Reinterview after RFE for Citizenship

[wafzal84 0]

Hello. My mother filed Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, on April 7, 2025 in Sacramento. She had her interview in early December 2025. She passed English and civics tests. USCIS did not make an immediate decision and later issued a Request for Evidence on December 10, 2025, requesting additional documentation related to continuous residence and California state residency. She also broke her continous residency due to covid shut down in 2020. We submitted a response to the RFE on December 15, 2025. On February 5, 2026, USCIS scheduled a subsequent interview for the Form N-400 application. Is this normal and what kind of outcome we should expect from this 2nd interview?

TIA.

[Dashinka 26,547]

Not sure if it is common or not, but I would expect the focus would be on the subject of the RFE.  That being said, the IO can re-evaluate anything related to the N400, so make sure she is prepared.

 

Good Luck!

[OldUser 11,239]

8 hours ago, wafzal84 said:

She also broke her continous residency due to covid shut down in 2020.

When did she resume her residency? Most likely she will get denied if she broke residency within 5 years prior to filing. There are no special exceptions for COVID

[appleblossom 5,806]

8 hours ago, wafzal84 said:

She also broke her continous residency due to covid shut down in 2020

 

Exactly how long was she out of the US for? And did she file under the 3 year or 5 year provision?

[wafzal84 0]

She filed under 5 years provision. She broke her residency in 2020. she was outside of USA at the time of Covid and could not come back because of International travel Ban. She spend 8 months outside of USA at that time. The IO never asked about the continuous residency in the interview but he asked quite a lot of questions regarding her frequent international travel to her home country to which she explained that she visited her children and grand childrens but never abandon her California residency.

[appleblossom 5,806]

23 minutes ago, wafzal84 said:

She filed under 5 years provision. She broke her residency in 2020. she was outside of USA at the time of Covid and could not come back because of International travel Ban. She spend 8 months outside of USA at that time. The IO never asked about the continuous residency in the interview but he asked quite a lot of questions regarding her frequent international travel to her home country to which she explained that she visited her children and grand childrens but never abandon her California residency.

 

Exactly when in 2020? Sounds like she wasn't eligible to apply. If (for example) she left the US from February 2020 to October 2020, then she's presumed to have broken residence, and it can be overcome but will be tricky. Really she should have waited until 5 years from when she returned to the US. 

 

https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-d-chapter-3

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by appleblossom

[wafzal84 0]

So there is not exception from USCIS for the continuous residency breakup due to Covid shutdown? Do they give exception case by case?