Filing N-400 and going to College Out-of-State?

[woot 0]

I recently turned 18 and want to apply for US Citizenship. I meet all the requirements, but the thing is that I will be leaving for college out-of-state in the next week or so.

I will only be able to come home for the week of Thanksgiving, for winter break, and summer break. The majority of the time, I will be at college. Traveling back and forth between the two states to meet appointment dates is not really feasible due to cost and time.

Should I file the Application for Naturalization now?

If I am in college on the dates of my appointments for biometrics, interview, or oath, can I reschedule for a specific date or go to the USCIS office near my school? There is a USCIS office 40 minutes away from my university.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

The way I see it, you have two options to choose from.

Option 1 would be to send in your N-400 application about 1 month before the big summer break. This would most likely allow you to attend the biometrics appointment and the interview while you're at home. The Oath appointment is the easiest to reschedule.

Option 2 would be to officially "move" to your college state/town and file an AR-11 to this effect. This way you would attend all appointments at the closest USCIS location to your college town. Of course, even here timing is of the essence as you don't want to get an biometrics or interview appointment at the time you are back home.

[v333k 59]

Actually, USCIS allows the usage of either address... since they consider your home address as the permanent address and the university address as a temp. address. However, can't remember where I saw that so you might want to do some digging before taking my word for it.