Leaving Country After Interview

[ohman 5]

What is the interum period like after an applicant gets approved for citizenship? Do they maintain their green card? 

 

We have an interview coming up and are going to have to leave right after the oath. I hope we can have the passport in hand by that time, but if not i have no idea what the status will be like. Thank you. 

[Dashinka 25,482]

I believe once you are naturalized, you would fall into the same boat as any USC and need a passport to re-enter.  I don’t think the GC applies anymore, and in fact they may require a surrender of the GC at the oath.  We are sort of in the same situation.  We want to go back to Russia to visit family, but Katya will be in limbo for a few weeks after her oath before we can get the passport for her.  We have put off making any plans until things are more known.

 

Hopefully someone with a little more experience will respond as I am interested as well.

[Rusty72 68]

if you have the interview you may not get the oath the same day well you probably won't you keep your greencard until you go to oath ceremony where they then take it away..tjen use your certificate to get passport

[Alabamak1 688]

1 hour ago, Bill & Katya said:

I believe once you are naturalized, you would fall into the same boat as any USC and need a passport to re-enter.  I don’t think the GC applies anymore, and in fact they may require a surrender of the GC at the oath.  We are sort of in the same situation.  We want to go back to Russia to visit family, but Katya will be in limbo for a few weeks after her oath before we can get the passport for her.  We have put off making any plans until things are more known.

 

Hopefully someone with a little more experience will respond as I am interested as well.

That is correct, when you go to the oath ceremony you will surrender your GC and then go to the room to get your USC naturalization certificate. I, the USC, had no US-passport for about few weeks, but you can expedite it at the post office

[Dashinka 25,482]

7 minutes ago, Rusty72 said:

if you have the interview you may not get the oath the same day well you probably won't you keep your greencard until you go to oath ceremony where they then take it away..tjen use your certificate to get passport

Good point, I didn’t see that they were talking about the interview and not the oath.  For Katya, her oath was scheduled to take place two months after her interview, so I suppose one could still travel on their GC until the oath ceremony since they are still LPR status.

[ohman 5]

Thank you for the very helpful replies. So we will definitely need the new passport before we leave.