Oath ceremony scheduled but have international travel plan

[qjnl 4]

Hi all, I am in a dilemma... my N400 was approved in 2023 and finally received the Oath ceremony is scheduled in February. However, I have internation travel plan late March (part business part lesiure).

While I am excited to become a citizen, I believe at the Oath Ceremony, I will need to turn in my green card... which also mean I don't have travel documents and I will not be able to apply for a US passport in time.

What would you recommend?  Is it difficult to get the Oath Ceremony to be rescheduled? Or is there a way I can still travel without US passport even though I will become US citizen.

TIA!

[OldUser 5,053]

No, you cannot travel internationally without US passport after becoming a citizen.

 

Reschedule your travel plans if you can. Really consider it. I can't imagine becoming a citizen can be a lower priority than travel, be it business or leasure.

 

I can never recommend rescheduling. Sometimes USCIS will forget about you and you may end up trying to reach them to get an update for many months.

 

If you're ready to put some effort and test your luck, you can actually attend the ceremony, get naturalized and do your best arranging an urgent passport appointment. If you have 3 weeks or so between naturalization and and trip, you may be able to pull this off.

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[.yana 586]

Go take your Oath then apply for a passport via a passport agency.

 

It used to be ~$400, could be slightly more now. Turnaround is as quick as 48 hours. 
 

Free option is to apply for emergency passport appointment due to immediate travel. But I’m not familiar with that process and how successful it is.

[midwinterrose 263]

My husband got same-day passport because we had travel already booked.  You can call within 14 days of your booked travel and get an appointment to go into the passport office and they issue your passport the same day.  The other bonus of this method is we got his Naturalization certificate back in hand the same day.

[qjnl 4]

26 minutes ago, midwinterrose said:

My husband got same-day passport because we had travel already booked.  You can call within 14 days of your booked travel and get an appointment to go into the passport office and they issue your passport the same day.  The other bonus of this method is we got his Naturalization certificate back in hand the same day.

Would you mind to explain what does it mean with "....we got his Naturalization certificate back in hand the same day."?

I thought I can get my Naturalization certificate the same day on my Oath ceremony

[midwinterrose 263]

5 minutes ago, qjnl said:

Would you mind to explain what does it mean with "....we got his Naturalization certificate back in hand the same day."?

I thought I can get my Naturalization certificate the same day on my Oath ceremony

When you apply for the passport, you have to provide evidence of your citizenship.  In the case of a naturalized citizen, you provide the Naturalization certificate to the passport office along with the application.  It normally takes the passport office a few weeks to process your application and return your naturalization certificate back to you.  But if you do a same-day passport application, they give you back the naturalization certificate the same day that you apply, along with your new passport.

[qjnl 4]

36 minutes ago, midwinterrose said:

When you apply for the passport, you have to provide evidence of your citizenship.  In the case of a naturalized citizen, you provide the Naturalization certificate to the passport office along with the application.  It normally takes the passport office a few weeks to process your application and return your naturalization certificate back to you.  But if you do a same-day passport application, they give you back the naturalization certificate the same day that you apply, along with your new passport.

Thank you! This is really helpful. I found additional on travel.gov so I think it will be okay for me to keep the oath ceremony and still able to get the passport for travel in time.

[IamYourFriend 19]

Go ahead with your oath ceremony. Call your Senator's office within 14 days of your travel and ask for assistance to get a same day appointment with the closest passport agency to you. Success rate is really high and as someone mentioned, you get your naturalization certificate back that day.

Worked for me on a tighter schedule. Had to travel on the 2nd of January, oath ceremony on the 28th December. Called my Senator's office on the 19th December and they got me an appointment for the same day passport on the 29th December. Not recommending trying to push things through tight windows but it worked for me.

[mam521 1,776]

I did an urgent passport within 10 days of travel when I had my ceremony in April last year. 

 

We just did expedited passports through the post office for my kids in December.  Appointment was Dec. 19th, passports were issued Dec. 26.  I don't know why they were sent separately, but one arrived a couple of days later and the other Jan. 3 I believe it was.  Passports aren't backlogged like they used to be and are back to normal (and expedited) timelines without the extremes of requiring urgent service.  

[Cathi 5,621]

20 hours ago, OldUser said:

No, you cannot travel internationally without US passport after becoming a citizen.

 

Reschedule your travel plans if you can. Really consider it. I can't imagine becoming a citizen can be a lower priority than travel, be it business or leasure.

 

Absolutely this. There is no way I would ever reschedule and put naturalization in jeopardy. No trip is worth the risk.