Absence records missing for N400

[Shahid_S 0]

Hi all,

I need to apply for my citizenship. I have taken a number of trips over the last 5 years mostly to Canada.  I was under the impression I can find the travel record from their website which I used to have when I was travelling with I-94.  But sadly for GC holders its not available online.  Now I am stuck.  I have applied for FOIA from USCBP/Dept of Homeland Security. But its going to take long time.  I submitted my application first week of November and its still pending in "Initial determination" status. So it may take 8-10 months    I completed five years about 6 months ago and wanted to apply ASAP.  I also filed a FOIA request with USCIS and got the information within 2.5 months but that does not contain what I need.

 

So my question is, if I miss some absences on the N400 is that a huge problem? Anybody has any experience of missing to report and how they dealt your application?

 

Thank you!

[OldUser 6,636]

The problem is, IO needs to count days you were in and outside of the US. Frequent trips may make you ineligible for N-400 if you spent too much time outside of the US.

 

A good advice for anybody getting GC in the future is to start a spreadsheet on Google Sheets, noting every single trip taken since becoming LPR.

 

Now, since you're in this situation, you may review:

 

- Bank statements (see charges in stores, restaurants, gas stations etc overseas)

- Emails (if you had hotel reservations, airfare, something else related to trip)

- Google Maps (if you have location history enabled)

- Chats (SMS, messengers) where you talked to somebody while being overseas

 

Good luck !

Edited February 16 by OldUser

[NorthByNorthwest 352]

1 hour ago, Shahid_S said:

I need to apply for my citizenship. I have taken a number of trips over the last 5 years mostly to Canada.  I was under the impression I can find the travel record from their website which I used to have when I was travelling with I-94.  But sadly for GC holders its not available online.  Now I am stuck.  I have applied for FOIA from USCBP/Dept of Homeland Security. But its going to take long time.  I submitted my application first week of November and its still pending in "Initial determination" status. So it may take 8-10 months    I completed five years about 6 months ago and wanted to apply ASAP.  I also filed a FOIA request with USCIS and got the information within 2.5 months but that does not contain what I need.

 

So my question is, if I miss some absences on the N400 is that a huge problem? Anybody has any experience of missing to report and how they dealt your application?

 

I had the same issue, in essence the US FOIA info is a bit hit or miss, especially when it comes to land crossings. It is also not consistent which document number is used, so unless you list all possible travel documents in the request you might not get everything. For example I got back results with the following for document number:

 

* Foreign passport #

* A-number without the A

* NEXUS card number (not the PASSID, even though I only listed the PASSID in the request)

* I-485 petition number

 

In 2022 my CBP FOIA request took about 60 days. In an earlier 2020 request (was going to do a 3-year N400 but skipped it due to the pandemic) I got results with different level of detail and I didn't list all document numbers for that one. Again - seems pretty much hit-or-miss depending on who handles your FOIA request.

 

For land crossings into Canada I got much better results from an ATIP request from Canada's CBSA in less than 30 days - I recommend that option.

Edited February 16 by NorthByNorthwest

[Shahid_S 0]

ATIP request?  How to go about that?

[NorthByNorthwest 352]

4 hours ago, Shahid_S said:

ATIP request?  How to go about that?

 

ATIP is the Canadian equivalent of FOIA - start here: https://atip-aiprp.tbs-sct.gc.ca/en/Request/Subject

 

When it asks for institution search for CBSA and from there it's pretty similar to a FOIA request. Ask for entry/exit records, time period and list all your documents used as mentioned above, at least passport number(s) and A-number from GC, NEXUS info if you have it.

[Shroy123 749]

how many days in total you utilized outside usa after green card?

[Shahid_S 0]

@Shroy123 Hi, I can roughly estimate I had about 7 months absence in total out of 5 years.