After citizenship oath can you travel with foreign passport

[Mariana2012 89]

I was curious, how long does it take to get your first US passport? I mean if you do your oath ceremony today and you have an emergency abroad is it OK to travel immediately after the oath in and out of the US with a foreign passport even though you are a citizen?

Also I read that some people get their passport done the day of the oath ceremony, but that there are long lines for that. Are there any advantaged to getting it done the same say as your oath?

Edited April 16, 2013 by Mariana2012

[FlipgalRN 19]

I was curious, how long does it take to get your first US passport? I mean if you do your oath ceremony today and you have an emergency abroad is it OK to travel immediately after the oath in and out of the US with a foreign passport even though you are a citizen?

Also I read that some people get their passport done the day of the oath ceremony, but that there are long lines for that. Are there any advantaged to getting it done the same say as your oath?

After becoming a US citizen (after taking your Oath) You cannot re-enter the US on a foreign passport. You MUST have a US Passport for any travel outside the US. If an emergency arises you can apply for an expedited (or even get a same day processing service) passport from the passport office and pay an additional fee. You must have proof of travel within 2 weeks in order to get this done. Proof being an itinerary from your upcoming flight. So I suggest applying for your passport ASAP after getting your citizenship. The advantage of applying for it at your Oath ceremony is that you know it is in the passport office's hands no waiting for confirmation (Make sure you take a picture of your naturalization certificate as your copy prior to enclosing it with your application. I used my iPhone for mine.) We've waited this long to obtain our US citizenship so a little "long" line at the ceremony for submitting a passport application is a cake walk! lol Good luck with your journey

Edited April 16, 2013 by FlipgalRN

[newacct 688]

According to http://travel.state.gov/passport/processing/processing_1740.html, it takes several weeks, even with expedited service. But it is possible to schedule an appointment to apply in person at a passport agency if you need it faster than that.

U.S. citizens are required by law to enter and leave the U.S. on a U.S. passport. Normally nobody checks when you leave the U.S., but they can probably figure it out based on the fact that you never had a passport on the date you left the U.S.

If you leave the U.S. without a U.S. passport, and then go to apply for it abroad at a consulate, I presume they would be pissed off at you.

If you apply for a passport in the U.S., and then leave, and then have a friend mail it to you when it's done, I don't know if that will be noticed.

[NickD 203]

They do take your green card away before they give you that certificate of citizenship that may lead into problems coming back. My wife to be at the time came here many times with her B1/B2 visa, but each time she came here, our POE wanted to see her return ticket to issue her an I-94 with a close time limit to her return ticket. When generous would give her an extra couple of weeks.

So it may work for you if you had a return ticket. When I checked into this, the vast majority of illegals are here with overstayed visas. So wonder if they even check those I-94's. But then in the immigration process, they do check on overstayed visas, so that wouldn't have been wise for her to do that since we were planning on getting married. When that dreadful day came, had to get her back to the airport, on time.

She was also tense concerned about if anything happened to her mom, but we hung out for eleven days with expedited processing and her US passport came in. And nothing happened to her mom.

When we got into our car after that ceremonious oath ceremony, her first comment was, I cannot travel! But already had that DOS form printed out with the check and passport photos. Took care of that the very next morning. Does put a damper on the excitement of becoming a US citizen.

Yet another damper was, she could not enter her home country until she renewed her foreign passport. I could, I was born in the USA. That crazy place of birth, something none of us as a choice of where we were born.

Then you realize this whole immigration stuff is strictly based on where you were born.

[Mariana2012 89]

Thanks guys, do you know how long it takes to get that first passport assuming you apply the day of the oath?

[milimelo 4,481]

Thanks guys, do you know how long it takes to get that first passport assuming you apply the day of the oath?

Depends how soon you are traveling. I had it in 2 days, others had it in 5 hours.

[Mariana2012 89]

Depends how soon you are traveling. I had it in 2 days, others had it in 5 hours.

Oh, I thought it takes weeks that is why I was panicking a little.

By the way, nice short process for you for ROC and Naturalization. Did you do it yourself or with a lawyer?

[milimelo 4,481]

Oh, I thought it takes weeks that is why I was panicking a little.

By the way, nice short process for you for ROC and Naturalization. Did you do it yourself or with a lawyer?

When you go to the passport agency with proof of travel within 2 weeks it's done much faster - check out info on travel.state.gov - expedited passport. When you know your interview date you can schedule appt with the passport agency (I think it's 1-800 number) weeks in advance and just show up there with your naturalization certificate.

We never had to use a lawyer - from DCF to ROC to Naturalization we did it all together. I must say the wait times for ROC were much shorter back in 2009, it is much longer for current applicants.