Serious question, what's the truthful answer here?

[Publius 0]

Background: married American serviceman over 20 years ago, LPR status through marriage adjudicated almost 20 years ago, divorced almost 10 years ago, ready to apply for Citizenship on the 5-year rule.

 

On Part 9 (Additional Information About You), question #6 reads:

 

"Have you EVER been a member of, involved in, or in any way associated with, or have you EVER provided money, a thing of value, services or labor, or any other assistance or support to a group that:

 

6.a. Used a weapon or explosive with intent to harm another person or cause damage to property?

6.b. Engaged (participated) in kidnapping, assassination, or hijacking or sabotage of an airplane, ship, vehicle, or other mode of transportation?

6.c. Threatened, attempted (tried), conspired (planned with others), prepared, planned, advocated for, or incited (encouraged) others to commit any of the acts listed in Item Numbers 6.a. or 6.b.?"

 

While I understand the real purpose of this question should be to rule out any terrorist involvement with enemies of this great country, and the obvious answer for any well-intentioned person should be a resounding NO, if we read the question LITERALLY though, what's an ex-spouse of an Infantryman (a mortar man at that!) for the US Army supposed to answer here?

 

I feel that the answer should be YES to all 3 points, now how to do so and expect not to have an entire SWAT team waiting at the interview I don't know.

 

Serious question, really. Is this one of those "f... if you do, f... if you don't" scenarios?

 

Thanks in advance.

[OldUser 10,313]

These are emotionally charged questions. For US, a intelligence officer is a hero serving the country's interests, while for a foreign government he's a spy.

Same here, I'd say no unless you think you were a member of a gang. You served this country and weren't doing anything illegal hopefully.

Edited Monday at 06:16 AM by OldUser

[Publius 0]

5 minutes ago, OldUser said:

These are emotionally charged questions. For US, a intelligence officer is a hero serving the country's interests, while for a foreign government he's a spy.

Same here, I'd say no unless you think you were a member of a gang. You served this country and weren't doing anything illegal hopefully.

 

Exactly my point. Several tours of duty in Iraq as a mortarman, you tell me. Pretty sure he and his brothers in arms must have done those things, as well as some others mentioned further down in the same section. We were married for over 10 years; I supported him from the get-go and even though we've been divorced for a while the concept still stands.

 

Other than that, no, I have never had any involvement with any gang anywhere in the world ever, or any criminal background whatsoever. The extent of my "support" or "involvement" (USCIS' words) with such activities is limited to my involvement and support for my husband and his mission. But if they want raw, unadulterated honesty and truth, well, hubby was an 11C, the nature of his work was in his own words "to blow sh... up".

 

I was honestly thinking of answering YES just for the sake of accuracy and complete transparency, explaining of course what I just said here. But on the other hand, I am afraid that this might be misconstrued as a mockery towards the process, which couldn't be any further from my intention.

 

Perhaps is best to answer NO but "with reserves", adding an additional explanation for such answer? Or would be better in this case to tell the officer at the beginning of the interview?

 

Thank you very much for answering. This question is very delicate, at least for me.

 

[OldUser 10,313]

To clarify my comment above. I don't think US government would consider US Army a "group that uses weapon to threaten or harm people or properties or hijack planes". In my view it would be ridiculous to compare the US Army to such group, but maybe I don't understand something.

[Publius 0]

3 minutes ago, OldUser said:

To clarify my comment above. I don't think US government would consider US Army a "group that uses weapon to threaten or harm people or properties or hijack planes". In my view it would be ridiculous to compare the US Army to such group, but maybe I don't understand something.

Logically and realistically, I don't think so either, and I would not want to be lost in semantics, but also, I don't have the slightest idea of how important they might or might not be, hence my concerns.

[JeanneAdil 7,203]

"Have you EVER been a member of, involved in?

 

these questions are about u not your former spouse

[.yana 628]

5 hours ago, JeanneAdil said:

"Have you EVER been a member of, involved in?

 

these questions are about u not your former spouse

It does then say "or associated with" so I understand OP's concern; however agree with OldUser that USCIS would not consider serving in the US Army under this category.

[Redro 4,628]

Do you really think USCIS expects anyone sponsored by someone in the military to reply yes?

Do you expect people currently serving or applying for citizenship so they can serve to state yes? 
Is this a real question or are you being pedantic?

 

If it makes you feel better, you can always answer YES for all three questions and explain your reasoning at your interview. The officer will modify your answer accordingly. 

[Ban Hammer 14,382]

as this thread has run its course, it is now locked.
do not restart this thread

eta:  one post removed as it is AI generated.  do not post AI generated advice.

Edited Monday at 06:17 PM by Ban Hammer