Pros&Cons

[Lemon23 400]

24 minutes ago, kay&K said:

Exactly my thought. I wish there was a confirmed recommendation on what order to proceed further. Any one else could kindly chip in with suggestions as well? Thank you everyone for your response so far.

if you're aiming for citizenship then i would suggest to file it , you will gonna wait anyway for them to process your n-400, the only difference is you will have 2 pending application.

Edited December 14, 2017 by Lemon23

[Dashinka 24,849]

2 hours ago, gregcrs2 said:

I have the opposite opinion.  We will file N-400 as soon as eligible, regardless if the I-751 has not been approved yet.  If you plan on applying for citizenship then what is the agony of waiting for an approved I-751.  It's only a green card for you to use until such time as you get citizenship.

I agree.  We are preparing my wife’s N400 now (window opened yesterday).

[CoffeeVegan 223]

Yes, aiming for citizenship. Thank you for your input Lemon23

[Mollie09 1,543]

5 minutes ago, kay&K said:

Yes, aiming for citizenship. Thank you for your input Lemon23

The biggest difference is the time in "limbo" without a physical green card. For some people (myself included) not having that and traveling, switching jobs, getting mortgages, etc. is torture. For other people it's ok to have the letter or stamp until everything gets processed.

[CoffeeVegan 223]

24 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

I agree.  We are preparing my wife’s N400 now (window opened yesterday).

I see, so you guys are of the opinion that N400&I 1751 can go parallel,  may actually expedite the whole process and would have only one interview to attend correct? Did you have any other reasons in consideration for applying rightaway before permanent GC was here? Thank you.

Edited December 14, 2017 by kay&K

[CoffeeVegan 223]

17 minutes ago, Mollie09 said:

The biggest difference is the time in "limbo" without a physical green card. For some people (myself included) not having that and traveling, switching jobs, getting mortgages, etc. is torture. For other people it's ok to have the letter or stamp until everything gets processed.

Pardon my ignorance, but would the NOA2 not suffice? So you are if the opinion that it would extend the process more if you have N400 and i1751 concurrently moving?

Edited December 14, 2017 by kay&K

[Mollie09 1,543]

13 minutes ago, kay&K said:

Pardon my ignorance, but would the NOA2 not suffice? So you are if the opinion that it would extend the process more if you have N400 and i1751 concurrently moving?

The NOA should suffice, but it doesn't always when the person looking at it is unfamiliar with it. Having to explain over and over that I'm sure this piece of paper will let me back into the US when traveling internationally was painful enough.

It's unlikely your I-751 would be adjudicated separately if you file the N-400, so your timeline at that point becomes the timeline of the N-400, which is probably longer and depending on your local office much longer. But if you ultimately want citizenship, it gets it all done in one timeline.

[Dashinka 24,849]

17 minutes ago, kay&K said:

I see, so you guys are of the opinion that N400&I 1751 can go parallel,  may actually expedite the whole process and would have only one interview to attend correct? Did you have any other reasons in consideration for applying rightaway before permanent GC was here? Thank you.

The main goal is citizenship and we just look at the ROC as a necessary evil due to people committing fraud in the past.  We also are looking to get through this entire journey at the earliest possible time.  Right now, if my wife’s 751 is prolonged a bit with the N400 who really cares, it is just a card that will become useless with citizenship.  We may need to go to the local office on an infopass to get an I551 stamp so we can still travel internationally, but again, who really cares.

[gregcrs2 1,778]

1 minute ago, Bill & Katya said:

The main goal is citizenship and we just look at the ROC as a necessary evil due to people committing fraud in the past.  We also are looking to get through this entire journey at the earliest possible time.  Right now, if my wife’s 751 is prolonged a bit with the N400 who really cares, it is just a card that will become useless with citizenship.  We may need to go to the local office on an infopass to get an I551 stamp so we can still travel internationally, but again, who really cares.

Same here!!!

[Scazy 78]

As someone mentioned, it depends how long is the proceeding time at local office - and then decide if it's worthy to be all that time with a stamp and explain it to employees, travel agents, CBP agents at secondary, dmw 

For example I want to to have freedom with such things asap, and naturalization timeline is a year att local office, so I'd rather wait for a GC. Depends on your comfort level I guess, especially if you travel, especially with connections. that's a big obstacle to consider. one thing for sure - it will not speed up proceeding if I 751 and you can check it yourself by timelines of ppl who has combo applications filed.  

[Dashinka 24,849]

2 hours ago, Scazy said:

As someone mentioned, it depends how long is the proceeding time at local office - and then decide if it's worthy to be all that time with a stamp and explain it to employees, travel agents, CBP agents at secondary, dmw 

For example I want to to have freedom with such things asap, and naturalization timeline is a year att local office, so I'd rather wait for a GC. Depends on your comfort level I guess, especially if you travel, especially with connections. that's a big obstacle to consider. one thing for sure - it will not speed up proceeding if I 751 and you can check it yourself by timelines of ppl who has combo applications filed.  

I agree, it will not speed up processing of the of the GC, but it will speed up the race to the finish line.  I realize it can be a pain explaining the extension letter, or an I551 stamp, but I guess my wife and I don’t see this as an inconvenience.  We travel a lot internationally and so far it has not been an issue.  As to timelines, our local office is processing N400 from March 2017, and CSC is doing I751s from July 2016.  By my rough calculation if we file the N400 now (assuming if processing times stay steady) we should see something in nine months, waiting for the 10yr GC we are looking at another five months (filed ROC December 2016), so if we file the N400 now we will only extend the period about four months and be done.  If we wait and file the N400 after the ROC is approved then we are looking at another 14 months until naturalization.