N-400 filing questions

[avvypudge 0]

Hey everyone, i am new to this forum and I wish i knew it existed when i started this journey!!!!

I am about to (hopefully) submit my N-400 based on 3years marriage and residency etc. I have a couple of questions, i hope i am not being repetitive!

My permanent residency was granted 1/12/2006, so after reading the filing instructions just like the 751 application i can file 90 days prior to the 12th January 2009? Am I correct????? I was hoping to send in the application October 12th of this year. I always wonder with the USCIS if i am reading their instructions correctly, or if i am making myself crazy.

Also with all my documents do they need to be certified copies? or just photo copies? I was thinking the copy of greencard, Social security card and hubby's birth certificate would need to be certified copies, but does the tax returns, bank accounts, copy of leases etc need to be certified also?

Thanks a million in advance for any help you may have to offer me. I just cant wait to be immigration free!!!!!!

[payxibka 10,045]

Hey everyone, i am new to this forum and I wish i knew it existed when i started this journey!!!!

I am about to (hopefully) submit my N-400 based on 3years marriage and residency etc. I have a couple of questions, i hope i am not being repetitive!

My permanent residency was granted 1/12/2006, so after reading the filing instructions just like the 751 application i can file 90 days prior to the 12th January 2009? Am I correct????? I was hoping to send in the application October 12th of this year. I always wonder with the USCIS if i am reading their instructions correctly, or if i am making myself crazy.

Also with all my documents do they need to be certified copies? or just photo copies? I was thinking the copy of greencard, Social security card and hubby's birth certificate would need to be certified copies, but does the tax returns, bank accounts, copy of leases etc need to be certified also?

Thanks a million in advance for any help you may have to offer me. I just cant wait to be immigration free!!!!!!

If the last prong of the 3/3/3 test is your three year LPR status, then your application window opens on 10/14/2008.

The USCIS does not require originals unless they specifically request them, otherwise photocopies are OK. They may request to see originals at interview.

Edited September 10, 2008 by fwaguy

[avvypudge 0]

great thanks so much!

[kmineo 0]

Yes you can send it in 3 years minus the 90 days after your original green card. Assuming you are still married and married to the same person you got your original GC with.

As for certified copies. I don't remember what we put in there, but I certain that we didn't not put certified copies of our tax returns and/or other proof of our relationship. I don't believe that we put any certified copies in except possibly for maybe a birth certificate. I think the instructions specifically say only provide originals or certified copies if it explicitly says it in the instructions (M-476 guide). If they need originals they will ask you to bring them to the interview (and most likely not even look at them anyway).

[NickD 202]

great thanks so much!

Exactly where can you get a certified copies? Normal copies are okay with the USCIS, but you are requested to bring in all the originals at your interview. Wasn't going to do that for my wife's interview as they never ask to see them before, but she got a stinker of an interviewer and wanted to check each one line by line. So you just don't know what's going to happen.

People at our SS office will take copies, but have to bring the original in, and that is lucky to get a half second glance. DOS has an approved agent in town, but she doesn't carry any weight, still have to send in the original and pray you get it back.

The only thing for sure, is that there is no consistency of these various governmental agencies. Ha, voters registration insisted on seeing her driver's license for proof of address, the only reason why her address is on that license is because that is the address she gave them to get her license, she could be living next door for all they know. It's crazy.

[lucyrich 20]

Exactly where can you get a certified copies?

You get certified copies at the government office responsible for maintaining the record. For example, you might a certified copy of your birth certificate at the courthouse of the county where you were born, and a certified copy of your marriage certificate at the courthouse of the county where you were married. The exact office will depend on the jurisdiction where the event happened.

Sometimes people call certified copies "originals", but that's generally a misuse of the term. The original record usually remains in the government vault -- if they gave you the original, they'd have no more record of the event.

But as has been said, you don't submit certified copies with any petition to the USCIS. Just go to a copy shop and make ordinary photocopies of your certified copies. They may ask to see your certified copies at the interview.

Oh, and to avvypudge: Remember that the rule is 90 days, and that's not the same as 3 months. October and December both have 31 days. So 90 days before January 12 is October 14, not October 12.