Naturalization from overseas

[klanecky 0]

in that case, will they be able to do everything in one step (interview and taking oath)?

I believe that taking fingerprints oversea should not be a problem.

What do you guys think?

Hi. I am going to apply for N400 under 319b expedited naturalization. But my husband is not military, i am applying under being an applicant who's us citizen spouse is employed abroad regularly

An American firm or corporation engaged in whole or in part in the development of foreign trade and

commerce of the U.S., or a subsidiary

I beleive DD 1278 is only for millitary. Is that right?

If we file N400 before departure, do we need to send a cover letter with the file to let them to know to be fingerprinted overseas.

Thanks for info, yes i will have the special letter, contract, everything to apply for N400, shall i apply before we depart, because we are always overseas, and we will come back only for 5 days to get some things and then we will fly out to my husbands new assignment,

If we do send application in that 5 days, how about fingerprints, shall i mention in cover letter that i am departingg with my husband i would like to be fingerprinted in us embassy? will uscis send me mail? how it will work?

[mnbinth 2]

1 You should apply before leaving per the Naturalization guide book.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/M-476.pdf

Are you sure about that? Page 34 says of the guide book says...

"What if I live overseas? If you are overseas and filing Form N-400, you should send your application to the Service Center that serves the USCIS office where you want to be interviewed. For example, if you want to be interviewed at the Honolulu office, you should send your application to the California Service Center."

According to this you could apply before or after you leave.

BTW, thank you everyone for your posts on this topic! This is by far the best information I've been able to find online. USCIS customer service doesn't even know what I'm talking about when I ask them how to apply under 319b.

[misterscn 0]

in that case, will they be able to do everything in one step (interview and taking oath)?

I believe that taking fingerprints oversea should not be a problem.

What do you guys think?

Hi. I am going to apply for N400 under 319b expedited naturalization. But my husband is not military, i am applying under being an applicant who's us citizen spouse is employed abroad regularly

An American firm or corporation engaged in whole or in part in the development of foreign trade and

commerce of the U.S., or a subsidiary

I beleive DD 1278 is only for millitary. Is that right?

If we file N400 before departure, do we need to send a cover letter with the file to let them to know to be fingerprinted overseas.

Thanks for info, yes i will have the special letter, contract, everything to apply for N400, shall i apply before we depart, because we are always overseas, and we will come back only for 5 days to get some things and then we will fly out to my husbands new assignment,

If we do send application in that 5 days, how about fingerprints, shall i mention in cover letter that i am departingg with my husband i would like to be fingerprinted in us embassy? will uscis send me mail? how it will work?

Most American Interest Sections of US Embassies will do fingerprinting for US Citizens for a fee. It is about the same cost as having USCIS do the biometrics. The only bad thing about doing the fingerprint card is that once it is received by USCIS, it has to be sent via snail mail to the FBI where it then has to be digitized to see if they can find a match. It will slow down the process a bit but if you are in no big hurry then you should be OK. From my reasearch you can send you application in from overseas as long as your spouses employer states that your spouse will be overseas for at least 1 year after naturalization. That is the key to this provision in the law.

Another thing to remember is that if you do not have access to Embassy Pouch Mail or APO/FPO, make sure you add the additional time and cost of sending your packet through overseas mail or courier service. More than likely your mail from USCIS will come through the postal system so factor that time in as well. And forget about checking the status of your application online. Even after 40 days, our case is still not showing up on USCIS Case Tracking.

[klanecky 0]

Hi

thanks for all info, very much help.

If that is the case, is it better just put american mail address when i file under 319 b, since my husbands brother will be in that house, and he can send us the mail, so i do not loose too much of time. I willsend 400 , with fingerprint pards and documents from overseas but in the address part i will put US address, and the same US adress for mailing address. His brother will receive the letters and mail to us. What do you think about this one?

thanks alot

in that case, will they be able to do everything in one step (interview and taking oath)?

I believe that taking fingerprints oversea should not be a problem.

What do you guys think?

Hi. I am going to apply for N400 under 319b expedited naturalization. But my husband is not military, i am applying under being an applicant who's us citizen spouse is employed abroad regularly

An American firm or corporation engaged in whole or in part in the development of foreign trade and

commerce of the U.S., or a subsidiary

I beleive DD 1278 is only for millitary. Is that right?

If we file N400 before departure, do we need to send a cover letter with the file to let them to know to be fingerprinted overseas.

Thanks for info, yes i will have the special letter, contract, everything to apply for N400, shall i apply before we depart, because we are always overseas, and we will come back only for 5 days to get some things and then we will fly out to my husbands new assignment,

If we do send application in that 5 days, how about fingerprints, shall i mention in cover letter that i am departingg with my husband i would like to be fingerprinted in us embassy? will uscis send me mail? how it will work?

Most American Interest Sections of US Embassies will do fingerprinting for US Citizens for a fee. It is about the same cost as having USCIS do the biometrics. The only bad thing about doing the fingerprint card is that once it is received by USCIS, it has to be sent via snail mail to the FBI where it then has to be digitized to see if they can find a match. It will slow down the process a bit but if you are in no big hurry then you should be OK. From my reasearch you can send you application in from overseas as long as your spouses employer states that your spouse will be overseas for at least 1 year after naturalization. That is the key to this provision in the law.

Another thing to remember is that if you do not have access to Embassy Pouch Mail or APO/FPO, make sure you add the additional time and cost of sending your packet through overseas mail or courier service. More than likely your mail from USCIS will come through the postal system so factor that time in as well. And forget about checking the status of your application online. Even after 40 days, our case is still not showing up on USCIS Case Tracking.

[klanecky 0]

1 You should apply before leaving per the Naturalization guide book.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/M-476.pdf

Hi, i am fillingout N400 based on N400,from overseas to US ervice center.

I have question regarding Part4.

Home address:

mailing address

shall i put overseas address in home address area. and US address in mailing. This way mail can be forwarded overseas from US.

anu advises?

How do you fill out part 6? do i have to write every overseas address that i lived with my spouse, still under section 319 (B)?

time outside US?

thanks alot

Are you sure about that? Page 34 says of the guide book says...

"What if I live overseas? If you are overseas and filing Form N-400, you should send your application to the Service Center that serves the USCIS office where you want to be interviewed. For example, if you want to be interviewed at the Honolulu office, you should send your application to the California Service Center."

According to this you could apply before or after you leave.

BTW, thank you everyone for your posts on this topic! This is by far the best information I've been able to find online. USCIS customer service doesn't even know what I'm talking about when I ask them how to apply under 319b.

[misterscn 0]

UPDATE: On March 14th my wife had her interview at 9:30 am at the Fairfax,VA USCIS office and was sworn in as a US Citizen at 12:30 pm the same day.

Here is a quick rundown of what transpired:

On February 27th, my wife received an email from Agent Bridges @ in the 319(b) section of the Washington, DC USCIS Field office requesting to select an interview date of March 14, 21, or 28. She selected the 14th. She replied to the email. Two hours later she received a PDF I-797c telling her to report to USCIS Office in Fairfax, VA @ 8:00 am on March 14th.

Fast forward to March 14th. We arrive @ USCIS office in Fairfax, VA @ 7:45am and park in the Garage behing the Bldg. The office is located within a short walking distance of the Dunn-Loring Metro Stop on the Orange Line. When we arrived there were 11 people ahead of my wife. There were 3 agents doing interviews. After a 100 minute wait, my wife was called in by Ms. Hernandez. My wife was asked 10 questions, asked to write a sentence in English, Read a sentence in English, and briefly discuss her travels during the time she held her green card. The rest of the conversation was talk about my daughter and our impending reassignment to Italy. When she was done she was given a green slip of paper and told to be back in the 2nd Floor USCIS reception area between 11:15 & 11:30 am.

After taking a snack and coffee celebration break at the snack bar in the building next door, we head back to the 2nd Floor USCIS reception area. My wife gets in line with the other candidates, both 319(b) and regular candidates (62 in all) to check over the information on their certificate of naturalization. Then the candidates were seated in the 2nd Floor Conference Room in order that they were to be called by the USCIS Washington, DC Director who presided over the ceremony and gave the oath of citizenship. After about 40 minutes, family members and guests were allowed to file into the back of the room to watch the ceremony.

The ceremony took about 20 minutes after waiting 20 minutes for briefings and getting the room set up. It began with the singing of the National Anthem by everyone in the room (at least most tried). Next came a brief speech by the director, then came the oath of citizenship. After the oath finished, there was a video message from the President and a music video of scenes of the USA to the tune "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood. Then the supervisor called up each person to get their certificate of naturalization. After that was done, each person filed out of the room and back to the reception area to register to vote (if they were residents of VA and wanted to). We were all done by 12:50 pm.

While we were waiting for the ceremony I did get a good piece of INTEL from a lady who handles 319(b) cases for the State Dept. She told me that the best office by far for 319(b) cases is the office in Fairfax, VA since they have a team dedicated to these actions. She also mentioned that she gets fair results from the offices in Hawaii, Los Angeles, Miami, Tampa, & New York. She told me that the Fairfax office is the only one that does everything in one day, the others above do it over 2 days minimum. She also told me that they do most 319(b) cases at the Fairfax office on Friday. I know after talking with some of the folks in the waiting room early in the morning that they all were there for 319(b) cases. Most were DoD Contractors but there were two in the room that were from the State Dept. We did not meet anyone that day that was either a dependent of an active duty servicemember or DoD Civilian.

So in our case the Expedited Maturalization worked and it worked fast. Part of that was due to the fact that when we filed my wife had a pending I-751 case still open so they were able to use the Background check for both cases. We are both glad we are finally through with USCIS. The only things left to do is go to Social Security so that my wife can change her status on her SSN from Permanent Resident to Citizen and get her passport.

Good Luck to all of you on your path to citizenship.

If you are military or a DoD Civilian you can apply for naturalization as soon as you receive orders. My wife just filed recently for expedited naturalization under INA 319.b because I am transferring from the US to Italy this spring. As soon as I got my orders, I filled out a DD Form 1278 and had it signed by my Director. For military personnel this form would be signed by your commander or director of your personnel office. Then we put the N400 packet together with all the information and photos required as stated in the form instructions.

Before we sent the packet off, we prepared a short memo requesting expedited naturalization under INA 319b explaining the circumstances why my wife qualifies for expidited naturalization. We also included a signed copy of DD Form 1278 as well as a copy of my travel orders and in my case because I am a civil servant I included a copy of my employment contract which shows that I have signed an agreement to serve 36 months in country. We have a tentative departure date of 13 April 2008.

Here is a list of documents we provided to VSC:

Memorandum to VSC "Application for Naturalization under section 319(b) of the Immigration & Naturalization Act explaining the circumstances as well as letting them know the case number of my wifes impending 1-751 action for removal of conditions

DD Form 1278

Travel Orders (DD Form 1614) - Military would use PCS or TCS Orders

Copy of Transportation Agreement (DD Form 1617)

N-400 Application

Copy of Wife's Permanent Resident Card

I-797 Receipt for I-751 Application (which includes extending permanent residence for 1 yr)

I-797 Receipt for ASC Biometrics which includes Application Number for I-751 Action

Marriage Certificate

Husband's Birth Certificate

Copy of Husband's Passport and DoD Civilian ID Card

Daughter's Birth Certificate

Two Bank Statements; one from early in our marriage and one from recently to show joint assets

IRS Tax Transcripts for Tax Yrs 2005, 2005, & 2006

2 passport Photos of my Wife

Check for $675.00 to Department of Homeland Security

We sent the application on 14 January 2008 and was received in Vermont on 17 January 2008. We received a receipt notice on 1 Feb 2008 and to our surprise they are not going to charge my wife an additional biometrics fee because she had her biometrics done on 21 Sep 2007 for her I-751 packet. They state on the I-797 that they are going to send me a check for $80.00 within the next 30 days. I'll wait and see. The other nice part is they state in the letter my wife will be notified within the next 90 days that she will be contacted by USCIS for an interview. After the experience of waiting 15 months to get her green card the first go around I'll have to see it to believe it. We are making plans now for my wife to come back to the DC area for her interview and ceremony after we arrive in country.

While I was doing my research to put the packet together, I stumbled across an FAQ sheet on a military website from the Fairfax VA USCIS office regarding 319(b) applications for government personnel. I have attached it along with an example of the cover letter we did for the 319(b) packet.

Here is our current timeline:

I-751 @ VSC

Date Filed: 13 Aug 07

NOA Date: 25 Aug 07

BIO Date: 21 Sep 07 (Alexandria VA ASC)

Still Waiting for Decision - Case has not been "touched" since 25 Sep 07

N-400 @ VSC

Date Filed: 14 Jan 08

NOA Date: 18 Jan 08

Received I-797c on 1 Feb 08 stating that we should be notified of date & time and place of interview within 90 days of this notice. We'll see

Good Luck to all those Military Spouses out there, especially those whose significant others are over in the sandbox.