OldUser

Good call to renew it early. Many states do the same and treat conditional LPRs as regular LPRs giving max validity for IDs / DLs. Also, did you remove wording from SS card (if you ever had something like "Valid for work only with DHS authorization")?

Replied here:

You said it yourself. You did not qualify for citizenship if you naturalized earlier than 3 / 5 years anniversary of being LPR. It's all about how many days you had at the time of oath, not after. One would hope so. But it depends on the judges. If they interpret law strictly, it can be taken away. As an example, during pandemic, some people received stimulus check by mistake. It was a government's fault. But yet IRS chased people to return the money. Same here. Benefit was given in error. It can be taken away. Theoretically it can be taken away. Naturalization occured before one was eligible. This is how the law works. It looks at the facts as of the day of naturalization. There were cases of people getting US passports in error and then, denied passport renewal decades later. There also may be other downsides. If this person tries to sponsor somebody, USCIS may claim they're not eligible to sponsor somebody.

Employment status is irrelevant for naturalization. It is perfectly fine to be unemployed / seeking jobs. Public charge is an issue when one waits for I-485. After you have GC, you can receive unemployment without issue.

Oath is taken voluntarily. You're not forced to take oath. You can always politely decline IO's offer to do same day oath saying: "I'm not yet eligible. Is it possible to schedule after mm/dd/yyyy"? Even if you forget about it at the interview, you probably have a chance to tell about it before ceremony begins... The OP in quoted thread wasn't sure, but others reading this thread must already know it when they're eligible.

Theoretically yes, practically N-400 is the last "gate" to immigration benefit that's hard to revoke e.g. citizenship. I'd treat N-400 very seriously and submit as much evidence as possible. There's two camps of people. One camp believes in only submitting new evidence since filing I-751. And for most of people, it worked just fine. The second camp believes following form instructions to the T. If it says all evidence since start of marriage, submit all evidence. USCIS would have zero chance of arguing you didn't submit enough evidence in this case. What does it cost to print it all? $50, $100, $200? For me those are reasonable costs of prepping the strongest case are justified. If it's about online filing, what are we even talking about, since it's digital and there is no cost of printing? No brainer to go all in for me...

We can only dream! But none of us have a crystal ball to tell the future. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this subject, I understand your point.

AP is insurance policy. GC can take over a year to receive. AP can take 6-9 months. If something happens to family outside the US at least there is a hope one can travel without abandoning AOS. But yes, it's totally optional and everybody have their priorities and risk tolerance level. When I filed for mine, it was a no brainer because it was free with pending I-485 back in the days.

It's his form. Technically, he filed it. Estimated timeline? You can ignore it, it's hugely inaccurate.

It takes 8-10 weeks to get receipts for any cases filed by mail lately

Estimates are unreliable. Yes, the official study materials are enough.

People got case updates on Saturdays including me, and even on federal holidays.

I think you're quoting @Elena V here not me. This can happen under any administration if an unexperienced IO is adjudicating the case. There's also complexity when somebody gets denied in 90 day window for other reason (for example broke residence within the last 5 years but didn't wait long enough for it to be disregarded). People tend to focus on few things on their case but ignore other important bits when reporting it online. I wouldn't be surprised if IO gives a vague reason for denial like as "Didn't meet residency requirements" and people blame it on 90 days VS other issues in their case.

The denials are rare. A lot of the times field office doesn't offer same day oath, so no harm in getting in line for oath...

Did you support it with any scans of passport with entry / exit stamps to Malaysia? Looks like somebody made a mistake.

Already answered here

Agreed, everything else pales in comparison. Everything else is somewhat irrelevant if this one is not waivable.

Not much useful info there. Your wait time is still within reasonable processing time. On the other hand: - Did you file within 90 day early window (what about friends?) - Did you apply on 3 or 5 year rule basis (what abour friends)? - Do you have I-751 pending (what about your friends)? - Did you have any criminal charges etc (what about your friends)? - Did you initially have GC based on marriage and now divorced (what about your friends)? - Do you have a common name (what about your friends)? - Are you from predominantly Muslim country of origin (what about your friends)? There's many more items to check and also there's an element of luck. You need to to compare apples to apples.

This can be down to carrier blocking text messages from USCIS by mistaking them for being scam messages. Also could be on USCIS side down. Generally the messages have expiration and number of retries. If retries are none and expiration is short, somebody with weak cellphone connection is going to miss it. To original question: you cannot send it now.

I was aware about India, China et al. Jamaica being excluded is something I didn't know. Thank you for catching this.

School as to university or high school? I made assumption you were working towards a degree. DV has educational requirements, but I think if you finished high school you can participate.

Make sure you play DV lottery every year. It's free.

Very good point, I missed it...

1) Focus on your studies and build connections. Get good marks. 2) Apply for STEM OPT early and make sure you're ready for interviews way before you start applying for jobs. 3) Work on that OPT, convince your employer you're worth them filing for H1B for you. 4) Work hard, convince employer to sponsor you for GC 5) 5 years after receiving GC you can apply for citizenship if you meet all criteria.

Couldn't agree more. Questions for US citizen spouse: 1) Can they afford the fees? 2) Can they support another adult, not only financially but also emotionally for a year or so? Questions for immigrant: 1) Can they give up freedom of travelling outside the US for potentially a year or so? 2) Are they ready to be financially dependent on their spouse for potentially one year? 3) Do they know what they're going to do with their time for the next 3-6-12 months while waiting?