Earliest time to apply for citizenship?

[dcl766 0]

Marina has been a PR since 10/25/2005 and has been in the US since 09/17/2004 with no trips out of the country over 2 weeks. We have been married (I am the USC-since birth) since 11/20/2004.

Does Marina have to wait until her 3 year PR anniversay before applying for citizenship, or does the "90 day rule" that applied for removal of conditions also apply for citizenship? She would like to apply as soon as possible and if she is allowed to apply late July/early August that would help alot.

Also, Marina's daughter Carina is 16 and won't be 18 until July 2009. She is a PR also, and will be filing for removal of conditions this year. If Marina gets her citizenship prior to Carina turning 18, does that mean she automatically qualifies for citizenship and can apply for a naturalization certificate and/or US passport?

Thanks! Dave

[NickD 203]

"Does Marina have to wait until her 3 year PR anniversay before applying for citizenship, or does the "90 day rule" that applied for removal of conditions also apply for citizenship?"

This is clearly spelled out in the downloadable M-476 manual, A Guide to Naturalization, plus a lot of other very useful information.

Your situation is like ours and your wife can apply 90 days ahead of time to her 3rd anniversary of getting her PRC for the N-400. We have a daughter that turned 18 during the wait, she has to apply separately, but since she turned 18, she has to wait five years from her anniversary date of getting her PRC. But since your daughter is still a minor she may not have to wait five years, the M-476 covers that in a step by step question and answer method.

Download the M-476, just type that into google, pops right up on the top from the USCIS site.

[dcl766 0]

Thanks for your reply. Actually I did read the M-476 cover to cover before I posted. It was about as clear as the actual applications and instruction the USCIS puts out for us.

The section in the guide about submitting 90 days prior references only about having continuous residence, nothing about being able to apply 90 days prior the the 3 year anniversary of the PR card. This is what has us confused. I know others have said it is ok to appy during the 90 day window prior to the anniversary, but I just wanted to be sure so I was looking for some confirmation...written if possible.

As for Carina, again the guide does not seem to really pinpoint our situation. She was born to her mother who will be a USC, but her father is still overseas and has never been to the US. We did not see this particular situation in the guide, though we did see very close scenarios so I guess we'll just apply for the certificate once Marina becomes a USC and see what happens.

Thanks again for your help.

Dave

[NickD 203]

Thanks for your reply. Actually I did read the M-476 cover to cover before I posted. It was about as clear as the actual applications and instruction the USCIS puts out for us.

The section in the guide about submitting 90 days prior references only about having continuous residence, nothing about being able to apply 90 days prior the the 3 year anniversary of the PR card. This is what has us confused. I know others have said it is ok to appy during the 90 day window prior to the anniversary, but I just wanted to be sure so I was looking for some confirmation...written if possible.

As for Carina, again the guide does not seem to really pinpoint our situation. She was born to her mother who will be a USC, but her father is still overseas and has never been to the US. We did not see this particular situation in the guide, though we did see very close scenarios so I guess we'll just apply for the certificate once Marina becomes a USC and see what happens.

Thanks again for your help.

Dave

I did call my immigration attorney regarding that 90 days before the 3rd anniversary for my wife and also that she had an expired green card at the time, he said, send it off and besure to send a copy of her one year extension. It was accepted, and when her ten year card came in, sent a copy of that wondering if the USCIS already knew that.

I am not really dead sure about our daughter, your right, it is darn confusing, but her date is six months later than my wife thanks to the USCIS losing her records, so guess I will be calling my attorney, again.

Also asked him about the number of times my wife came here, before we were married, said she was coming to the USA, not leaving so don't count those going back five years, but count the number of days she was out of the USA in that five year period. How many times I was married, the total number of times including our present marriage, and list all those IRS charitable deductible fund raising organizations my wife volunteered to help before she was allowed to work. The rest was easy, just copied and pasted all the information off of our I-130, I-485, and G-325a forms we already double and tripled check before. And I wore out a roller in my copy machine recopying all that other proof we already sent in. But not as much, the initial stack was 1 1/2" high with double sided copying, the N-400 stack was only about 9/16" thick, but still the same old stuff.

Asked him why these forms can't be written in plain English, he just said, if they were, he wouldn't have a job, LOL.