Time as a resident USCIS district or state

[andresamia 0]

How strict is the USCIS about this rule?

Time as a Resident in a

USCIS District or State

Most people must live in the USCIS

district or State in which they are

applying for at least 3 months before

applying. A district is a geographical area

defined by USCIS and served by one of

the USCIS “District Offices.”

What can happn if one applies earlier than 3 months? Has anyone experienced this?

Also, where can I find out about which USCIS district a person belongs to? From what I understand from the above rule, a person can move to a neighboring state and still belong to the same USCIS district and therefore still apply even if he/she has not lived there for 3 months...

Thanks for any help!

[lucyrich 20]

To find which office services a particular area, see

https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=of....office_type=LO

The requirement to live in the state or district is written into the law in INA 316(a). Only Congress gets to change it. Because Congress wrote it into the law clearly, no officer is going to have the authority to be lenient on that requirement. The requirement is repeated in 8 CFR 316.2(a)(5).

I'm not sure exactly what would happen if you filed before meeting that requirement. The application might be rejected right away. My guess is that it is more likely to be caught and rejected at the interview stage. A worse outcome would be if the interviewer made a mistake and didn't catch it, and you got through and took the oath, and then were later retroactively administratively denaturalized for not having met that requirement.

[andresamia 0]

Thanks for that thorough reply.

To find which office services a particular area, see

https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=of....office_type=LO

The requirement to live in the state or district is written into the law in INA 316(a). Only Congress gets to change it. Because Congress wrote it into the law clearly, no officer is going to have the authority to be lenient on that requirement. The requirement is repeated in 8 CFR 316.2(a)(5).

I'm not sure exactly what would happen if you filed before meeting that requirement. The application might be rejected right away. My guess is that it is more likely to be caught and rejected at the interview stage. A worse outcome would be if the interviewer made a mistake and didn't catch it, and you got through and took the oath, and then were later retroactively administratively denaturalized for not having met that requirement.