Hello all,
My wife would like some guidance.
We've been married nearly 10 years, she's had permanent residency for about 8. We finally applied for citizenship on February 2, 2024, and had her first interview on March 19, where she was "recommend for approval" and a ceremony would be scheduled. It has been two weeks, no notice about the ceremony.
This whole process has been very quick which was a huge surprise, we expected it to take months at least, maybe even a year. That was short citied on our part, I know, just didn't think this would be an issue.
The concern:
We have a 2 week vacation to Europe at the very end of May. The USCIS woman during the interview said my wife needs to have a new US passport before we travel (if she's a citizen by then of course).
1. What were to happen if she's a citizen, but we don't have time to get a passport before we travel? Can she travel under her French passport? What happens when we come home? She saw somewhere that they'll take her green card at the naturalization ceremony, or invalidate it. Could they deny her entry? She'd be a citizen then, could they actually keep her out as a citizen? I feel like probably not, but not sure.
2. At what point should we be concerned that scheduling the ceremony is taking too long? The interviewer made it sound like it "was just coming, no biggie". I know 2 weeks is short but we need time to get the passport processed too.
Please ask if I've left important details out.
Thanks for your help!