I am filling out N-400 paper form (Edition 04/01/24) in Adobe Reader. It has a glitch where if you fill in the Yes/No checkbox in Part 5 Question 4d then it also checks off the same Yes/No box in Part 10 question 1. Both questions are completely unrelated to each other:
Part 5 Question 4d
Is your current spouse's present physical address the same as your physical address? Yes / No
Part 10 Question 1
My household income is less than or equal to 400% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. Yes / No
I have tried this on different computers with different versions of Adobe and by downloading fresh N-400 PDF forms and it's the same behavior. I'm finding it hard to believe such a glitch exists.
I even tried disabling javascript but still the same behavior occurs! Unfortunately there is a barcode at bottom of each page which captures all the information filled in on that page and used for intake of the form into USCIS system. Due to that I want to either fill out the entire PDF form via Adobe Reader or else just print out the blank form and fill it out entirely by hand in black ink. However, I don't want to mix the two ways because that would mean the barcode on each page captured some info (the typed in portion) and missing other info (the handwritten portion). I'm able to bypass this problem using a browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox) to check off the correct box for each question without affecting the other box, but USCIS does not recommend using browser to fill it in and I'm afraid that the barcode on those pages may not be getting updated correctly when doing it via the browser so again the same issue may be there that when USCIS scans the barcode they may not see the checkbox answer captured as part of that particular page's information.
I've the following questions:
1) Has anybody encountered this glitch with the PDF form and know a solution?
2) Are most people on here just doing the online version of N-400? I have read that the online system has its own glitches and drawbacks. And some lawyers say it's preferable to keep a paper trail of the N-400 application and don't recommend the online way.
3) If I do fill it out all by hand then will it cause any significant delays in processing as compared to the typed in way?
4) My I-751 is still pending. Not sure if that affects which option I use (paper vs online).