What happens if I don't travel within the next 30 days after an Expedited N-400??

[Pumpkin 24]

I'm freaking out and need advice.

Also I'm not sure if I should have posted this here or under US Citizenship General Discussion.

Sorry if I posted this in the wrong forum.

 

So, I expedited my N-400 which got delayed a bit because it clashed with the window opening to file my I-751 (detailed timeline of when I filed in my signature).

Fast forward a few weeks and now I'm finally having my interview for both the I-751 and the N-400 in 2 days on November 4, this Wednesday.

I was in a call with the Immigration Officer who will be conducting the interview and he mentioned that I will be taking the Oath Ceremony the same day and that I have to leave the US in the next 30-45 days (not sure if I heard him right when he said 45) after I naturalize.

 

Here's my problem....to go to Italy where my husband is stationed (we'll be staying there for 3 years, until October 2023), I have to apply for an Italian National Visa which I already did using my current passport (non-US). I haven't gotten my visa yet but I already processed it with the passport agent on base on October 20 (did it a week prior but there were errors so I had to re-do it) and she estimated the processing time to be around 3 weeks but it could take longer, it all depends. Assuming she didn't send out my application to the Italian Embassy until later that week, I want to safe-estimate that the Italian Embassy probably (hopefully) received my application on or before October 26.

 

But what with delays with just about everywhere due to the pandemic, what if I don't get the visa before the 30-45 days are up wherein I have to leave the US after expedited naturalization? That's not even taking into account that I'm worried my visa application will be denied. ---- I've been freaking out about this since my passport that I sent out to apply for the visa is expiring on October 2021. It says on the Italian embassy website that the passport has to be valid 3 more months from when I plan to leave Italy. The visa I applied for is for 365 days which means my passport has to have an expiry date of at least January 2022...but if they're basing it on when I plan to leave Italy, then I should have a passport that expires on January 2024 since I indicated in the application that I plan to leave Italy on October 2023 as per the passport agent's instructions as a military dependent applying for the visa. I did voice my concern about this to the passport agent but she said my application should be fine and we went ahead with the filing. It's reassuring that she thinks it'll be okay but I'm still not convinced until I actually get my passport back with that visa. (If anyone has any knowledge about Italian National Visas at all, I would also appreciate any information I can get about it; like if my passport isn't valid the extra 3 months, would they still approve my application but give me a 90 or 120 day visa instead of the 365 day visa I applied for ot something?) ---- I know I should have filed for the visa application before getting my N-400 expedited but my husband and I have been receiving very conflicting advice from everywhere about what I needed to go to Italy. We were under the impression that I can just go to Italy with his orders for a while and basically found out that I actually needed a visa after I already requested for the expedite. 

 

Anyway, with all that said....what will happen if I don't leave the US 30-45 days after I naturalize? Should I just tell them that I'll hold off on the oath ceremony until after I get back my passport with the visa just to be safe?

[TBoneTX 43,514]

Thread is moved from Military Discussion to the US Citizenship main forum.

[NEW CITIZEN 151]

What Nationality are/were you.  

Your Signature says you already took the oath.

So now you are a US citizen.

Why did the immigration officer tell you you have to leave the US?

 

Once you are a US Citizen, the base will get you a no fee passport with an Italian Visa, thee you apply for soggiorno when you arrive.

 

Army? Navy? Air Force?

[Pumpkin 24]

1 hour ago, NEW CITIZEN said:

What Nationality are/were you.  

Your Signature says you already took the oath.

So now you are a US citizen.

Why did the immigration officer tell you you have to leave the US?

 

Once you are a US Citizen, the base will get you a no fee passport with an Italian Visa, thee you apply for soggiorno when you arrive.

 

Army? Navy? Air Force?

This has actually been resolved already. I posted my situation in another thread regarding my question here and what happened afterwards. Didn’t realize this post was moved, but thanks for replying anyway.

 

Here’s my situation in case it could help someone who might go through the same in the future:
 

Basically if you get citizenship expedited (specifically for cases like mine which is due to my husband being “continuously employed overseas”), you have to leave the US within a timeframe since they expedited my citizenship for that very reason. I expedited so I can join my husband (Air Force) in Italy since he’s stationed there for 3 years. I asked the IO during my interview about how strict this rule is before I agreed on taking the oath ceremony that same day because I was still in the middle of applying for my Italian Visa/Siggiorno at the time. My Italian visa application was still pending with no sure date of when I can get it (and fears that it might get denied; Italian visa requires for the passport to be valid an extra 3 months after intent to leave Italy, which mine did not...my passport was going to expire next year and I intended to leave Italy in 2023 which is how long my husband will be stationed there; I had applied for a 365 day visa which is the longest you can apply for but even then my passport expires before 365 days), so I was concerned that I could possibly not leave in 30-45 days. I explained my situation and the IO said I don’t have to leave if I really can’t, just as long as I intend to leave, which I do, then it’s fine to go beyond the 30-45 days.

 

As for the Italian Visa, you actually shouldn’t just go to Italy without applying for it first. I was told that several people have done this successfully before but rules changed over the years and they even specifically indicate it on the Aviano AB website about dependents having to apply for one BEFORE arriving (I only found out about this from someone on reddit who directed me to the site indicating the requirements; otherwise people on base all had NO CLUE what I needed). No-fee passports you can only get/apply for if you’re a US citizen (and it has a currently 1-2 month wait to process) and the Italian Visa currently has an average wait of 3 weeks depending on your nationality/passport (IDK what all the wait times are normally but these are all taking into consideration the delays due to COVID). I received my Italian visa which took 2 weeks (it was thankfully approved although they didn’t give me the 365 day visa because of the 3 month validity thing; they gave me a 250 day visa which is fine as long as I can travel, it just means I have to renew it sooner). I applied for the visa before I naturalized so I didn’t have the option of using a no-fee passport for the visa application which I was fine with since it would’ve taken longer to apply for a no-fee passport and then a visa anyway.

 

So with regards to the 30-45 days, it doesn’t matter for me now since I already have my Italian visa (I was actually notified that it was approved the very next day after I naturalized) and I’ll be traveling/moving to Italy before then, but it’s definitely fine to go beyond those days if you can’t help it.

[NEW CITIZEN 151]

Congrats.

 

Bring filtered PM 2.5 masks with you for everyday use, they still burn their trash.🤨