N-400 January 2024 filers

[leilabird 18]

12 hours ago, Rearviewmirror said:

 

Almost everybody else in this thread is filing under the 3 or 5 year rule, and given that you haven't filled out your timeline I assumed you were in the same boat. You said your GC anniversary was August, which would have meant your interview was before it had been 3/5 years since receiving your original greencard. This doesn't apply to you given you've already been a greencard holder for more than 5 years.

What’s a 3 or 5 year rule? And what timeline. Sorry I’m super oblivious to this whole thing

[leilabird 18]

12 hours ago, Rearviewmirror said:

 

Almost everybody else in this thread is filing under the 3 or 5 year rule, and given that you haven't filled out your timeline I assumed you were in the same boat. You said your GC anniversary was August, which would have meant your interview was before it had been 3/5 years since receiving your original greencard. This doesn't apply to you given you've already been a greencard holder for more than 5 years.

Was I not supposed to apply for US citizenship since I passed the 3 year mark? Since I already applied, is it going to be denied? I’m using the same lawyer that I did when I applied for a green card. My lawyer hasn’t said anything. I’m emailing him right now. I’m now getting worried. I had no intention to apply for US citizenship as I was completely happy with my green card and my own country passport is way stronger than the US passport and I don’t travel lol. Only reason I applied for US citizenship was due to losing my green card. Green card replacement application was taking too long, 2 plus years. The I kept hearing people saying the US citizenship applications taking only 4-6 months, so I applied. Now I got a notification saying my green card is produced. If my n400 gets denied I feel so sad for wasting money. Please people enlighten me. Super worried

[leilabird 18]

2 minutes ago, PVR Bound said:

https://hackinglawpractice.com/difference-between-3-year-and-5-year-citizenship/
 

outlines pretty nicely here what the difference is 

Oh okay thanks. My attorney just emailed me back and said “stay away from forums” lol

[jackiegringa 419]

Self delete

 

Edited March 1 by jackiegringa

[Rearviewmirror 397]

11 hours ago, leilabird said:

Oh okay thanks. My attorney just emailed me back and said “stay away from forums” lol

 

Broadly there are three "types" of folks going through the immigration process - 1) folks who learn the process inside out, do most/all of their filing themselves, 2) folks who don't know much about the process and trust their lawyer to do everything for them, 3) folks who don't inform themselves and try to go it alone.

 

2) works absolutely fine if you have a good lawyer, and can afford it, 1) is the route most folks on this forum take. Given how zero-sum the US immigration is - success vs banished forever (deliberate hyperbole there...) - I would far rather know all the ins and outs of the process.

 

If you have a good lawyer, they'll keep you on rails and will guide you through the process and you'll be fine. But I've also read stories of folks with bad lawyers on here.

 

My post was motivated by the fact that a LOT of people on this forum are in bucket 3) who do things like file for a replacement green card instead of applying to remove conditions, or apply for citizenship before they are eligible.

 

I'm still not entirely sure how long you've held your green card (see the 3 vs 5 year article posted above), but if you're married to a USC and have held a GC for 3 years minus 90 days, or you're not married and have held it for 5 years minus 90 days (including no long absences from the US during that time) then you're eligible to file for citizenship.

You can fill out your VJ timeline here - it lets other users see filing statistics, and get a better idea of when their case might be approved. More importantly it gives context to other folks when they are answering your questions/replying to your post.

[Crazy Cat 41,605]

1 hour ago, Rearviewmirror said:

Broadly there are three "types" of folks going through the immigration process

I guess I am a hybrid.  I started out as a #2...then the attorney failed to send some documents, causing us a 3 month delay......so I then fired him, and I decided to become a #1...No hiccups after that..LOL.

Edited March 1 by Crazy Cat

[minivatreni 193]

2 hours ago, Rearviewmirror said:

 

Broadly there are three "types" of folks going through the immigration process - 1) folks who learn the process inside out, do most/all of their filing themselves, 2) folks who don't know much about the process and trust their lawyer to do everything for them, 3) folks who don't inform themselves and try to go it alone.

 

2) works absolutely fine if you have a good lawyer, and can afford it, 1) is the route most folks on this forum take. Given how zero-sum the US immigration is - success vs banished forever (deliberate hyperbole there...) - I would far rather know all the ins and outs of the process.

 

If you have a good lawyer, they'll keep you on rails and will guide you through the process and you'll be fine. But I've also read stories of folks with bad lawyers on here.

 

My post was motivated by the fact that a LOT of people on this forum are in bucket 3) who do things like file for a replacement green card instead of applying to remove conditions, or apply for citizenship before they are eligible.

 

I'm still not entirely sure how long you've held your green card (see the 3 vs 5 year article posted above), but if you're married to a USC and have held a GC for 3 years minus 90 days, or you're not married and have held it for 5 years minus 90 days (including no long absences from the US during that time) then you're eligible to file for citizenship.

You can fill out your VJ timeline here - it lets other users see filing statistics, and get a better idea of when their case might be approved. More importantly it gives context to other folks when they are answering your questions/replying to your post.

I think that person had their green card 9 years, not sure why they’re stressing 

[minivatreni 193]

47 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

I guess I am a hybrid.  I started out as a #2...then the attorney failed to send some documents, causing us a 3 month delay......so I then fired him, and I decided to become a #1...No hiccups after that..LOL.

Some attorneys are absolutely terrible. A friend of mine is an immigration attorney, and I’ve asked for advice a couple of times before and gotten such terrible responses that I stopped asking altogether. 
 

Hope you got money back from that lawyer that messed up your case! 

[Crazy Cat 41,605]

1 minute ago, minivatreni said:

Hope you got money back from that lawyer that messed up your case! 

I didn't bother.  He never admitted to the error.  He messed up the case at the NVC level and caused an RFE.  By that time, I had already been on Visa Journey long enough to educate myself enough to handle the consulate phase.  Wife and I did the I-751 and N-400 parts ourselves with no more RFEs at all. 

[Crazy Cat 41,605]

14 hours ago, PVR Bound said:

Your attorney is correct!
 

But sometimes the folks on the forums know more about this than the attorneys. You just have to figure out who to trust and who swipe past. 

I think here, on VJ, the inaccurate information almost always QUICKLY gets corrected by knowledgeable members. 

[minivatreni 193]

27 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

I think here, on VJ, the inaccurate information almost always QUICKLY gets corrected by knowledgeable members. 

I had an issue where my resident since date on my GC was incorrect, and I never filed an I-90 to have it corrected. I wanted to know if this would cause issues or a potential denial of my N400 because I never filed to have my GC corrected. The immigration attorney told me "it's too late to file an I90 so just call the USCIS and put in a service request to get the date changed" I was so confused??? Anyway I was informed here that I90 is the only route to making changes on a GC if I wanted to file that. 

[Laure&Colin 557]

18 hours ago, leilabird said:

Was I not supposed to apply for US citizenship since I passed the 3 year mark? Since I already applied, is it going to be denied? I’m using the same lawyer that I did when I applied for a green card. My lawyer hasn’t said anything. I’m emailing him right now. I’m now getting worried. I had no intention to apply for US citizenship as I was completely happy with my green card and my own country passport is way stronger than the US passport and I don’t travel lol. Only reason I applied for US citizenship was due to losing my green card. Green card replacement application was taking too long, 2 plus years. The I kept hearing people saying the US citizenship applications taking only 4-6 months, so I applied. Now I got a notification saying my green card is produced. If my n400 gets denied I feel so sad for wasting money. Please people enlighten me. Super worried

 

THERE'S NOTHING FOR YOU TO WORRY ABOUT!! You are eligible to apply for citizenship  if you've been a permanent resident for at least 5 years (3 if married to a US citizen). That's the minimum, but you can apply at any time after that. I just applied in February and I've had a green card for 12 years.

Most people here apply as early as they are able to, but there's no downside to applying later. I personally didn't feel the need to apply, I also just did it because my 10-year green card is expiring.

[OldUser 6,473]

19 hours ago, leilabird said:

Was I not supposed to apply for US citizenship since I passed the 3 year mark? Since I already applied, is it going to be denied? I’m using the same lawyer that I did when I applied for a green card. My lawyer hasn’t said anything. I’m emailing him right now. I’m now getting worried. I had no intention to apply for US citizenship as I was completely happy with my green card and my own country passport is way stronger than the US passport and I don’t travel lol. Only reason I applied for US citizenship was due to losing my green card. Green card replacement application was taking too long, 2 plus years. The I kept hearing people saying the US citizenship applications taking only 4-6 months, so I applied. Now I got a notification saying my green card is produced. If my n400 gets denied I feel so sad for wasting money. Please people enlighten me. Super worried

There's nothing wrong with applying.

 

There's aldo nothing wrong with withdrawing N-400 if you no longer want to become a US citizen. You can do it today.

 

Before making a decision, does your country of other citizenship allow dual citizenship? Many countries nowadays are OK with their citizens having multiple citizenships. In many cases you will continue having your citizenship and passport from other country if you become a US citizen. And one outside of the US, you can still use that country's passport to travel if you wish.

 

What country are you from? 

[Shroy123 749]

21 hours ago, leilabird said:

Oh okay thanks. My attorney just emailed me back and said “stay away from forums” lol

Honestly this forum helped me more than my attorney 

[samdog 56]

@jackiegringa I found a couple other timelines from the STL area with N400 filing around the same time we filed:

 

Applied in October 2023 and already done with interview/oath! - https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/profile.php?id=118078; @sweetbrat they don't seem active on any forums/topics

Applied in January 2024 and waiting for interview - https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/profile.php?id=240174; @Carpe Vinum they seem active on some forums/topics but just not here. Maybe they will see my comment and keep us posted with their interview invite!

 

 

Edited March 1 by samdog
clarity