Preparing N400 application in the USCIS online portal before eligibility date

[abfar 119]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm wondering if its OK to prepare my N400 application and add all required documents on the USCIS online portal BEFORE my eligibility date of (3 years MINUS 90 days; which is sometime in may). I will not be submitting the file before that 3 years MINUS 90 days date - but i just want to peacefully add documents and fill up the form at my own pace before that time.

Has anyone tried it or has any experience with this?

 

I have a ton of mail and documentation that I'd need to go through to pick up for proof of continued marriage and it'll take me a couple of days or even weeks to get those if I decide to open the portal after the eligibility date. I'd rather have everything prepared and ready to shoot before that day so I can just shoot it off on the final day. Any thoughts?

 

Thank you.

[xyz12345 260]

It's fine. Your account will save the data  as long you come back every 30 days. Don't submit on the earliest eligible date. Submit one or 2 days later. It will save you a lot of headache. Good luck!

[Thegirl 225]

I agree completely with @xyz12345

I started preparing mine a few weeks before I was eligible to submit. I waited at least another week after I was eligible, to actually submit. 

You'll be fine. 

[abfar 119]

Thanks guys. I'll start prepping the file there soon. If anyone else was able to prepare the file there online on USCIS portal before their eligibility date  without issues, please post here as well. 

 

thank you

[Spam Hill 10]

I’ve been adding to my online application for the past 2 months. I’m not eligible to submit until this coming Sunday however I will wait another 2-3 days before pressing the submit button. 
 

Just one word of caution: I found that when I deleted one file, the system deleted ALL files. 

[abfar 119]

On 3/20/2020 at 4:19 PM, Spam Hill said:

I’ve been adding to my online application for the past 2 months. I’m not eligible to submit until this coming Sunday however I will wait another 2-3 days before pressing the submit button. 
 

Just one word of caution: I found that when I deleted one file, the system deleted ALL files. 

Thanks!

Its crazy that all files were deleted 😮

The software guy in me cringes at such situations. 

[millefleur 5,047]

**Moved from USC Case Filing and Progress Reports to USC General Discussion**

[BBlueB 35]

Make sure to finally submit the form after SEVERAL DAYS from your eligible date to be safe. Don't send on the first eligible day

[abfar 119]

On 4/9/2020 at 5:03 PM, BBlueB said:

Make sure to finally submit the form after SEVERAL DAYS from your eligible date to be safe. Don't send on the first eligible day

Will do, thank you

[VinnyH 61]

On 3/19/2020 at 2:23 AM, abfar said:

Hello everyone,

 

I'm wondering if its OK to prepare my N400 application and add all required documents on the USCIS online portal BEFORE my eligibility date of (3 years MINUS 90 days; which is sometime in may). I will not be submitting the file before that 3 years MINUS 90 days date - but i just want to peacefully add documents and fill up the form at my own pace before that time.

Has anyone tried it or has any experience with this?

 

I have a ton of mail and documentation that I'd need to go through to pick up for proof of continued marriage and it'll take me a couple of days or even weeks to get those if I decide to open the portal after the eligibility date. I'd rather have everything prepared and ready to shoot before that day so I can just shoot it off on the final day. Any thoughts?

 

Thank you.

This is exactly what I did: I started my application 5 months before my eligibility date (5-year LPR minus 90 days), and completed the full N-400 Form, without submitting it, but just saving the draft. You will not be able to submit it anyway, because when you check the box of which eligibility criteria you fall into (5-year LPR or 3-year LPR) and later on input the date when you became LPR, there will be an error message stating you cannot submit. You can still, however, save and proceed/move to the next sections, to have everything all ready to just push "submit" when the moment comes.

 

The trick, however, is that the draft gets deleted after 30 days. You will see the expiration date of the draft when you access the homepage of your application in progress.

 

What I did was to go back in the "Travel Outside the U.S." section and add/delete one of my trips abroad, doing it every 25 days, because that way, it would push back the draft expiration for another 30 days! And so on until you finally get to the date you are eligible.

 

Alternatively, something else I noticed works well at re-extending is to go to the section "Groups/Affiliations". Because I put my College Alumni Association, in the text field explaining/detailing the purpose of the group, I just changed the wording and re-saved.

 

Please note that uploading/deleting an evidence documents does not reset the extension date. Also, I noted that even after uploading all the docs in the draft, the docs would disappear the next time I would access the draft. Therefore I advise you to upload your docs only the day you are submitting to avoid that none of the docs gets lost.

 

Good luck!

vinnyc

[xyz12345 260]

I think that with every login and edit in your application, it will reset the expiration to 30 days later. I never went to a specific section to edit. Changing details in travel and group affiliations is more troublesome for me. Simply unclicking and re-clicking box question(s) worked for me. I started my application 4.5 months beforehand and my documents were there the whole time. It does not hurt though to check if the documents are still there.

 

I had more of a problem with the weird N-400 snapshot (not the case for everyone) after submitting which looked like I skipped some answers and that I didn't do a chronological input of traffic citations. Good thing I did my own draft N-400 on paper before typing my info online. I mainly relied on my paper answers for the interview.