JD2

Well she'll tell the truth. I asked a specific question. Do you know the answer to that? The instructions seem to imply you do not have to file every year but I'm wondering if in practice they do require it?

Spouse not involved. I mentioned I-360. She did not. Is that relevant to her taxes? Or are you just curious?

Asking for an employee of mine. She got her 10 year GC through an I-360 (long story). She can apply for N-400 now. But, in all but 2 of the years she was not required to file a tax return because she did not work at all. She did file for 2025 and 2021 but none of the other years. IRS has a letter of non-filing but that just says you did not file. It is not proof that you were not required to file. Would it be enough to get a letter from an accountant saying she was not required to file + the IRS non-filing letters + account transcripts showing $0 owed? Or, does she just need to file for every year?

I thought about getting one for my wife when we thought of moving to London for a few years (I'm a dual citizen). We decided to wait until she got citizenship. I don't think you'll get better insights than the USCIS website because it is such a niche benefit. It will be hard to get enough timelines. Apply as early as possible. You can pick up the re-entry permit at the local consulate or USCIS international office in the country you are going to.

The USCIS.gov median processing times published the FY2026 numbers using "data from October 1, 2025 to February 28, 2026." N-400 median processing times (non-military) jumped from 5.6 months to 6.4 months. That's nationwide data. So among N-400 applicants who had oath ceremonies between Oct. 1, 2025 and Feb. 28, 2026, the median was 6.4 months. If you assume 2 months interview to oath ceremony, that's 4.4 months filing to interview. But, I suspect it's going to continue to increase. Also, that is the median. So half of the applicants took longer than that. https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/historic-pt

Not true. Country of birth would be crazy. Plenty of places don't have birthright citizenship so what if you no longer can get to your country of birth? Their current policy of country of citizenship or residence makes sense. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/adjudicating-iv-applicants-in-their-country-of-residence.html#:~:text=The Department of State is,the designated posts listed below.

If Satisfactory Departure is approved, however unlikely, that would not count as an overstay, correct?

No one has overstayed and will not.

GC holder has filed N-400 along with N-648. But ESTA parents have no desire to live in US. They are going to try for Satisfactory Departure. If they get it great, if not, they'll go back and try for a regular visa.

They contacted USCIS by phone. The AI receptionist is infuriating. They gave up after an hour of haggling with the AI and used the chat bot. The agent said you can only file for Satisfactory Departure within 10 days of your admit until date so they'll have to chat again at that time.

I think what you are implying, to overstay and eventually file for a Green Card, is very dangerous. They could get scooped up by immigration enforcement and since they are on ESTA they don't have the same rights. They could face a bar depending on how long they overstay. And, they don't want to live in the US. They just want a little more time (hoping for additional 30 then another 30). They plan to apply for a paper visa eventually.

No, it won't. She's spent about 30% of the time outside the US. Longest trip 51 days. This will be our 13th trip since she moved to the US. There is language in the Policy Manual. https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-d-chapter-3 "An officer may also review whether an applicant with multiple absences of less than 6 months each will be able to satisfy the continuous residence requirement. In some of these cases, an applicant may not be able to establish that his or her principal actual dwelling place is in the United States or establish residence within the United States for the statutorily required period of time." Should I assume we'll have to overcome a presumption of a break in the continuity of residence?

Any of y'all traveling after filing? We were eligible to file Dec. 1st but we were abroad so decided to wait til our return to file. Now, we have another trip coming up. Anything wrong with traveling abroad with an N-400 on file? If we get interview letter, my wife will fly back asap. The flights we are eyeing are transiting Abu Dhabi so there is good chance of cancellations but if needed I can afford to book alternate route. Would we just give an Errata sheet to the officer at the interview with the additional trip?

The ESTA visitors daughter is a US green card holder and has Stage 4 brain cancer which is getting severely worse. She has some serious surgeries scheduled and they want to stay for those procedures. The US resident cannot drive due to seizures so they are helping drive her and care for her.

I found this in the policy manual. Visa Waiver Program Entrants – Satisfactory Departure VWP entrants are generally not eligible for an extension of stay or change of status.[11] However, where an emergency or unforeseen circumstance prevents the departure of a VWP entrant, USCIS may exercise discretion to grant up to 30 days to allow for satisfactory departure.[12] For those VWP entrants already granted satisfactory departure and unable to depart within this 30-day period because of an emergency or unforeseen circumstance, USCIS has the authority to provide an additional 30-day period of satisfactory departure.[13] Officers determine whether an emergency or unforeseen circumstance constitutes an emergency that merits an approval of satisfactory departure. To request satisfactory departure from USCIS, a VWP entrant should contact the USCIS Contact Center[14] and provide proof of the emergency or unforeseen circumstance. The USCIS Contact Center forwards the request to the local field office for consideration. If USCIS approves the request, the officer provides the requestor with a notification of a grant of satisfactory departure. Our toll-free number is 800-375-5283 (TTY 800-767-1833) and we answer live calls and chats Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm Eastern.

How do you request an extension of ESTA due to a serious medical issue (Stage 4 brain cancer)? My friends went to CBP at airport and they told them to fill the form on USCIS "and then we can approve it but you have to first fill the form on USCIS." But, I don't see any form on USCIS.gov

Why not respond by mail to be safe? You need to overwhelm them with evidence. An RFE for an I-751 should have never happened in the first place.

Our I-130 was approved in just a few months. Then, our I-751 was also approved freakishly fast. So, I thought maybe our N-400 will be too but I don't think so. I wonder if we had applied on the first day eligible on Dec. 1st if it would have gone faster because biometrics would have been reused. They passed a rule after that to require biometrics on all N-400s.

I think they pad those processing times so they have some runway before people can do inquiries. If you look at actual timelines, they are shorter generally. I have noticed real timelines are highly variable as well. Some people get interview in 2 months while others 9 months and everything in between. I'm thinking those shorter timelines have gone away since October end. At least I haven't seen any at my Field Office and you would except some based on the preceding year's timelines.

Seems like processing has slowed down. I haven't seen a single person get an interview who filed after October 28th. Maybe due to the partial shutdown and the full shutdown before it? USCIS is fee funded but the director posted on Twitter that the full shutdown would slow down processing.

I did and they said they'd forward the suggestion to their product team. I think Lawfully has a lot of data so I was surprised they didn't do this already. I think they sell their data as a product to their business customers.

Back when we were at I-130 stage, and I-751, Lawfully app asks you to select which service center you have. They could easily add a menu to select Field Office.

If you use Lawfully to track N-400, why don't they have you select your field office so they can get better data?

We're only 20 min away from our Field Office. I assumed they had offices all over. They should let people do biometrics at their local police station.

I think she can request an appointment for an ADIT stamp online on her myUSCIS portal