Do we have enough docs to file N-400 under 3 year rule?

[Bill Hamze 93]

Hi all, good evening! I've been helping my wife gather our documents for her naturalization application. She is the applicant, I am the USC.

 

So far we have the following, other than the application form itself:

REQUIRED DOCS
- Her green card + her acceptance letter
- Our marriage certificate
- My birth certificate (proving my citizenship)
- My divorce decree

 

BEST SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
- Tax return transcripts from the last 3 years, we filed MFJ
- Utility bills with both names on it
- Health insurance with both names on it
- Auto insurance with both names on it
- Homeowner insurance with both names on it
- Property tax bills with both names on it (hers was a shortened version of her legal name)
- Beneficiary designations with her name on it
- Her own bank and credit card statements (not joint, but shows the same address we lived at for 3 years, and she is an authorized CC user)
- Birth certificate and CRBA for our child (both names are on both docs)
- My driver’s license and her REAL ID learner’s permit (both show the same address)
- Mortgage deed with both of our names on it (waiting for the corrected deed with her full legal name, it should be ready in a week or so)
- Preschool enrollment papers for our child, both names on it
- Plane tickets for POE in June 2022 as proof we came here together as a family
- Change of address form submissions and confirmation receipts (both AR-11 from her and I-865 from me)
- About 10 photos of our life together in a single pdf

 

OTHER EVIDENCE (that I'm leaning on not submitting)
- shared cell phone plan

- shared Amazon Prime family account

- a work order/receipt for a home appliance purchase that I let her take the lead on… I mention this only because it shows a paper trail that helps link her finances to mine.

 

Now here are my questions:

1a) Is it a bad that we don't have a joint bank account? We honestly never felt the need for one. But we have everything else. Is that enough to overcome not having a joint account?

1b) Should we bolster the case for our financial co-mingling by submitting our shared consumer stuff? Thinking stuff like shared Amazon Prime, family cell phone plan, etc. But at the same time it feels like overkill to me. 

 

1c) Is a Will and Power of Attorney helpful in the absence of a joint bank account, or is it not going to add much to what we already have?

 

2) Are we required to submit passport style photos? Some places say you do, but other places say only if we're applying from outside the U.S. which we're not. We plan to file online if that helps.

 

3) We have NOT been out of the U.S. for longer than 6 months at any time since we all came here in 2022, but we DID take a 3-week trip to her home country to visit her family last year. The N-400 form does ask if we have taken any trips, so should we attach plane tickets showing a round trip along with our supporting evidence? Just to make sure there is no question that we weren’t out of the country longer than 3 weeks.

 

4) Last thing, we just found out my wife is pregnant and we're expecting our second child sometime early December. That's a little over 7 months away so there's a non-zero chance that they might schedule an interview or oath ceremony at the same time she would give birth. Generally how lenient is USCIS on rescheduling for reasons around giving birth?

THANK YOU for getting this far, I know it's a lot but I'm very grateful you read all this and I hope to hear from you if you have any insights!

 

[OldUser 8,880]

Generally, your evidence looks great and should be enough to get her N-400 approved.

[OldUser 8,880]

7 minutes ago, Bill Hamze said:

1a) Is it a bad that we don't have a joint bank account? We honestly never felt the need for one. But we have everything else. Is that enough to overcome not having a joint account?

 

Normally it is a minus, but in your case it's more than compensated by other quality evidence you listed such as home deed and joint taxes. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

 

[OldUser 8,880]

9 minutes ago, Bill Hamze said:

1b) Should we bolster the case for our financial co-mingling by submitting our shared consumer stuff? Thinking stuff like shared Amazon Prime, family cell phone plan, etc. But at the same time it feels like overkill to me. 

 

 

Keep it in your pocket in case if you're asked for more evidence

[OldUser 8,880]

13 minutes ago, Bill Hamze said:

1c) Is a Will and Power of Attorney helpful in the absence of a joint bank account, or is it not going to add much to what we already have?

Don't do it for naturalization. Consider those for life in general.

Not required for N-400.

Edited Wednesday at 01:19 AM by OldUser

[OldUser 8,880]

13 minutes ago, Bill Hamze said:

2) Are we required to submit passport style photos? Some places say you do, but other places say only if we're applying from outside the U.S. which we're not. We plan to file online if that helps.

Not required. Only needed to apply for US passport.

[OldUser 8,880]

14 minutes ago, Bill Hamze said:

 

3) We have NOT been out of the U.S. for longer than 6 months at any time since we all came here in 2022, but we DID take a 3-week trip to her home country to visit her family last year. The N-400 form does ask if we have taken any trips, so should we attach plane tickets showing a round trip along with our supporting evidence? Just to make sure there is no question that we weren’t out of the country longer than 3 weeks.

Tickets not required to prove trips. But only if you want to show bonafide marriage (travelling together). It wouldn't hurt.

[OldUser 8,880]

20 minutes ago, Bill Hamze said:

 

4) Last thing, we just found out my wife is pregnant and we're expecting our second child sometime early December. That's a little over 7 months away so there's a non-zero chance that they might schedule an interview or oath ceremony at the same time she would give birth. Generally how lenient is USCIS on rescheduling for reasons around giving birth?

THANK YOU for getting this far, I know it's a lot but I'm very grateful you read all this and I hope to hear from you if you have any insights!

 

It's always best to show up for interview and ceremony VS rescheduling it. Why? Because sometimes USCIS may take a while to reschedule it. Some cases get in the "black hole", taking months and sometimes years for somebody to pay attention to them at USCIS.

 

However, giving birth is very good reason for rescheduling interview or oath. If she can't attend, she can't attend.

 

Many cases get approved within 6 months. So maybe she'd be lucky and naturalize before December.

Edited Wednesday at 01:27 AM by OldUser

[Sam Walz 16]

You could get away with submitting a lot less, and bringing the rest to your interview. For example, you could probably just submit the tax returns and CBRA of your child with the application, those are the strongest pieces of evidence anyway (compared to something like airplane tickets or utility bills). 

Depending on the state you were granted a divorce in, you could also probably get a copy of the divorce "certificate" (e.g. Virginia provides one) from the state's vital records office and submit that instead of the full divorce decree. Certificates are one-page documents that prove a divorce occurred. Decrees are typically several pages that have a lot of unnecessary details. 

Shorter the application, the better it is for whoever reviews it. 

Edited Wednesday at 01:36 PM by Sam Walz

[OldUser 8,880]

14 minutes ago, Sam Walz said:

You could get away with submitting a lot less, and bringing the rest to your interview. 

I disagree with this approach.

 

Frontloading application makes more sense to me. Officer has a chance to review everything before the interview and "make decision" in their head before interview starts. On the contrary, when you bring new facts / evidence during the interview, this means officer will have to study it during interview, or more likely, after interview, delaying decision. Why not have the strongest hand from the beginning?

[OldUser 8,880]

26 minutes ago, Sam Walz said:

Shorter the application, the better it is for whoever reviews it. 

I disagree with this. Application is the same length whether you have 10 pages or evidence or 1000 pages of evidence. The N-400 is still the same form with same length of pages and answers to review.

 

Giving more evidence ensures IO has option to select and check what they're interested in. I always submitted the max I could for my cases at various stages of immigration process. It was never an issue. I never had RFE.

During AOS, officer just picked a few pages of this and that from thick file and was satisfied with that. On the contrary, I hear stories of people submitting thin files and IO being thirsty for more evidence.

 

It's a 3 year rule N-400, bonafide marriage evidence is very relevant and cannot hurt.

[Bill Hamze 93]

57 minutes ago, Sam Walz said:

Depending on the state you were granted a divorce in, you could also probably get a copy of the divorce "certificate" (e.g. Virginia provides one) from the state's vital records office and submit that instead of the full divorce decree. Certificates are one-page documents that prove a divorce occurred. Decrees are typically several pages that have a lot of unnecessary details.

 

Divorce decree is from different state, already requested a copy from their vital records years ago because I had to for the i-130 petition anyway. It's what they sent me, and it's what I have. Will just resubmit that again.

 

My experience so far with immigration aligns more with what @OldUser is saying. I frontloaded the initial petition and also beefed it up even more during NVC. Never got RFE. Visa interview lasted 30 seconds. I didn't even get a chance to organize my evidence at the desk when IO said "visa approved, congrats"

Edited Wednesday at 02:34 PM by Bill Hamze

[.yana 603]

The only things I submitted for my N-400 (filed online under 3 year rule) aside from required documents were tax transcripts, and not even for 3 years, just 2 (I added the latest one once filed online).

No issues with approval.