randomstairs

No issues even if you update it after several months or years unless you are applying for something that rely on SSA for your citizenship status.

There's no way to predict the specific day off that you will need.
 
You might get 4 weeks notice or more, or you might get less.
 
If the boss says no when you know, then you will have a tough choice. It would be an easy choice for me: tell the boss I'm going to take oath anyway, and he fires me, he fires me. 

30 minutes. I told the IO to skip the English  test since I was seen at 5pm (4 hours after I was scheduled) and we both wanted to go home. 

No the officer wanted a brand new, recently taken passport photo such as what people get when they apply for a passport. 
 
In theory each USCIS office has a digital camera where each N-400 applicant has a photo taken during the interview. My IO was incredulous that I didn’t bring passport photos:
 
Me: “the interview letter explicitly said no need to bring passport photos”
 
IO: “I need them for your naturalization certificate”
 
Me, points to his digital camera on his desk, “so use that”
 
IO: “it’s broken”

So I came back the next day with photos. A month stern had oath and the naturalization certificate used a photo I had never seen before and must have been from my biometrics a year prior. 
 
I asked an immigration lawyer why would they need passport photos at the interview and she explained that the for security reasons device that prints naturalization certificates, permits just two attempts with same photo.  USCIS wants extra photos so they can have at least 4 attempts.  
 

An I-551 document is issued when you become a lawful permanent resident (LPR)
 
Most I-551 documents   are green cards. Look closely at your copy of green card. Somewhere on it you will see in fine print “I-551”. On my wife’s card it is on the back top left. On both my green cards, back bottom right. 
 
There are other kinds of I-551s, including but not limited to:
 
* a stamp on a passport 
* a stamp on a paper I-94 
 
In your situation you would get one of the above when you needed it.  

Finally I received my NC yesterday in the mail, after 4 months

My understanding….
 
Estate tax always used to exempt the surviving estate that was passed to the surviving spouse.  In the 1980s Congress passed a law denying this e demotion to all non citizen surviving spouses as Congress believed surviving spouses, including LPRs were taking the estate outside the USA, and thus forever keeping out of control of the IRS.  
 
Back when the estate tax exempted the first $600,000 of the estate this  was a problem for surviving LPR spouses. 

It’s now over $12,000,000 (soon to be over $13,000,000 I think) and so the lack of an estate tax exemption doesn’t affect most surviving LPR spouses when it comes to paying the actual tax.  
. 
 
However
 
* some couples have a revocable living trust instead of a wills so that probate is avoided.  AFAIK  a revocable living trust requires at least one trustee be a U.S. citizen. 
 
* there is an annual limit ($164,000 in 2022) on gifts to a non citizen spouse
 
* subject to jury duty. Given the ways I’ve seen jury duty handled, I consider this to be a burdensome. If I knew 100 percent that I would be on a jury panel, at least during the selection phase it would be fine.  Calling a phone number each day for 2 weeks  between say the hours of 9pm and 10pm means I am stranded for 2 weeks. 
 
* cannot board a flight to U.S. without a U.S. passport 
 
* it is harder to replace a naturalization certificate than a green card 
 
* when petitioning spouses and children under 21, these people are considered “immediate family”. There are no derivatives permitted with immediate family petitions.
 
So for example an LPR petitioning a daughter under age 21 who has a son, will be able bring daughter and grandson to the U.S. at the same time, because the daughter is not an immediate relative of a  U.S. citizen  petitioner.  Whereas if the petitioner were a U.S. citizen, the grandson will be stranded and the daughter will have to petition her son once she enters the USA to become an LPR  
 
Logistics are hard in this case and it comes up on VJ several times a year.
 
* the F1 category (not to be confused with non immigrant student visas) is unmarried  sons and daughters of U.S. citizens. The F2B category is unmarried  sons  and daughters of LPRs.  Surprisingly, unless the beneficiary is chargeable to the Philippines,  F2B is ahead of the line before F1.  Seems like LPRs from the Philippines have cracked the visa bulletin code and don’t naturalize as much if they have adult children to petition.  
 
* LPRs and citizens are generally equally subject to the military draft. However when drafting professionals such as medical doctors, because these people are generally commissioned as officers, and because non citizens are generally prohibited from having a commission, possibly this would provide some shield from the draft. Or maybe they would deploy a doctor as a non com medic on the front lines (fortunately rapid naturalization is available so an LPR with an MD might get a choice).  
 
* certain job functions must be performed by U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. At my last job, software developer, 90 percent of my coworkers were people with H1-B visas and green cards.   So I  got tapped to handle a customer support issue when the customer was the federal government (and diagnostic information was sometimes literally redacted). While the H1-Bs and LPRs got to work on writing new code. Being a U.S. citizen can be career limiting.  
 
* some countries disallow multiple citizenship and there is always the risk that laws on multiple citizenship can change. 

You're getting visa free access to:
 
- Canada
- Central African Republic
- Equatorial Guinea
- Mongolia
 
If that matters at all @Daphne . 😃

Posts by troll account removed, along with posts quoting.

I think it is more about security than anything else. If you plan to live here for the long run I think it is safer to be a citizen. Just look at the pandemic. Citizens are always allowed in, no matter what. That is just a good selling point for me. ( I pay for global entry, it is just super fast even for a GC holder, so that doesn't affect me) If you want to move abroad for a while you can do it without stressing and filing bunch of paperwork to not to lose your GC.
 
Without starting a heated conversation about politics I think it is also a factor to think about that laws can change and different powers want different things to rally their base.... As a GC holder we might end up in an unfavorable condition....
 
At the end it is a piece of paper (or papers) and you don't have to worry about living here.
my 2 cents

A possible reason to not apply for naturalization would be if you decide to leave the US in the future and not want to return. You would still be required to file tax returns and be subject to different taxes, also with different legislation many foreign banks do not want Americans as clients. Since they are required to report on you back to the US government. If you wanted to renounce US citizenship it is very expensive to do, it is much easier and cheaper to give up a green card.  The are benefits that others have already mentioned as to why naturalizing is a good thing but there are negatives to consider that I feel like most on this site ignore. 

Great post!  Personally, I think the fact that that you can finally get away from USCIS as a huge benefit.  Without filing your N-400, who knows how long it will take for USCIS to process your I-751.   In addition, becoming a citizen is less expensive in the long term.  In my wife's case, I think the China/Taiwan situation played a significant part in her decision to apply.  

US passport allows visa free travel to EU for 90 days. Starting sometime in 2023 US citizens will have to file and pay ETIAS (travel authorization) fees to enter the EU.
 
With ETIAS, the'll probably ask a question about all citizenships. If you disclose your EU citizenship, then likely the application with US passport will be rejected.
 
If discovered upon entry, the US passport holder is a EU citizen, they'll probably be admitted in. But they would not be able to easily leave on their US passport, as there is passport control on exit in Europe. They'll likely be asked to apply for their EU country passport in order to leave.
 
Even if EU passport holder gets into EU country on US passport, if they have an interaction with law enforcement / officials etc they'll only be considered the citizen of that country, not US citizen.
 
Also, some countries may impose fines etc for their citizens not using correct passports. It all depends on the country laws.
 

My city of birth is Calgary.  
 
I once flew into Rome on my Canadian passport which lists my city of birth.   I was held  by an immigration police officer while he brought his supervisor to question me.  They thought I was born in Cagliari, Italy and so wanted to know where my Italian passport was. I explained that it wasn’t a typo, I was indeed born in Calgary,  Canada. They had a laugh and let me go.  
 
My advice is to not attempt to enter the Schengen Area without your Schengen passport. 

1. One $500 traffic fine is enough to get one deported.  There are millions of pages of laws on the books; I am sure I’ve broken several of them.  
 
2. The convenience to enter and leave the USA as I see fit.  
 
3. F2A category was not current at the time I filed for citizenship, and I was fairly certain I wanted my girl friend to live with me the U.S.  
 
4. Canada had practically zero restrictions on multiple  citizenship. As you are a citizen of the Netherlands, multiple citizenship might be  complicated for you.  
 
These days, I feel alienated by my country of birth.  At my last visit, the government threatened to arrest me if I didn’t quarantine (I didn’t).   My values are now American, and some of my beliefs, if expressed in Canada, are hate crimes.    I’ve no regrets about the decision.  
 
At the time I was not bothered by the hassle of filing for a new gc every 10 years. These days, with renewals taking over 3 years, that alone would be enough to cause me to file N-400. I filed in February 2017, and by the middle of the year I was seeing reports of I-90 taking over a year. My gc was due to expire 2018.  I took oath 7 months before my gc expired. 

My complaints about Canada are classic “first world” problems compared to my wife’s complaints about her country of birth (celebrating its diamond anniversary of brutal and quixotic  military dictatorship).  She filed N-400 about as soon as she could, and she will not be able maintain her original citizenship as a result. She hopes to be a U.S. citizen in 2023. 
 

he was suppose to name the guy who was his district rep / they don't all represent all the state according to my house rep

Maybe just take your daughter without an appointment and see if they let you in for biometrics. Tell them a nice story if they ask why she missed it.

Is your employer cap exempt? You seem very sure of being able to get an H1B through them.
 
So here’s the thing, if your spouse starts the green card application while you are on F1 (and assuming you maintain that status), you cannot leave the US without first getting an advance parole document or you will be deemed to have abandoned the adjustment case. Plus, when you return on AP, you are paroled in and no longer on student status and unable to do those things you could before (unless you also have an EAD by then)
if you are on H1B, you don’t need advance parole as it is a dual intent status. You can leave without abandoning the adjustment case. The catch here is that while you can leave & return on H1B and maintain that status, if you get the H1B in the first place by changing status in the US, you will need to get an H1B visa stamp at a consulate before you can return to the US on H1B. If your travel is for work, it may be tricky to figure in a consulate visit especially if not your home country ti get that done' but that totally depends on individual consulate appointment availability.

Why would it take weeks? I’m amazed at how much paperwork you seem to have had. What “pile of stuff” are you talking about, exactly? In addition to originals of the few things that were uploaded as requested by the system, I brought my tax transcripts and passports. That’s it. What else is needed? Hardly a pile of stuff and hardly taking any time to go through. Are you maybe talking about  a case based on 3 year rule where you have to prove a zillion things about marital union? Doesn’t apply to OP. I know people who have gone same employment route as OP who haven’t uploaded anything in advance and been approved same day. Simple letter from employer in addition to the stuff I mentioned. So yes let me amend what I said and point out that if you expect to arrive with a “pile of stuff” at the interview that might take the IO ages to go through, you should upload in advance and hope that your IO finds time to look at it in before the interview. For straightforward non 3 year rule cases I honestly can’t imagine why you’d need that much paperwork that the IO would be unable to spend 5 minutes looking at in the interview. 

I have tried to start the N400 application online, and get so far before an " Unable to retrieve your application" error pops up. Only get thru the first 2-3 pages. I exit to the home area, and see the pending N400 application in my profile, and when I try to continue it it takes me back to the error " Unable to retrieve your application". I have tried multiple browsers, and deleted the filing, and started over a few times with the same error showing up. Have only been trying for the past hour or so. Guess I'll wait until tomorrow to try it again. I am assuming it is an error on their end, as I have successfully filed other forms online with no issues ( Just completed I130 online, well, case is closed now, got the visa and everything, but that went very smoothly online). Just wondering if anyone filed N400 online and had this issue? Thanks in advance.

You wouldn’t get an RFE for not submitting them, because they are not a required document to be provided with the application. I honestly don’t think it makes a difference other than increasing the amount of what will eventually be outdated stuff. You’ll be updating other stuff in the interview anyway, things like further trips abroad, maybe job changes etc, it’s not like they ever expect a 100% perfectly up to date application before you walk in the door. By the way even if you do upload in advance, you should always have originals with you at the interview anyway. It’s not reducing what you physically bring with.
 
 

I was thinking, because of the holiday Friday, and like you said, long weekend, that could be the issue. Thanks for the input. I'll just try once a day until it finally works I guess. In a week, I'll file VIA paper. The I130 worked so well, I had high hopes of no issues with the N400, I should know better now.. LOL.

Only 2008 civics test version. 
You can search materials here https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/find-study-materials-and-resources/study-for-the-test?topic_id[]=34283&doc_type=All&items_per_page=10

It’s a long weekend and degraded service of USCIS.gov is the norm.  
 
Try Tuesday

And as always, it's individual. Just because they didn't ask much of you guys doesn't mean they won't ask more from someone else. By uploading more than asked for you lower the risks of being asked for something at the interview, and lower the risks of not being approved on spot if they have to go through a stash of paperwork afterwards - nobody can tell you how long it will take for them to do that. There are never any guarantees, but a lot of us prefer to be extra prepared in every way we can. 

I never re-compiled anything, but maybe I misunderstand what that means? I uploaded a few new documents each month my case was pending - including the latest tax return transcipts etc. For that reason, i never had to bring much of anything to the interview (other than the originals of the important documents like divorce decrees etc) since they already had everything in the system. She even explained to me that they PREFER to have things uploaded (hence why they try to make forms available online these days), and also proceeded to scan one single of my documents and added it to my online file instead of taking a regular paper copy of it.