Scheduled for second N400 interview after 2 years? Need advice....

[ariana1994 0]

Hello everyone and thanks for opening my thread. To make a long story short, in December of 2014 I applied for my N-400 citizenship and was scheduled an interview after 2 months on February of 2015. Everything went well and I passed every section of the test. The person who tested me informed me that I should receive an oath ceremony letter in the mail within 180 days from my interview date. However, It has now been almost 2 years and I have yet to receive anything which is causing me so much distress and anxiety. For the past 2 years I have been sending status requests to my USCIS office and visiting them regularly to know if anything has changed in my application but all they can tell me is that they're still running background checks. I recently contacted the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman about my case and although I did not get a clear response as to why my application is delayed I did notice the status of my application has changed on the official USCIS website. It says on February 3rd, 2017 I was scheduled for another interview and I should receive a letter in the mail soon. My gut feeling is telling me this might have to do with an incident I had during my first job at a retail company 2 months prior to applying for my N400 where I shoplifted $140 worth of merchandise. I was questioned by loss prevention in the store and had to fill a written statement where I pleaded guilty to the charges and of course was later terminated. There was no police report and I paid the company back for the loss. Now my question is, would this still impact my application considering it was petty theft? I don't see any other reason why I would be asked to be interviewed again and if they bring this situation up in my interview how should I respond to it? Any advice would be highly appreciated thank you. 

 

[Hypnos 6,576]

Theft is a CIMT, so it wouldn't surprise me if it were related. 

 

That being said, it's only likely to be an issue if the theft took place within the previous five years, for the purpose of the "good moral character" requirement. 

 

Since your timeline indicates that is the case, I would expect problems. Denial of your N-400 is very possible. 

Edited January 12, 2017 by Hypnos

[warthorn 0]

Just from a logistics perspective, how would this surface if there is no police case?

[vjjmember111 5]

Ariana1994,

Quite interesting, not sure why they would schedule your interview after 2 years of previous interview. If there were no police report filed, your information wouldn't be in national database so the question of petty theft wouldn't come into question. If USCIS finds out you haven't disclosed this information, they would've denied your application. 

So i highly doubt the issue here is with your petty theft. 

Also not sure why the USCIS officer said that you would get your oath letter within 6 months from interview date which itself seems pretty odd. 

What were the questions asked at the time and do you remember any specific area where the USCIS officer might have asked you more questions. Also was your n-400 based on 3yr or 5 yr rule?

 

[Hypnos 6,576]

N-400, page 14, question 22:

 

"Have you ever committed, assisted in committing, or attempted to commit, a crime or offense for which you were not arrested?"

 

It may be that the OP answered No to this question but their name came up in something like a LexisNexis background check which USCIS could have run.

Edited January 13, 2017 by Hypnos

[vjjmember111 5]

I am not legal expert but if USCIS finds out that the OP has lied in application form, they should've taken action within 90 days. Not sure why they would wait for 2 years to re-schedule interview. 

 

I don't think second interview has anything to do with OPs petty theft. As OP mentioned above that they were doing background checks and might have taken such a long time to clear background checks. Since the interview was conducted 2 years ago, they might want to cross verify the information in his application form to ensure that he all of the information still holds true. For example, OPs marital status , kids or PO might have had other traffic related incidents etc..

 

Each case is unique and we wouldn't know the root cause of the problems All we can do is guess. Unless OP tells the truth. 

 

 

[TBoneTX 43,011]

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