lehan

Congratulations.

Besides the passport, remember that you need to update her SSN card (and info) as well as going to the DMV and get her info updated there as well. I don't know about you, but my State issues different driver's licenses to citizens and LPRs/non-immigrants.

Give it a week or so before doing so since the naturalization number will not be in the system this quickly.

Congratulations once again!!

I knew about SSN but was not aware that had to inform the DMV. I don't think licenses are different in CA but I will check. Thanks for the tip!

At last, my wife just had her oath ceremony in Oakland CA today It was a great event at a beautiful theater in downtown Oakland.

So glad we are done and all is left is the passport which we are not in a big hurry for.

As far as the timeline, we sent our N-400 application in around mid March 2010 and her oath was today. So total it took less than 4 months to process the N400 which is not bad at all.

Thanks to everyone on this forum for answering all our questions throughout our journey and I wish everyone the best of luck with theirs...

Hang in there!

Did you submit a copy of your marriage cert with the package? If yes, then most probably what they are asking for is to see an original copy of it.

You can also take, if have you, insurance coverage and 401k plans showing your spouse being the beneficiary...

my suggestion....

Yes, they have copies of marriage cert, , retirments accts, life insurance...etc. I am planning on taking originals of all of this stuff.

Hope its all they need!

Hi,

My wife's citizenship interview (based on marriage to a US citizen) is coming up and one of the documents they are asking for on the document checklist is 'proof of marital union', which is obviously different than 'proof of marriage' (marriage cert).

Any idea what they are looking for?

We have a 2-year old son, a mortgage and car loan in both our names, joint retirment accounts...etc. Is this considered proof of marital union?

thanks!

Your evidence is ok as is. You do not need to include the state taxes - at least it is not required and they never mention them; IRS is more important which you already included.

Good luck!!!

Thanks for the reply. I hope that is enough!

One other quick question; we used a 2-hole binder which has 6 divided sections to organize all the documents. Just want to make sure that this is acceptable?

Hi all,

So we are going to mail my wife's N-400 packet in the next few days. Her application is based on being an LPR for the last 3 years and being married to a US citizen for the past 3 years.

Could you please check the docs below and let me know if we have missed anything or need more/less?

-N-400

-Check for $675

-Two passport photographs

-Copy of permanent resident card (front and back)

-Copy of our marriage certificate

-Copy of spouse's naturalization certificate

-Copy of our son's birth certificate

-Copies of our joint tax return transcripts for the past 3 years

-Copy of our house Grant Deed

-Copy of real estate tax statements (last 3 years)

-Copy of life insurance policies (showing each other as beneficiaries)

-Copies of joint retirement investment accounts

I did not include state tax transcripts, are they needed?

Also we have other docs we could include but I am trying to stay within the guidelines. For example we have joint car title, joint utility bills, car insurance, home insurance, health cards...etc. Not sure if its any added value to include any of them as well, thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

If you haven't filed your 2009 taxes yet - and the deadline isn't until April 15, go with 2008, 2007 and 2006. If by the time you have your interview you have your 2009 taxes filed and a transcript available, bring it with you to the interview, but don't let that delay you from filing now if you are eligible.

I think that makes sense - I am planning on filing in the next couple of weeks so I will use the 06-08 transcripts.

Thanks for the reply!

So we are planning on submitting 3 years of tax returns with our N400 packet in the next week or so.

Dumb question but do we have to wait until our 2009 taxes are submitted and then use 2007-2009 returns for the N400 or can we just use 2006-2008 returns?

I do Have one other question; did you have to fill out the Biographic form G325 or G325A with the N400 packet?

Hi Lehan,

For the addresses/residences and employment/work section...I listed the five years (including my Canadian address and history)....

No harm in doing such there....

But for the travel section, I crossed out five and wrote "three-applying based on marriage" and listed three years only....

Reason being, that I haven't been in the USA for 5 years..And to count time outside of the USA since then doesn't make sense, since I wasn't here in the first place for 5 years to begin with....and if I would have listed the days outside of the country for 5 years..then counting those days, from a literal level, I would have listed too many days out of the country and would been ineligible for citizenship (which is not true)...Do you get what I'm saying here?

Needless to say, I had no problems during my immigration interview regarding that....

Hope this helps. Good luck with the rest of your journey too.

Ant

Well I have only been outside the US once for a period of 3.5 weeks in the past 3 years. So I would assume that would be the duration I should list?

It does not make sense to list anything more than the three years since I was not even living in the US then!

Somewhere it is stated that when you file using the 3 year rule, everywhere a question says 5 you read it as 3 and answer accordingly. Just list the trips for the last 3 years.

I found that when I filed my N-400 but trying to find the source just now I can't find it again.

We also looked everywhere for some kind of clarification but were not able to find one. If you do find the statement please do post it. Thanks!

Hi,

I am filing based on 3-year eligibility being married to a US citizen, and have a question on Part 7 of Form N400 regarding time outside the US.

A. How many total days did you spend outside the United States during the past 5 years?

Given I am filing based on 3 years of residency, how do I respond to this question? Should I caculate days outside the US during the past 3 years only? Or do I need to calculate against the 5 years. The 5 years will include the period before I moved to the US and became a US resident.

Thank you!

Anyone with any thoughts on this? Thanks!

Has your wife been a LPR (Legal Permanent Resident) for 3 years? The requirement is 3 Years as LPR and Married to USC.

Yes she has...she actually qualified for filing on Nov/09 but we have been dragging our feet on putting the N400 package together (not excusable really)!

Hi all,

So we are about to submit my wife’s N400 based on marriage to US citizen for 3 years.

Below is the list of docs we are submitting – I think this is sufficient but any input or recommendations would be appreciated.

My question is really about the timeline – example how many utility bills, bank statements, life insurance policy bills…etc should we provide? The most recent, 3 month, 1 year…3 years??

Docs we will be submitting:

- Green card copy

- Marriage cert

- My citizenship cert

- Our son's birth cert

- My passport copy

- Wife’s passport copy

- Passport photos

- Tax transcripts for last 3 years

- Home Mortgage info

- Life insurance docs (each of us is beneficiary to the other)

- Investment joint accounts docs

- Auto, home and umbrella insurance policies with both our names on them

- Car title with both our names on it

- Copies of driver’s license (although my wife’s still shows our old address)

- Electric utility bill with both names on it

- Anything else?

Thanks in advance!

Ok, that makes sense. But one thing I need to confirm is the 21 days she was out of the country in 2008 - don't you have to add them to the mix?

Meaning if she can apply on 11/04/09 (using the 3-years minus 90-days), then add 21 days = 11/25/09 as the application eligibility date

Or can I just simply ignore the 21 days she was out?

At any rate, we just started collecting the documents and most likely will not be ready to submit until early Dec (given the Holidays and having a 15 month old baby!!) so we should probably be fine

No, you don't have to count those.

Only if you break continuous residence (which your wife didn't), the clock starts over and you have to wait another 3 years (5 years for non-marriage based).

Your wife is absolutely good to go!

Great - Thanks for the confirmation and for everyone's responses, all were a great help. I am sure I will post new questions while collecting the docs and preping the packet but I have a good idea of what is needed (wish us luck )

Ok, that makes sense. But one thing I need to confirm is the 21 days she was out of the country in 2008 - don't you have to add them to the mix?

Meaning if she can apply on 11/04/09 (using the 3-years minus 90-days), then add 21 days = 11/25/09 as the application eligibility date

Or can I just simply ignore the 21 days she was out?

At any rate, we just started collecting the documents and most likely will not be ready to submit until early Dec (given the Holidays and having a 15 month old baby!!) so we should probably be fine

Thanks all for getting back to me - so if I am understanding all your replies, she can in fact apply 3 years minus 90 days?

here are the facts:

1) I have been a citizen for more than 3 years

2) we have been married for more than 3 years

3) my wife became a resident 2 years + 9 months ago (on 2/2/07)

4) she was only out of the country in 2008 for about 3 weeks

Result: 11/2/09 + 3 weeks (21 days) = she can apply on 11/23/09

Make sense?

So I recall that the lawyer who handled my wife's perm residency app saying that you we should be able to apply for her citizenship 90-days before the 3-year continuous residence requirement.

To explain further: my wife became a resident on Feb/02/07, so she will need to wait until Feb/02/2010 to apply for citizenship. However, based on the lawyer's statement, she can actually apply on Nov/02/09 (90-days before the 3-years requirement).

Since we will not be hiring a lawyer again for the N-400 application, I wanted to confirm that this is a true statement?

thanks in advance!

Thanks for all the info and a great link on how to submit the docs.

one other question on the how many statements to submit - is 4 months worth of statments for each year of marraige enough?

I have everything ready to go for our package expect the IRS transcripts have not yet come (I do have our own copies of what we gave the IRS). Is it worth waiting for the IRS transcripts or should we just mail it with the copies I already have? The 90 day window is just opening in 2 days.

Included:

• Joint bank statements
• Copies of joint credit cards
• Lease agreements (x2)
• 4 x notarized letters from friends
• Various cards addressed to us both
• Copies of airline and hotel reservations we made
• A letter from the church we attend
• Various photos

P.S.

Is it ok to blank out the card numbers on credit cards?

why dont you just call the IRS (1-800-829-1040) and request the transcripts to be faxed...I did and had them in my fax machine within 5 minutes.

my only question is do we need to include the state tax returns as well? not sure if you can get transcripts for them or should we just include copies of the e-file returns?

Just want to confirm if people submitted the first page of bank statements and util bills or the whole thing? it just makes the stack of docs so much bigger for their review!!

As for our driving licneses, the addresses are the same in the DMV system but on the driving license itself they are different. Not sure how to get around that and if we need to submit copies?

thanks...

wow, you really included lots of evidence - I am not sure if your husband's passport and birth certs are required, are they?

quick question on the bank statements...etc, did you include all the pages for each statement or just the front page showing both name?

Also did you send in photos on color printed paper or actually developed prints?

thanks for the help and good luck, we both need it!

great, thanks for the feedback. I didn't think the affidavit letters were necessary so I hope that is the case.

quick questions on assembling the documents; and best practices:

- i think passport photos are no longer required, is that correct?

- should we use a binder, staples or clip the documents in groups?

- should we highlight the names and dates on documents with a highlighter?

- should we write down the dates & event description on the back of each photo?

- is the front page of a bank statement for example enough or do we need to include all the pages?

thanks,

Just wondring what you included as evidence that mounted to 4 lbs!!

I am about ti file my wife's I751 and wondering if we have too little documents...