ohman

We got there and there sounds to have been some sort of missing documents stations for people who never received or misplaced their n445. Take home point, if you do not have your n445 notice of oath ceremony, and you know you are scheduled and are reading this, definitely show up. 

Thanks for all the help!

We went through the entire process, oath ceremony tomorrow, with no ID of any kind except the green card. No state ID or driver's license. 

Oath ceremony is tomorrow. 

They faxed us a form with only time and address of oath ceremony. It has a barcode on it too. It is not an n445 form as I was ecpecting. 

I take it we just show up with this form in leu of the n445 form, and they will probably have us fill out and sign the n445 there? 

My wife was just a bit worried about not showing up with the actual n445, but I think it will work out since we got this fax. 

I am in the same spot as the original post.

Oath ceremony is tomorrow though. They faxed us a form with only time and address of oath ceremony. It has a barcode on it too. I take it we just show up with this form as in leu of the n445 form, and they will probably have us fill out and sign the n445 there? 

My wife was just a bit worried about not showing up with the actual n445, but I think it will work out since we got this fax. 

On 7/21/2018 at 4:41 PM, CTgal18 said:

Excuse me? I stated that I did not file taxes for 5 years when I was a student and had no income, therefore according to federal law, I was not required to file. So what exactly am I being deported for?

You were not required to file, but it is advisable to file in my opinion.

1 hour ago, shomer said:

You are wrong and you stand corrected. 

Yes, I was wrong about being compelled to file your taxes, which makes sense to me because some folks will not be working. 

However, take me for example. I did the n400 for my wife who does not really speak english. Do I want her to have to answer "no" when they ask her if all her taxes have been filed in an interview? No, I really do not think I want that. Do what you may, but I think it would be pretty silly of me to put her in that situation when it is si easy to file a tax return for someone who hasn't worked. 

Or, do I want her... again, a person who does not speak english and has never even seen a tax form, to answer "why did you not file your taxes". No, I do not personally think it is ideal to put her in a situation to answer that question, as opposed to no question at all. And as stated, I think no tax returns raises red flags. Someone can argue with me all they want, but that is my opinion. So, why not just file the back taxes. 

The gentleman I was discussing this with brought up his own interview as an example, which was useful. So I will bring up mine. My wife, a non english speaker, was in and out of her interview in 10 minutes. Interestingly, the one thing they asked her for at the end of the interview was what? Tax transcripts. So I suppose I did something right as well. 

File your back taxes if you can. It is easy, and you wont have to answer no to anyes question. 

2 hours ago, Russ&Caro said:

Haha fax. That's some good new technology there. Well, thank god you found out. As soon as I read your story I was suspicious of USCIS and the local office as it shouldn't be like pulling teeth to get the date of your oath ceremony. Good luck at the ceremony. You're in the home stretch.

Thank you for the help! I seriously probably would have missed the ceremony if it was not for you guys here. I did call and the woman told me to wait a month before I called back. Glad I did not listen to that. 

It still isn't over though. Hopefully I will get my hands on this fax Monday. 

38 minutes ago, CTgal18 said:

But your opinion or mine is not what matters, the LAW is what matters. And you are not breaking or even bending the law if you don’t file taxes when you are not required. The IRS lays it out plain and simple who is required to file taxes and who is not. Those laws and requirements are all that matters.

 

And your argument of legitimacy and chances of approval argument is clearly incorrect as I was approved on the spot and will be naturalized Thursday. 

That last point you made I think could vary though. I do admit though I did think it was required when doing an n400. What you say makes sense as a 95 year old for example could file an n400 and of course he would not be required to work to be successful, but I would personally still think he should file his taxes to better his chances. 

10 minutes ago, CTgal18 said:

Well it’s guess you should go have a conversation with my immigration officer who approved me on the spot even after not having filed for 5 years while I was in school and not making income. He didn’t even blink an eye. But I guess you must know better than him. 

No, I am not saying that. All I was really contending is your overall chances would have been better by filing, so why not file? You know to file a tax return when you make no koney takes 5 minutes, right? I should know, I have done it lol. 

I guess to each their own. If I was in your spot I would have filed because you can potentially cause more problems for yourself by not filing. Did he ask you a question about not filing? You would not even get that question if you filed. I still don't see the problem with just filing. I would be curious what others say. 

1 minute ago, CTgal18 said:

But your opinion or mine is not what matters, the LAW is what matters. And you are not breaking or even bending the law if you don’t file taxes when you are not required. The IRS lays it out plain and simple who is required to file taxes and who is not. Those laws and requirements are all that matters. 

I hear these arguments all the time, so off base. In my opinion you are confused if you don't think filing taxes is important when naturalizing. 

What you are saying is like saying it does not matter what I wear to a job interview, what I say and my answers on paper are all that matters. Are you living in the real world? What you wear, what you drive, how you look, it all matters. It should not matter, but it does.

So yes, if you want to naturalize I would file all your taxes if you would like to make a better impression. Honestly thought there are folks in here who know much more about it than me (you obviously not being one of them), and I would happily defer to them. But, you still have jot answered, "why in the world don't you just file with a reported income of 0?"

7 minutes ago, CTgal18 said:

I am not confused. There is no such criteria that you have to file taxes for the naturalization process even if the IRS didn’t require you to. You can show me solid proof to prove me wrong.  People may do it for piece of mind or do it on a joint income tax if married but that is used as proof of living in marital union. Like I said I didn’t file taxes for 5 years because I was in school and had no income and I had zero issues with my application. The tax issue does not have a statutory period like traveling or being arrested, you can be denied on N400 for not filing taxes 10 years ago if you were required to and didn’t. Which is why the question asks “have you EVER not filed taxes” and not “in the past five years” like it does for travel. 

 

 Again, you are sending the wrong message to people on a public forum that you have to file taxes even if you make zero dollars and if you don’t, you are “being stupid” which is incorrect. The OP is more than welcome to do it for piece of mind but if it is not a legal requirement, the simple explanation on the form that they weren’t required to file taxes will not cause red flags or suspicion unless OP is hiding something. 

I will just take your word for it. Ok, settled. 

But, impressions matter. Again, what is better as an io looks over your forms for approval or not. Exagerated example: last five years no filed taxes, or last five years all filed and everything in order. 

You can say whatever you want, even assuming your argument is correct, you are still wrong. It is mot peace of mind, it dould be the difference of whether or not you are a citizen or not. These are the exact type of things they que in on.... taxes! If you have no taxes filed, your legitimacy goes down alomg with your chances of approval. I thought this was common knowledge. 

If you are going to file an n400, file all your taxes, and back taxes for the years in question would be my advice. You are still not giving me a valid reason why one would not do this?

Maybe I am not understandimg the problem. What is the diffculty in simply filing the back taxes? 

In any event, I will leave it up to the op whether or not to do it. But, for example, if you don't work this year while you file the n400, for gods sake file a tax return saying you earned zero, dont be stupid and not file. 

4 hours ago, CTgal18 said:

 

This statement is inaccurate as there is actually criteria from the IRS on who needs to file a tax return. If everyone should be filing taxes every year, why would these criteria exist?? It is NOT a requirement for everyone to file taxes even if they make $0. I have been a permanent resident for 14 years and didn’t file for the first 5 years due to not working while in school. I was not required to file any of those years and I stated on my N400 application that I’ve always filed my taxes, which I have when I was required to. No red flags , no suspicion or issues during my naturalization process because I didn’t make any income and according to the federal government, I was not required to file. Do not claim that only people who don’t file taxes are “drug dealers” because that’s just not true. 

I did not say it was a requirment, or did not mean to. All I am saying is if you are trying to become a citizen, file all your taxes, for every single year, even if you have to do it late. If you don't like that advice I understand, I would just argue it is more of a red flag. For example, what is kore of a red flag... your last five years of taxes are all filed and in order, or you have not filed taxes for five years? Do you see that? Plus, as I said, they as you if you have filed all your taxes. If you say no to one of they "yes" questions, that is bad news, especially when you can just send in a tax form will zeros on it, but do as you will. 

Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I believe it is a requirement for your citizenship that you file your taxes in the years that pertain to your citizenship status. You jot having to file, and you jot having to file while trying to become a citizen are two different things, and it is where you sre getting confused. 

If you are doing naturalization paperwork, file all your back taxes. Yes, even if you did not earn a cent. Just send in the form with all 0's, it is not hard. 

People who don't file taxes are drug dealers and stuff. Just file your backtaxes, it is not hard. But if you would like to raise suspicion I suppose it would be ok not to file late. 

It does not matter if you are legally required to fill them out or not, if you are naturalizing you want them dome every year. There are even questions like "did you file taxes every year?" You really do not want to be compelled to say no to that, a huge red flag. 

I would file (late) for 2013 and mark yes. 

The appointment is in fact next week. Found out on the phone. No notice yet, they are supoosed to fax it though.

THanks for the suggestions. So I got into the online account. There is no oath notification document unless I am lookimg in the wring spot.

The one thing that stood out like a sore thumb to me, is under case history, it says:

We scheduled your oath ceremony (then a date early this month)

We scheduled your oath ceremony (then a date a few days after above date)

So it says that step twice. I am no expert but it seems like something could be wrong. Any input on why it would state that twice, or what the problem could be? Or any guesses as to if the notice is lost or still just being mailed?

Thanks!

33 minutes ago, CTgal18 said:

Sorry if I missed your answer somewhere but do you not have the option to view it online on https://myaccount.uscis.dhs.gov?

I tried that. I think i made the account in 2014 and it locked me out. I tried to get back in just now but it asked me the most absurd security question I have ever seen. 

If i could get back in there would the form be in there? I think I made that account to get a visa for my wife to come to the usa on a green card, not for the n400. I don't think I have used it since. It really confuses me; would it even be connected to my n400 case, or would i kake a new account? 

On 7/18/2018 at 11:30 AM, Russ&Caro said:

You can try early in the morning, and some have said that their local offices make new appointment slots available at like 12:01 AM.

 

The problem with an infopass appt, especially one where 2 weeks would be the earliest date, is that you might be fighting against the time clock. I definitely see your concern because the whole "notice" and then later appointment letter is really an oddball way of arranging these interviews and ceremonies. Why not just identify the date of the appointment within the initial notice? It's crazy!

 

By the way, when you called, did you escalate to a Tier 2 agent?

Thank you! Will try in the morning, but as you say it could be too late if we are in fact missing the oath. 

I did not. I asked her if there was anything I could do, which was probably a question too setup for failure. I would not mind trying that tomorrow as well too. Thanks! Do i just say "I would like to escalate to a tier 2 agent?"

I am a 20 hour flight away and stuck waiting for an oath letter that seems to be not showing up. So count your lucky stars. 

On 7/16/2018 at 12:04 PM, Russ&Caro said:

Call USCIS and ask them why you haven't received the letter yet. By now, you should have already received the online version of the letter at: https://myaccount.uscis.dhs.gov/

 

My wife received her n400 interview letter exactly one day after she received the "notice" that it was coming from an email and from her online account. Others have reported similar short durations between receiving the notice and the letter.

 

Two weeks is too long, and as your suspicions are telling you, if you wait around until August 4th to inquire about it, you might actually miss your actual oath ceremony.

 

If you can't get help through the USCIS phone support, you might want to make an infopass appointment at your local office and inquire about it, in person.

 

Good luck.

Here is what I get when I try the infopass. I can try again tomorrow, don't have much hope, but I will try. 

I am in this same spot as the op was. It looks like she got her notification somehow by going to the office. That is amazing. 

We were told by the IO at the interfiew that "the oath ceremony letter will arrive in 10 days". AND, that our oath would take place THIS month, so July, which will be on the 24th according to the LA convention center's website. I almost want to show up there without the notification, even though I know it probably wont work. 

I called them today and they just said I must wait 30 days to be able to ask about this lol. I asked what if we miss the scheduled oath ceremony while waiting the 30 days, and was told to just follow the instructions on the notice to reschedule. That was a very interesting "solution". 

For the life of me i am not sure why they can't just deal with things like this on the phone. 

We are in a really tough spot I wont go all into, and we do not seem to be getting our notification for oath ceremony. 

Does anyone know what happens of you just do not do the oath and want to do it at a later date? I take it at some point you could not do the oath anymore, or do you only get one shot at it?

Thanks.

On 7/16/2018 at 8:31 PM, Russ&Caro said:

(800) 375-5283

Make sure you have your n400 case number handy when you call.

I called and was informed we are compelled to wait 30 days to inquire about this, even if it is at the pain of missing the ceremony. That is all great except for the fact that every day that goes by I am away from my office and missing work.

Thank you for your help!

Thank you. I will try to call them tomorrow. No idea how, but I will try.