N-400: is this it for the evidence

[randomstairs 303]

Hi All,

 

Happy Veterans Day! 

 

I'm submitting my N-400 in a few days and just want to make sure I'm getting it right (e-filing). The ONLY required evidence seems to be a copy of my green card. Is that really it? No birth certificate? No passport copies? No ID copies? No taxes?  I'm applying based on 5 years in LPR status. I obtained the GC based on EB2-NIW (so not family-based).

 

For the additional evidenced I only submitted a PDF of an addendum to one question (explaining the name of the country of birth). Should I add any other evidence (see above) now, or should file first and add it later if necessary as "unsolicited evidence"?

 

Thanks! 

 

 

[Mike E 11,739]

5 years of tax transcripts are required. 
 

You should include evidence that you worked for the employer who petitioned  your gc after your got your gc. 
 

Have to read  the three naturalization guides in https://www.visajourney.com/guides/

 

Are you married or divorced?

Need evidence of either.  
 

Do you have children out of wedlock or from a marriage that ended in divorce? You need evidence of child support along with their birth certificates. 

 

Did you get your gc before age 26? If so you need a evidence of registration with selective service or a status information letter. 

Edited November 11, 2022 by Mike E

[randomstairs 303]

33 minutes ago, Mike E said:

Thanks for your response! 

 

"5 years of tax transcripts are required." 

 

Not on the electronic N-400 form. In the N-400 Instructions this is listed only under "list of documents to bring with you to your Form N-400 interview" and NOT under "required documents to submit with the N-400 form." I also thought I should submit the taxes as "additional evidence" but don't necessarily want to do something that I'm not asked to do. This is surprising to me.

 

"You should include evidence that you worked for the employer who petitioned  your gc after your got your gc."

 

I was self-petitioned (National Interest Waiver) so the employer did not petition my GC. Of course I'll bring my employment documentation (and documentation showing that I'm still in the field of science that my NIW was based on) to the interview. Perhaps I should submit my I-140 approval form? I can also submit the above as the "additional evidence."  

 

 

33 minutes ago, Mike E said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yep. Done.

 

33 minutes ago, Mike E said:

 

Are you married or divorced?

Need evidence of either.  
 

Do you have children out of wedlock or from a marriage that ended in divorce? You need evidence of child support along with their birth certificates. 

 

Did you get your gc before age 26? If so you need a evidence of registration with selective service or a status information letter. 

 

[randomstairs 303]

51 minutes ago, Mike E said:

Thanks for your response, Mike E! Sorry for the messed up quote above. Here's a cleaner version:

"5 years of tax transcripts are required." 

Not on the electronic N-400 form. In the N-400 Instructions this is listed only under "list of documents to bring with you to your Form N-400 interview" and NOT under "required documents to submit with the N-400 form." I also thought I should submit the taxes as "additional evidence" but don't necessarily want to do something that I'm not asked to do. This is surprising to me.

"You should include evidence that you worked for the employer who petitioned  your gc after your got your gc."

I was self-petitioned (National Interest Waiver) so the employer did not petition my GC. Of course I'll bring my employment documentation (and evidence showing that I'm still in the field of science on which my NIW was based) to the interview. But, again, surprisingly, they are NOT asking for it in the electronic form. Perhaps I should submit my I-140 approval form? I can also submit the above as the "additional evidence." But it might be better to submit it as "unsolicited evidence" after the filing, because, well, it is unsolicited evidence. 

 

“Have to read the three naturalization guides in https://www.visajourney.com/guides/”

 

I read them and nothing else in terms of evidence is mentioned for my case (or even for non-NIW employment-based GCs). I see that family-based cases require a lot more.

 

“Are you married or divorced? Need evidence of either.”

 

Neither.

 

“Do you have children out of wedlock or from a marriage that ended in divorce? You need evidence of child support along with their birth certificates. “

 

No children.

 

“Did you get your gc before age 26? If so you need a evidence of registration with selective service or a status information letter. “

 

No.

 

[OldUser 6,633]

@randomstairs N-400 approval requires taxes for the past 5 years.

You can choose not to upload it with initial submission, but you decrease your chances of being approved on the spot, increase processing time and chance of receiving RFE.

It is in your interest to make the process smoother by submitting the docs.

 

 

[randomstairs 303]

3 minutes ago, OldUser said:

@randomstairs N-400 approval requires taxes for the past 5 years.

You can choose not to upload it with initial submission, but you decrease your chances of being approved on the spot, increase processing time and chance of receiving RFE.

It is in your interest to make the process smoother by submitting the docs.

 

 

I will submit the taxes. It's just strange that this is not listed at all under required evidence. Thanks!

[Mike E 11,739]

Even if you got NIW gc, you still need evidence you worked in the field that is the basis for the NIW. If you no longer work in that field, you will have some explaining. 
 

https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/guides/G-1151.pdf Says toy need to bring tax transcripts to the interview.

 

I don’t know what it was I read when I did my own N-400, but I submitted tax transcripts and my ISO didn’t ask to see them. 
 

Similarly for my wife’s marriage based N-400, her lawyer submitted  tax transcripts twice: once for marital union evidence and once for the additional evidence.  
 

 

 

 

 

[randomstairs 303]

1 minute ago, Mike E said:

Even if you got NIW gc, you still need evidence you worked in the field that is the basis for the NIW. If you no longer work in that field, you will have some explaining. 
 

https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/guides/G-1151.pdf Says toy need to bring tax transcripts to the interview.

 

I don’t know what it was I read when I did my own N-400, but I submitted tax transcripts and my ISO didn’t ask to see them. 
 

Similarly for my wife’s marriage based N-400, her lawyer submitted  tax transcripts twice: once for marital union evidence and once for the additional evidence.  
 

 

 

 

 

Sure! I'll bring tones of evidence for my engagement in the field to the interview, in case they ask. But under "required evidence" for the N-400 it only lists the green card, so I am reluctant to submit it there. I did submit the tax returns (electronic) for the last 5 years as "additional evidence" although, again, it is not mentioned at all under "required evidence" - only under "bring to the interview" on the N-400 instructions page. I haven't summited the form yet. I guess the family-based applications differ a great deal in their requirements. 

[Lil bear 4,189]

16 minutes ago, randomstairs said:

 I guess the family-based applications differ a great deal in their requirements. 

If applying under the 3 yr spouse rule yes.. there is other evidence required. Like you, I uploaded the tax transcripts under additional documents on my online  account 

Its worth approaching this step by remembering that you need to legitimately have held LPR status for 3/5 plus years and maintained the requirements for doing so .. and there can be a review of everything which was used to assess your eligibility in the past. 

[Scandi 4,166]

2 hours ago, randomstairs said:

Sure! I'll bring tones of evidence for my engagement in the field to the interview, in case they ask. But under "required evidence" for the N-400 it only lists the green card, so I am reluctant to submit it there. I did submit the tax returns (electronic) for the last 5 years as "additional evidence" although, again, it is not mentioned at all under "required evidence" - only under "bring to the interview" on the N-400 instructions page. I haven't summited the form yet. I guess the family-based applications differ a great deal in their requirements. 

The more you upload the better, that way you give the IO more time to go through your paperwork before your interview and the process could potentially go faster. There are no guarantees how long it could take for them to go through a stack of paperwork afterwards, and you may have to wait for your approval. 

 

You can upload as much as you like under additional evidence. Better not to overdo it, but definitely give them something to work with. 👍

 

Family based or not, filing your taxes and paying what you owe shows good moral character, so they want to see proof of that. If you owe, they want to see that you have a payment plan with IRS. 

Edited November 11, 2022 by Scandi

[randomstairs 303]

1 hour ago, Scandi said:

The more you upload the better, that way you give the IO more time to go through your paperwork before your interview and the process could potentially go faster. There are no guarantees how long it could take for them to go through a stack of paperwork afterwards, and you may have to wait for your approval. 

 

You can upload as much as you like under additional evidence. Better not to overdo it, but definitely give them something to work with. 👍

 

Family based or not, filing your taxes and paying what you owe shows good moral character, so they want to see proof of that. If you owe, they want to see that you have a payment plan with IRS. 

An interesting point! There is an option of submitting the unsolicited evidence to the case after the filing. I'll keep the taxes with the main application and add the unsolicited evidence (employment history, passports, birth certificate, etc) later, if that makes sense. So, reasoning based on your advice, I would add to the N-400 application ALL the additional evidence that USCIS recommends for the interview (taxes, mainly), so that the IO can review it beforehand. But the evidence that's not mentioned anywhere in the N-400 instructions (e.g. job history) I plan to submit to the case (electronically) after the filing (and before the interview), so as not to flood the application with less relevant or irrelevant documents.

 

I've been obsessively preparing for this for almost five years now and don't want to submit anything that's not optimal.  

 

 

[SalishSea 17,818]

12 hours ago, randomstairs said:

read them and nothing else in terms of evidence is mentioned for my case (or even for non-NIW employment-based GCs). I see that family-based cases require a lot more.

“Family-based cases require a lot more” evidence?

 

 Why do you think this?   Or perhaps you mean just for people who naturalize understand the 3-year rule?

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

For the actual application, yes that’s all you need. I also had to submit marriage certificate and kids birth certificates, but if you’re single/not a parent you don’t need those.
You’ll want to take the tax transcripts to the interview. They may or may not look at them. They looked at mine, but not my husbands and not most people I know who did n400.

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

On 11/11/2022 at 2:46 PM, Scandi said:

The more you upload the better, that way you give the IO more time to go through your paperwork before your interview and the process could potentially go faster. There are no guarantees how long it could take for them to go through a stack of paperwork afterwards, and you may have to wait for your approval. 

 

You can upload as much as you like under additional evidence. Better not to overdo it, but definitely give them something to work with. 👍

 

Family based or not, filing your taxes and paying what you owe shows good moral character, so they want to see proof of that. If you owe, they want to see that you have a payment plan with IRS. 

I don’t agree this is necessary, especially as if it takes a year between application and interview like it did for me then you just need to re-compile all that evidence anyway.  I mean, feel free to o more work if you want but myself, my husband and my one kid who turned 18 all submitted the bare minimum asked with the application and all got approved on the day of interview. Made same suggestion to 2 couple I know and all 4 of the people also got approved on the day. 
 

i would be very surprised if they look at any of the stuff before the interview.

[Scandi 4,166]

3 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

I don’t agree this is necessary, especially as if it takes a year between application and interview like it did for me then you just need to re-compile all that evidence anyway.  I mean, feel free to o more work if you want but myself, my husband and my one kid who turned 18 all submitted the bare minimum asked with the application and all got approved on the day of interview. Made same suggestion to 2 couple I know and all 4 of the people also got approved on the day. 
 

i would be very surprised if they look at any of the stuff before the interview.

And as always, it's individual. Just because they didn't ask much of you guys doesn't mean they won't ask more from someone else. By uploading more than asked for you lower the risks of being asked for something at the interview, and lower the risks of not being approved on spot if they have to go through a stash of paperwork afterwards - nobody can tell you how long it will take for them to do that. There are never any guarantees, but a lot of us prefer to be extra prepared in every way we can. 

I never re-compiled anything, but maybe I misunderstand what that means? I uploaded a few new documents each month my case was pending - including the latest tax return transcipts etc. For that reason, i never had to bring much of anything to the interview (other than the originals of the important documents like divorce decrees etc) since they already had everything in the system. She even explained to me that they PREFER to have things uploaded (hence why they try to make forms available online these days), and also proceeded to scan one single of my documents and added it to my online file instead of taking a regular paper copy of it.