Any gotchas to self-filing N-400?

[ExPatty 502]

I got a quote from a local immigration attorney on filing N-400 for both my wife and I and didn't care for the figure, so I looked into the process and it seems pretty darn straight forward to do it myself. Our GCs are almost expired (6 months+week, so need to file asap). We have as simple an application as I can think of. We've made only trips to Canada, probably 50 days total in the last 5 years, have US-born kids, not so much as a speeding ticket in our past, and I can answer no on all of the questions about genocide and terrorism and what not. My wife is a Canadian citizen by birth and I am a UK by birth and Canadian by naturalization as a kid, but been in the US for over a decade.

The reason I ask this question, though, is that when we had a lawyer for the permanent resident applications she saved my ###. I never knew anything about registering for selective service and apparently I did (it shows up on the site) and just under the wire of when I had to (online it says I registered when I was 25 years and 11 months [!!!!]), so I'm good there. My question then is: are there any weird gotchas I should know about for this? SS is a huge one that I know has burned people in the past and it looks like I was a month away from it burning me.

I do think N-400 in general seems a much easier process than green cards (not to mention the latter requires employer sponsorship, but also more forms along the way).

Thanks. This seems like a useful forum and it's been interesting reading some things.

[milimelo 4,479]

Don't need a lawyer for N400. Just follow the instructions in the form and read the M-476 guide for naturalization on uscis.gov.

Get the tax transcripts for last 5 years from IRS.gov.

[BigDaddy28 228]

I got a quote from a local immigration attorney on filing N-400 for both my wife and I and didn't care for the figure, so I looked into the process and it seems pretty darn straight forward to do it myself. Our GCs are almost expired (6 months+week, so need to file asap). We have as simple an application as I can think of. We've made only trips to Canada, probably 50 days total in the last 5 years, have US-born kids, not so much as a speeding ticket in our past, and I can answer no on all of the questions about genocide and terrorism and what not. My wife is a Canadian citizen by birth and I am a UK by birth and Canadian by naturalization as a kid, but been in the US for over a decade.

The reason I ask this question, though, is that when we had a lawyer for the permanent resident applications she saved my ###. I never knew anything about registering for selective service and apparently I did (it shows up on the site) and just under the wire of when I had to (online it says I registered when I was 25 years and 11 months [!!!!]), so I'm good there. My question then is: are there any weird gotchas I should know about for this? SS is a huge one that I know has burned people in the past and it looks like I was a month away from it burning me.

I do think N-400 in general seems a much easier process than green cards (not to mention the latter requires employer sponsorship, but also more forms along the way).

Thanks. This seems like a useful forum and it's been interesting reading some things.

From my personal experience, lawyers are money vampires. If you have a straight forward case which both of you and your wife seem like you do, file by yourselves.

I applied in 2010 for my green card with a lawyer, he lied to me, tried to make my file expire with USCIS by not replying on time and tried to deceive me when I asked him questions about my file. In my interview, officer asked me where is my lawyer? I said he didn't do his job right so I fired him, besides I don't have anything to hide. 10 year green card and naturalization all done by myself and there was no sweat.

For the selective service: If you are older than 31 now, you should be fine. I don't see any problem why they would give you any trouble. As you said naturalization is the easiest step. Don't get me wrong, USCIS will dig to see if you have anything that disqualify you. Because once you are a citizen, they have to take you to court and prove to the court that you shouldn't be a citizen . Most likely that happens if you lied in your application.

If you don't have anything with IRS, DUIs, or drug charges or anything major, don't worry. There are no gotchas.

[ExPatty 502]

Thanks