Should I file for citizenship while I-751 is pending?

[Ptl4511 4]

Thank you so much guys. I feel more comfortable. My field office in Minnesota serves 3 states so N400 timeline is way longer than any other offices in the States. So hopefully it would help pushing both forms

[KMENDLESS 9]

19 hours ago, Russ&Caro said:

Strange. I wonder why attorneys are advising that you do them one at a time. You are correct that many on VJ are doing both at the same time successfully, including my wife. Good luck with your decision.

Hi,  could you tell me how you filled  "Time Outside the Unite States within 5 years" since I am only living here for 3 years

 

Thanks so much

[KMENDLESS 9]

14 hours ago, visaqueries said:

We filed for the n400 while the I 751 was processing. My husband was told by the USCIS officer that it would be better for us to have waited. However, we applied in March 2018 for the n400 and had an interview by July 2018. My husband became a citizen on September 26, 2018.  I would say apply for the n400, but do it online if you can.

Hi,  could you tell me how you filled  "Time Outside the Unite States within 5 years" since I am only living here for 3 years

 

Thanks so much

7 hours ago, jskibo said:

We filed in March while pending ROC and wife became citizen in August. 

 

No reason to wait. 

Hi,  could you tell me how you filled  "Time Outside the Unite States within 5 years" since I am only living here for 3 years

 

Thanks so much

[jskibo 588]

2 hours ago, KMENDLESS said:

Hi,  could you tell me how you filled  "Time Outside the Unite States within 5 years" since I am only living here for 3 years

 

Thanks so much

Hi,  could you tell me how you filled  "Time Outside the Unite States within 5 years" since I am only living here for 3 years

 

Thanks so much

We put last three years in US except one 104 day trip to her home country, then previous two years in Philippines. 

[visaqueries 111]

On 10/17/2018 at 11:34 PM, visajourney# said:

Congrats to you and your husband and thanks for sharing your journey! Now i feel a lot more comfortable moving forward with the N-400 application. I have already filled out the form online and all i need is to press the button  

Press it! 😊

[visaqueries 111]

20 hours ago, KMENDLESS said:

Hi,  could you tell me how you filled  "Time Outside the United States within 5 years" since I am only living here for 3 years

 

Thanks so much

 

We listed the three years of time that he was out of the country.  They had no problem with this.

[Ptl4511 4]

By the way, could you guys tell me which field office are you at and how long it probably takes to process n400? Any minnesotans here?

[Russ&Caro 1,549]

Here's an entire thread devoted to N400 applicants at the local Minnesota office. Unfortunately it doesn't look promising. A couple of people made it through the process in 11 months. I think the rest are all still waiting. Good luck.

 

[mymercy 85]

On 10/18/2018 at 11:42 AM, Ptl4511 said:

Thank you so much guys. I feel more comfortable. My field office in Minnesota serves 3 states so N400 timeline is way longer than any other offices in the States. So hopefully it would help pushing both forms

haha you don't know that yet ... my field office Dallas, has my expected wait time as 26 months

[sharin 41]

On 10/17/2018 at 8:29 AM, Ptl4511 said:

I filed form i751 in Dec 2017 in Minnesota. I will be eligible to apply for citizenship this December based on 3 year rule. Should I go ahead and file N400? The waiting time for N400 in Minnesota is now 15.5-24.5 months. It is way too long. Anyone has experience on this? Would n400 delay my i751 process? Thank you

From what I heard, N400 delays process for I-751 approval even further because USCIS local office ends up combining both cases. If you don't mind waiting another 12-15 months, get done with USCIS finally by acquiring citizenship. I'm leaning towards waiting for I-751 approval and then apply for Citizenship as my local USCIS office Dallas is backed up too and current timeline suggest atleast 26 month waiting period for N400 approval since application. I'd hate to wait another 14-15 months, which is not guaranteed either and can cause additional delay.

 

If I was in area like LA, I'd have definitely filed Citizenship because I've heard cases where process is WAY faster.

Edited October 27, 2018 by sharin

[njblue 51]

I did apply for my naturalization before I was approved for the i751. While I was waiting for the interview for naturalization they approved my removal of conditions and now I’m a US citizen since last Tuesday. So go ahead and do it. Good luck 

[Ptl4511 4]

On 10/27/2018 at 10:43 AM, sharin said:

From what I heard, N400 delays process for I-751 approval even further because USCIS local office ends up combining both cases. If you don't mind waiting another 12-15 months, get done with USCIS finally by acquiring citizenship. I'm leaning towards waiting for I-751 approval and then apply for Citizenship as my local USCIS office Dallas is backed up too and current timeline suggest atleast 26 month waiting period for N400 approval since application. I'd hate to wait another 14-15 months, which is not guaranteed either and can cause additional delay.

 

If I was in area like LA, I'd have definitely filed Citizenship because I've heard cases where process is WAY faster.

That’s what I heard from the attorney. But I think it really depends on the local office?. As other comments on this post and other posts, Many of them filed while i751 was still pending, and they still got approved even earlier than i751

[sharin 41]

25 minutes ago, Ptl4511 said:

That’s what I heard from the attorney. But I think it really depends on the local office?. As other comments on this post and other posts, Many of them filed while i751 was still pending, and they still got approved even earlier than i751

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/wait-times-citizenship-applications-stretch-years-58807096

[optlh0 19]

On Monday my wife and I went to the Minneapolis field office to get an I-551 stamp. She applied for the I-751 in Oct. of 2017. She'd received an 18 month extension letter which was going to expire next month. The woman that did her stamp said the long wait times for I-751's were caused by there only being a couple places in the country that are authorized to print out the green cards. Priority is given to new immigrants that don't have green cards yet because people with them can use either extension letters or I-551 stamps instead of getting a new green card.

 

She also said filing for the I-751 doesn't affect the processing for the N400

 

Also, just as an FYI, if you get an I-551 stamp in your passport they take your greencard and shred it. The I-551 stamp becomes your new greencard for both travel and work until you receive the new physical card.

 

 

[dilip 187]

On 10/17/2018 at 10:46 AM, Russ&Caro said:

While your i751 and n400 are pending, if you need to travel you will be doing so on an expired green card. That's why the USCIS issues an 18 month extension letter. So you will need to travel with both the expired green card and the extension letter. If your i751 and n400 are pending beyond the 18 month green card extension then you will need to go into a USCIS office and receive an i551 stamp in your passport. That's what the poster above meant.

 

If you are traveling abroad extensively, then your priority is probably to get your 10 year green card to avoid the hassles above in traveling with the extension letter or i551 stamp. In this case, you wouldn't want to risk further delay in i751 processing.

 

If you don't travel abroad extensively, then your priority is probably to receive citizenship as soon as possible so that you can finally put an end to all of this.

 

Note, even though the local offices quote a range of dates for N400 processing times, there are many VJ stories that indicate that N400 processing times at local offices are a little quicker with both an i751 and n400 pending. This was the case for my wife. Albuquerque processing times for N400's was 9 to 15 months when she filed, but in reality it only took 5 months with both i751 and n400 pending. Note: some VJ'ers have conjectured that having both applications pending at a local office is sort of a forcing action for them to process both applications sooner than later. Your mileage may vary. Good luck!

Philly is 9 to 20.5 months for N-400 and my I-751 is pending from Nov 27, 2017.  We applied as N-400 in Nov 25 , 2018 got interview June 28, 2019 ( 7 months) as Visaqueries said.