Is this a joke?

[antda 13]

Hi Bituin,

No problem...Glad to be of help to you and others here on VJ...

Yes, putting, "summer 2007, a pleasure trip of 5 hours to mexico" for your situation sounds good to me (and hopefully good to the USCIS too)... Lol..."Better safe than sorry!", indeed! And who knows, maybe just for the fun of it, they'll ask about your "short" trips and travels too...It sure does make for interesting stories to tell, indeed!

Lol....Now, if only I can remember the rest of my other 10-20 "short trips less than 24 hours and long trips more than 24 hours" that I took back to Canada over the years...

As for me...lol..I'm still waiting around for real labour and waiting for the baby to come...about a week to go before I'm due....yikes! Will keep you and the other VJers updated about that as well...

Good luck with the rest of your journey too!

Ant

Hi Ant,

Thanks for being so helpful here in VJ. Actually, I will just follow your advice to just put" summer of 2007 A pleasure trip of 5 hours to Mexico" lol.."better safe than sorry" How are you doing?Good luck to you and can't wait to see your baby's pics here in VJ.Thanks again.

Edited July 16, 2009 by AntandD

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Hi Bituin,

No problem...Glad to be of help to you and others here on VJ...

Yes, putting, "summer 2007, a pleasure trip of 5 hours to mexico" for your situation sounds good to me (and hopefully good to the USCIS too)... Lol..."Better safe than sorry!", indeed! And who knows, maybe just for the fun of it, they'll ask about your "short" trips and travels too...It sure does make for interesting stories to tell, indeed!

Lol....Now, if only I can remember the rest of my other 10-20 "short trips less than 24 hours and long trips more than 24 hours" that I took back to Canada over the years...

As for me...lol..I'm still waiting around for real labour and waiting for the baby to come...about a week to go before I'm due....yikes! Will keep you and the other VJers updated about that as well...

Good luck with the rest of your journey too!

Ant

Hi Ant,

Thanks for being so helpful here in VJ. Actually, I will just follow your advice to just put" summer of 2007 A pleasure trip of 5 hours to Mexico" lol.."better safe than sorry" How are you doing?Good luck to you and can't wait to see your baby's pics here in VJ.Thanks again.

You might need 2 extra sheets of papers for that Ant, lol....

[antda 13]

Hi Bituin

...Oh yeah, will definitely need extra sheets of paper to document all those trips! Lol..that's what I get for living "so far yet so close" between the USA and Canada! Sometimes I think to myself: "I moved only 300 miles to the USA, why the heck do I have to go through the US immigration process?"..grrrr...

In fact, my N-400 application paperwork seems to be growing and growing, and I'm not even done yet!...

Uggh...hopefully it won't reach the 100+ pages of evidence as it did for the I-751!

Lol..that's why I'm getting started on my N-400 application now, a month earlier than when I hope to send it in... ...

All this compiling of paperwork takes a lot of time and effort!....

Sad, really, that I would have to do such for the USCIS!...

Ant

You might need 2 extra sheets of papers for that Ant, lol....

Edited July 16, 2009 by AntandD

[jsnearline 2]

I wonder if they could fail you on the English portion if the form says only to declare trips of 24 hours or more and you include trips of 24 hours or less as well...

The reason they don't care about trips 24 hours or less is because they don't count towards time outside the country for naturalization purposes. Partial days inside the US count as full days inside the US when doing these calculations.

Why make things more complicated than they have to be?

[TracyTN 237]

My IO remarked on one of my trips, then after the test, yes/no questions, etc she went though all of them on her computer, and corrected dates on at least one of them (think it was the Puerto Rico/Caribbean cruise).

Just do the best you can and don't sweat it.

That's good to know - thanks Sheryll! My boss is considering filing soon and this was the one thing she was worried about.

[NickD 202]

Wife's IO checked our three trips out of the country, with marriage that section indubitably says to list trips AFTER becoming a LPR. That is why my wife had to bring in her old and new FOREIGN passports in, had to renew that within that time frame. Wasn't aware these trips were on a computer, maybe my wife's IO didn't know that.

It's kind of like a test to see if you are capable of keeping records, and reading and writing down accurately all of that information in your passport book/s.

Was so dumb and naive, thinking after that long hassle with AOS that our stint with the USCIS was over. My attorney highly recommended we download the I-751 and N-400 and read the instructions to start keeping records and collecting evidence, that was very good advice.

Only problem now, is I am so USCIS brainwashed, have to constantly remind myself, I don't have to do that anymore.

[daveh 0]

...

However, I like to play the "better safe than sorry" approach. You never know what the USCIS and immigration officials have on their records about your trips, especially when passports and/or green cards are scanned into their system...So it's better to list trips less than 24 hours, even though not required, than to not list it at all, so that one doesn't encounter any problems with their citizenship application. After all, you don't want to be caught in a lie and/or experience any other delays or problems!

...

I think this approach could cause unnecessary delays. Considering the quality of some of the people who review these forms, as I've read here, I would follow the letter of the instructions.

The form has a table with from dates, to days, and number of days for each trip as well as a total number of days spent out of the country. If they see a 0 in the one of the rows, they actually have to think about what you've entered and this very well may cause them to put your application into the "I'll have to think about this" pile.

Of course I'm exaggerating here, they probably run into this every day and as such the process of handling 0 day trips is well known. More than likely, the instructions are they way they are so that people who live near the border and make frequent day trips don't run out of space on the form for filling out important trips in which one is residing outside of the country. Ultimately, what they care about is are you residing in the US or some place else.

[karakmitchell 0]

My husband is in the same situation - we didn't realize we needed to keep a record of all his trips abroad until now (we live on the border)... If we make an InfoPass appointment would they be able to give us the dates of his trips? Has anyone tried this?

Thanks for all your advice!

[antda 13]

Hi Everyone,

In case you run out of room in listing the trips on the actual form itself...You can just "attach an additional page"...no problem there...

As for putting "0"....Don't put any! Just say..."Less than 1 day/24 hours....X hours..."

Lol..and yes, I do reside in the USA and have proof of such.....But be it that I live so close to the border...I like to travel back to Canada too, especially more so that Canada was my former country. I just don't see the point in lying about how many trips I take over the border, be it that it won't be used against me anyways. What will be used against me or anyone else is lying and/or not disclosing about such trips, especially more so that they could have records of such trips on their computer system when they scanned my green card and passport when I cross the border...."Better safe than sorry"...List all the trips, regardless of length of time spent out of the country!

The form has a table with from dates, to days, and number of days for each trip as well as a total number of days spent out of the country. If they see a 0 in the one of the rows, they actually have to think about what you've entered and this very well may cause them to put your application into the "I'll have to think about this" pile.

Of course I'm exaggerating here, they probably run into this every day and as such the process of handling 0 day trips is well known. More than likely, the instructions are they way they are so that people who live near the border and make frequent day trips don't run out of space on the form for filling out important trips in which one is residing outside of the country. Ultimately, what they care about is are you residing in the US or some place else.

Sorry, I don't think having an infopass appointment would help in the situation. Frankly, infopass appointments can help with knowing about your case status, but as for travel purposes, I don't think they can help you much there. Infopass appointments are with the USCIS and travel information is with the Department of Homeland Security...Two different agencies..Somewhat clueless about each other (heck, even within their own departments they are clueless, from my experience...but that's another story).....What I would recommend though, is to recall to the best of your ability your trips, as giving an estimate about your trip dates is better than not giving any information at all.

My husband is in the same situation - we didn't realize we needed to keep a record of all his trips abroad until now (we live on the border)... If we make an InfoPass appointment would they be able to give us the dates of his trips? Has anyone tried this?

Thanks for all your advice!

Hope this helps. Good luck for all your immigration journeys too.

Ant

Edited July 18, 2009 by AntandD

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I wonder if there's any member here in similar situation used the FOIA or Freedom Of Information Act?

FOIA