company. The couple had met all the requirements for Citizenship, but the US employer needed them to remain overseas until the project was completed. During the processing of the application, they returned to the United States for the fingerprinting and interviews.
There were 4 applicants, all members of a family. USCIS denied them citizenship stating that they were not able to show that they maintained continuous residency requirements for citizenship. Two of the applicants were students. They had gone abroad to study. One of the students had a shoplifting charge against him in the USA and had this as additional ground for the denial.
On the date of my first interview in the city of Hartford, I felt i got my feet back on the ground since i been waiting for so long for the past of half year. The whole first interview took around 40 minutes and DID NOT pass, because the Adjudications Officers claims my application missed 3 pieces of evidences that I suppose to bring them with me.
1. The past 2 years tax reports, including the State and Federal tax reports.
2. The IRS document I-1722, which states my pervious tax filing status.
I was relatively surpised at how quickly my papers were processed since I applied at the end of Oct 2008 and my interview was scheduled for middle of Feb, 2009.
The officer had a huge file and first started by validating my name. He even had my birth certificate, which I never submitted, and asked me to verify all the information on that. After verifying the name, he went through all questions from the N400.
Application Mailed: Sep. 30, 2008
Priority Date: Oct. 1, 2008
Finger Printing: Oct. 30, 2008
Interview: Jan 26, 2009.
I'm on the west coast (California):
Application Mailed: Sep, 2008
Finger Printing: Oct, 2008
Interview: Jan, 2009
Here are a few things worth mentioning:
- Dont take your cell phone with you. One of the offices(fingerprints) didn't allow them at all. The other office wouldn't let me take my cell phone in as it had a camera on it.
Take all your old passports (as well as your current one) that include entry into the U.S since getting your green card.
Following are my Dates:
Application Mailed: Sep, 2008
Priority Date: Sep, 2008
Finger Printing: Oct, 2008
Interview: Jan, 2009
My Interview was scheduled at 10:00 am today. Reached the location at around 9.35 am. Submitted the forms and were asked to wait for the name to be called.
They ran out of slots for the 10/30 oath about 7 people before me, so after that all of us got the N652 with "civics test/English passed" and "congratulations; it seems you are eligible...etc etc checked off, and when they handed it to to us they said our oath letters will be in the mail soon.
I had my interview in downtown L.A and my experience was extremely pleasant. There was a parking structure right in front of the federal building that charged 13.20 for all day parking. My interview was on November 17th, 2008 at 2:15 pm and I left 2 hours earlier than usual. Good thing because there was a very long line into the federal building itself .It took me 30 minutes before I got to security point. So it was until 2:00 pm when I was able to get into the building.