When do I file for citizenship?

[Messybrownhair 251]

I got married April 2011 and got my conditional GC June 2011. Do I file for citizenship after 3 years of marriage or 3 years since I got my green card? Just curious if I apply in April or June of next year. Just being excited even though I'm only starting ROC this month. Thanks everyone!

[w8inglongtime 29]

I got married April 2011 and got my conditional GC June 2011. Do I file for citizenship after 3 years of marriage or 3 years since I got my green card? Just curious if I apply in April or June of next year. Just being excited even though I'm only starting ROC this month. Thanks everyone!

I believe You have to be married for 3 years to file.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

It's funny you should ask because I was looking at your timeline and noticed something a little unusual. People go off of their "resident since" date on their GC, and you can apply 90 days before you will be at 3 years. However, you also must be married to the same USC for three full years before you apply. Normally, there is no difference between these two, because a person adjusting from K-1 usually doesn't get their GC approved in less than 90 days from their wedding date. But you got your GC so fast that you will have to wait until after your 3rd year wedding anniversary, which will be after the 90 days "start date" prior to the "resident since" date on your GC. So looking at your timeline, I believe after April 2, 2014 you will be eligible. You will have been married 3 years at that point and you will have been a resident more than 3 years - 90 days.

[Dave&Roza 748]

I got married April 2011 and got my conditional GC June 2011. Do I file for citizenship after 3 years of marriage or 3 years since I got my green card? Just curious if I apply in April or June of next year. Just being excited even though I'm only starting ROC this month. Thanks everyone!

Actually it is both. You must be married to the same USC for at least 3 years and you must be a LPR for 3 years minus 90 days. Typically K-1 visas are married first and then get the GC so the LPR date is the driving factor. For CR-1/IR-1 visas the couple could be married for several years but again it is the LPR date. So unless you are already a LPR and then get married the date on the GC is the date you need to be worried about, but you need to satisfy both conditions for the marriage based citizenship.

Dave

[Mama mia 9]

Based on your signature, if the gc approval date and the date on your greencard is the same: 06/17/11 then as long as your still married to your hubby who petitioned you; the earliest date you can file for citizenship is March 19, 2014.

If your ROC still pending by that date, you are still able to file N400.

[Messybrownhair 251]

It's funny you should ask because I was looking at your timeline and noticed something a little unusual. People go off of their "resident since" date on their GC, and you can apply 90 days before you will be at 3 years. However, you also must be married to the same USC for three full years before you apply. Normally, there is no difference between these two, because a person adjusting from K-1 usually doesn't get their GC approved in less than 90 days from their wedding date. But you got your GC so fast that you will have to wait until after your 3rd year wedding anniversary, which will be after the 90 days "start date" prior to the "resident since" date on your GC. So looking at your timeline, I believe after April 2, 2014 you will be eligible. You will have been married 3 years at that point and you will have been a resident more than 3 years - 90 days.

Cool! How exciting to know its so soon! Thank you April it is then!

[Messybrownhair 251]

Thanks everyone! how exciting to think about the last step of the process

[VanessaTony 3,567]

I got married April 2011 and got my conditional GC June 2011. Do I file for citizenship after 3 years of marriage or 3 years since I got my green card? Just curious if I apply in April or June of next year. Just being excited even though I'm only starting ROC this month. Thanks everyone!

It's based on your "resident since" date on your GC. You can file 90 days before the 3 year anniversary of you being an LPR. You need to have been married 3 years before they'll approve it (which for most people, unless they got a really speedy approval) is totally fine.

[X Factor 1,112]

It's based on your "resident since" date on your GC. You can file 90 days before the 3 year anniversary of you being an LPR. You need to have been married 3 years before they'll approve it (which for most people, unless they got a really speedy approval) is totally fine.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Based on your signature, if the gc approval date and the date on your greencard is the same: 06/17/11 then as long as your still married to your hubby who petitioned you; the earliest date you can file for citizenship is March 19, 2014.

If your ROC still pending by that date, you are still able to file N400.

That date is too early for this poster. The only thing that can be minus 90 days is how long one has been a LPR. You must satisfy all other requirements at the date of application (including being married a full 3 years).

[Darnell 8,478]

is three years from the first date in the first green card.

Good Luck, and Go Get Em !

[VanessaTony 3,567]

It's funny you should ask because I was looking at your timeline and noticed something a little unusual. People go off of their "resident since" date on their GC, and you can apply 90 days before you will be at 3 years. However, you also must be married to the same USC for three full years before you apply. Normally, there is no difference between these two, because a person adjusting from K-1 usually doesn't get their GC approved in less than 90 days from their wedding date. But you got your GC so fast that you will have to wait until after your 3rd year wedding anniversary, which will be after the 90 days "start date" prior to the "resident since" date on your GC. So looking at your timeline, I believe after April 2, 2014 you will be eligible. You will have been married 3 years at that point and you will have been a resident more than 3 years - 90 days.

No. She can't be APPROVED until she's been married 3 years, she can file though. There have been other instances on here where the people interviewed prior to the 3 years and were told the oath would have to wait until they'd been married 3 years.

That date is too early for this poster. The only thing that can be minus 90 days is how long one has been a LPR. You must satisfy all other requirements at the date of application (including being married a full 3 years).

No you don't. You only need to be married 3 years to be approved, so sayeth the other people in her situation.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

No. She can't be APPROVED until she's been married 3 years, she can file though. There have been other instances on here where the people interviewed prior to the 3 years and were told the oath would have to wait until they'd been married 3 years.

No you don't. You only need to be married 3 years to be approved, so sayeth the other people in her situation.

You are mistaken Vanessa. *sigh*

I specifically remember this thread where we all tracked down the rules. My response http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/322175-n400-denied-based-on-eligibility/page__view__findpost__p__4818184

You specifically agreed with me, not yourself, at that time. http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/322175-n400-denied-based-on-eligibility/page__view__findpost__p__4814990

You were beating other people over the head that you must be married the full 3 years at the time of filing. Now you change your mind?

Edited March 6, 2013 by Harpa Timsah

[VanessaTony 3,567]

You are mistaken Vanessa. *sigh*

Sorry, you are, but believe what you like. It's rare for people to be in that situation anyway.

Please feel free to do a search of the forums and you will find at least one older thread in which the poster I spoke of was approved (at their interview) prior to 3 years but had to wait for Oath because they hadn't been married 3 years yet.

Here's one from another forum: http://forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?301051-Naturalization-interview-BEFORE-3-year-anniversary

Edited March 6, 2013 by Vanessa&Tony

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

The directions state:

Your link proves what I am saying. The person in the thread you linked had been married 3 years and 9 months when they applied for N400.

Maybe you are missing a part of the conversation here. Messybrownhair got her GC approved something like 67 days after she got married. Record time! (I know you have sigs turned off).

So most people in those forum applying on the 3 year rule would be safe applying 90 days before the "resident since" date on their GCs. Those people would have been married for longer than 3 months by the time they got their GCs approved. Now Messy, since she was so fast, will not have been married a full 3 years if she were to go by the "resident" since" date and nothing else. A person must meet all other requirements at the time of filing. That means she must wait for her 3rd year of anniversary of marriage to file, which is after the 2 years 9 months date based on her GC.

Only at that time will she meet all the requirements. There are multiple requirements to be met. Her super fast GC approval made her case a little different from normal.

Edited March 6, 2013 by Harpa Timsah