N-400 question ,Urgent!

[Proud2bamerican 0]

Hi, I have been a lawful permanent resident for 13 years and I'm applying for U.S. citizenship.

Question A: I have a question regarding to the past 5 year addresses question:

I have lived in more than 10 different places in the past 5 years because I was a college student and rented cheap sublets/shared rooms and moved often, and right now, I can't recall 90% of the exact street addresses where I lived and when I lived there, or how many places I have moved to. People have suggested me the following but their intended solutions do not work, they suggested :

1. Putting cities, and states, and time of your residency. Not working because I can't recall the time or how many time I have moved.

2. Putting down permanent addresses. Could work, but I dont know the exact time of move-in and move-out on each of the three permanent addresses in my past five years. How do I search for the time of residency? I used freecredit report, and I found out my past three permanent addresses in the last five years, but the report doesn't tell me when I moved in and moved out. Can someone help? thanks.

furthermore, I have lived in China for my college summer vacations, do I put down my Chinese home address in Chinese or in English (matching the pronunciation in Chinese), or can I just ignore my Chinese home address. Thanks!

Question B, I have stayed on average about three months each year in China for visiting, I have never been outside of the U.S. for more than 4 months during each year. Does that qualify me for continuing residency?

Question C, as to question B, therefore, I shouldn't be scared to write 450 days outside of the U.S. in the past five years, right? Thanks

Thanks so much guys!

[Leatherneck 693]

Hi, I have been a lawful permanent resident for 13 years and I'm applying for U.S. citizenship.

Question A: I have a question regarding to the past 5 year addresses question:

I have lived in more than 10 different places in the past 5 years because I was a college student and rented cheap sublets/shared rooms and moved often, and right now, I can't recall 90% of the exact street addresses where I lived and when I lived there, or how many places I have moved to. People have suggested me the following but their intended solutions do not work, they suggested :

1. Putting cities, and states, and time of your residency. Not working because I can't recall the time or how many time I have moved.

2. Putting down permanent addresses. Could work, but I dont know the exact time of move-in and move-out on each of the three permanent addresses in my past five years. How do I search for the time of residency? I used freecredit report, and I found out my past three permanent addresses in the last five years, but the report doesn't tell me when I moved in and moved out. Can someone help? thanks.

If those were rentals, can you contact the landlord/owner and ask for copies of lease/rental agreements? Those agreements would have the exact dates as to start/end. Then you can work your way back from the oldest address to the current address.

furthermore, I have lived in China for my college summer vacations, do I put down my Chinese home address in Chinese or in English (matching the pronunciation in Chinese), or can I just ignore my Chinese home address. Thanks!

Well, based on the way the question is posed on the N-400, I would not ignore it. I would add a separate sheet and declare that info.

Question B, I have stayed on average about three months each year in China for visiting, I have never been outside of the U.S. for more than 4 months during each year. Does that qualify me for continuing residency?

Brief trips and temporary travel abroad are usually not a problem. You have no issues here with maintaining your residency.

Question C, as to question B, therefore, I shouldn't be scared to write 450 days outside of the U.S. in the past five years, right? Thanks

You have to declare that info on the N-400, besides, they already know how many days you have been outside of the U.S.

Thanks so much guys!

Edited February 11, 2012 by Leatherneck

[Proud2bamerican 0]

Hi, leatherneck, thanks for the answer, can you tell me if I should put down Chinese characters for my Chinese home address, or should I put down English for my Chinese home address. Thanks again.

[Leatherneck 693]

Hi, leatherneck, thanks for the answer, can you tell me if I should put down Chinese characters for my Chinese home address, or should I put down English for my Chinese home address. Thanks again.

You bet!

I would write that in English.

[Leatherneck 693]

You bet!

It's obvious those trips to China were short in nature and vacations for you. The question is asking about where you've lived during the last 5 years. So technically you did not live there.They're more concerned about were you've lived.

Edited February 11, 2012 by Leatherneck

[Proud2bamerican 0]

thanks letherneck, that was really helpful. Do you know how I can find out my past permanent addresses? I tried contacting bank of america, which is my bank, and they do not have my addresses documented fully. I do not know how I can contact my past landlords. Thanks so much for your help.

[Leatherneck 693]

thanks letherneck, that was really helpful. Do you know how I can find out my past permanent addresses? I tried contacting bank of america, which is my bank, and they do not have my addresses documented fully. I do not know how I can contact my past landlords. Thanks so much for your help.

One thing you can do is go to your state motor vehicle department (DMV in California) and get a print out of your driving record. Your driving record will contain the original address and any address changes you filed with them.

You can also go to sites like spokeo.com, pipl.com, zabasearch.com or other sites that aggregates data from many online and offline sources. Do a search on yourself and you will be amazed at the amount of info that available about you.

[Mairo 0]

Your credit report shows all your addresses.

[SerenityNOW 11]

Do you know how I can find out my past permanent addresses?

[haha Mario was posting while I was...]

Run a credit check on yourself! It will show up any address ever associated with you (and then some usually! I have had to remove addresses, some were even just typos but they showed up on my record). For me, my mother's address showed up because I opened a library card in her town. My husband's credit check even showed up the address where I lived when I first filed USCIS paperwork for sponsoring him, even though I moved before he was allowed to come back to the U.S. and he never lived there. ... so it will show EVERYTHING, all in one place. The three big credit bureaus are obligated to provide at least one free report each year. You don't need to sign up to see your credit SCORE; they will charge you for that. Just your credit report, and do all three of the bureaus, as they usually include slightly different information. AnnualCreditReport.com

Definitely write out the address in English... if someone from the U.S. was going to mail you a package there, how would they write it? I know for Bulgarian, there are phoenetic Latin letter equivalents for the Cyrillic letters so I hope there is some equivalent for spelling out Chinese sounds.

Good luck to you!

Edited February 11, 2012 by SerenityNOW

[Leatherneck 693]

[haha Mario was posting while I was...]

Run a credit check on yourself! It will show up any address ever associated with you (and then some usually! I have had to remove addresses, some were even just typos but they showed up on my record). For me, my mother's address showed up because I opened a library card in her town. My husband's credit check even showed up the address where I lived when I first filed USCIS paperwork for sponsoring him, even though I moved before he was allowed to come back to the U.S. and he never lived there. ... so it will show EVERYTHING, all in one place. The three big credit bureaus are obligated to provide at least one free report each year. You don't need to sign up to see your credit SCORE; they will charge you for that. Just your credit report, and do all three of the bureaus, as they usually include slightly different information. AnnualCreditReport.com

Definitely write out the address in English... if someone from the U.S. was going to mail you a package there, how would they write it? I know for Bulgarian, there are phoenetic Latin letter equivalents for the Cyrillic letters so I hope there is some equivalent for spelling out Chinese sounds.

Good luck to you!

Running credit reports are a great idea and good source of past addresses. I think the OP did a credit report already.

[Proud2bamerican 0]

@letherneck, thanks for your reply, but i dont own a car or a driver's license in the U.S., and the results from zabbrasearch, pipl, etc yielded 25-50% wrong information, and did not show correct results for my past addresses (some were right, but mostly wrong)

@mairo, thank you, I did check free credit report before I started posting here, it doesn't show the date I moved in or out of an address that I lived in.

[Leatherneck 693]

Ok, then some much for a DMV records check.

Then can you work backwards starting from your current address?

You have a lease agreement or you own the place, there must be some kind of paper trail associated with the current address. Once you know the date you moved into your current home, that should give you an idea as to when you moved from the previous residence. At least you will have an idea as to the month, once you know the month, you can look at a calendar and zero in closer to the days.

If the utilities at your current home are in your name, call customer service and they can tell you the date the service was order and activated. Again, you can work backwards with regards to the previous address.

1. Can you check your college records and get address that way?

2. Do you have a library card?

3. Check for old emails you might have sent or received related to moving.

4. Do you have a checking/saving account? Call the banks customer service and inquire as to the day you opened the account.

5. Surely you completed change of address forms with the post office.

6. Old tax returns - contact the IRS and get all of copies of your old returns.

[Andy and Pui 16]

What about using google maps to find where you lived on there and get the addresses that way?