Documents and preparation for Naturalization Interview:
It's highly advisable that applicants for naturalization should bring ALL the documents listed below at their interview even if their 'Interview Appointment Letter/Notice' may not include any (or some) of them. And it should also be known that an 'Appointment Letter' is just a generic/computerized letter in most cases. So it could be possible that it may not contain a list of ALL required documents pertaining to an applicant's specific situation/case. For example, in one of immigration forums, a woman received an appointment letter for her naturalization interview wherein she was asked to bring a Selective Service Letter despite of the fact that she was a female.
Thus, it is beyond anyone's imagination as to why she was even asked to bring Selective Service letter when ONLY males are required to register with Selective Service. So, keep it in mind that an appointment letter is just a generic/computerized letter in most cases. Also, clerks are the ones who send out the appointment letter and not the adjudication officers. And clerks always make mistakes as you may already know this. So, make sure to bring ALL the documents mentioned below even if you are not asked for it in your appointment letter. I'm not saying that you must be asked for all the documents listed here, but you will definately be asked some of them. And God knows which one they would ask for. Each officer is individual and different. So, you don't know which document a officer might ask for. INS can ask for any documents that pertains to applicant's immigration journey and background. Thus, it's better to have all the documents being proactive than some of them.
[1]
Interview appointment letter: It will be required to get inside the INS building since security guard at the front door of the office will ask to see it. And obviously, local district office would need it to pull your file up to interview you. However, you might not need this if you are going into a very small INS office wherein only 3-4 applicants altogether would hardly be there such as the INS office in Vermont which is just a little larger than a telephone booth. Because then that small office would already know who is scheduled to be interviewed at that day even if someone won't have this letter handy. Also, appointment letter is not needed by those who would be asked over the phone to appear for an interview as sometimes INS tries to accommodate some applicants just in a last moment which makes them to call some applicants over the phone to come to the interview. So obviously, these people won't need appointment letter then.
[2]
Passport: It's required mainly to verify applicant's absence from the United States as it contains the record of ALL the trips that an applicant has taken outside the United States. And it is also required to verify applicant's citizenship/nationality. Officer does retains the right to ask for it as it is relevant to the information on the application that an applicant will provide about any trips taken outside the United States and about his/her nationality. And it is also relevant to determine applicant's eligibility for naturalization as to his/her continuous presence in the United States. You should bring all the passports (even the expired ones) that you might have carried. Also, it is better to take the photocopy of the first page of the passport wherein biodata is as it has been noticed that some people are recently asked of it. If a passport is recently expired, then it is not a problem cuz adjudication officers like to see the passport to verify the trips taken outside the US than the validity of the passport.
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Driver License or State Issued Non Driving ID: Officers will always ask for this during the interview to verify whether or not applicant lives in their jurisdiction. Because applicant must need to be living in the State where s/he will appear for an interview, otherwise that particular office won’t have any jurisdiction on the applicant to adjudicate his/her application. It’s relevant to the information that applicant will provide on his/her citizenship application about his/her address. Hence, officer retains the right to verify his/her residence information. Also, driving license verifies applicants' identity as a person who s/he claims to be especially when it is a govt. issued picture ID like green card. If someone's original country allows dual citizenship, then it is better to renew the passport before going to Naturalization interview. Not for INS purpose but for a person's self use.
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Tax returns for the last 5 yrs: Whether or not applicants are specifically asked to bring their tax returns, they should ALWAYS take their tax returns for the last 5 yrs with them to their interview, no matter what, even if some of them are filing their application based upon 3 yrs rule due to being married with a US citizen. Tax returns are asked particularly to verify or to find out- (a) applicants' current and previous address(s), (b) their current and previous marital status, (c) whether or not they have any children, (d) where and what kind of job applicants have been doing for the last 5 yrs, (e) whether or not they owe any money to IRS, (f) whether or not they have paid the REQUIRED taxes, (g) whether or not they are in violation of any IRS laws, because if they were single but filed their taxes under married status at any time, then USCIS will deny their citizenship application under the clause of having bad character. Because it will then prove that they are in a violation of IRS laws and also a person of a bad character because of cheating.
And if applicants did not pay any of the required taxes then USCIS will deny your application unless you will submit an agreement letter from IRS, State, or local tax office showing that you have filed a tax return or have arranged to pay the taxes you owe. In addition, you would need to bring documentation from IRS, State or local tax office showing the current status of your repayment program. Actually, tax returns are required for many reasons at the time of naturalization.
Applicants should also know that
they must have to have certified copy of all tax returns. They can go to their local IRS office and request for the tax-transcripts. It is provided free of charge. However, tax offices have changed their policy of providing tax transcript in person since last October, instead they now require people to call their toll free number or to visit their website to make such a request. But some offices are still providing tax transcripts in person. I guess it's just a matter of discretion. Tax transcripts are actually the Form 1722. It takes only a few days to arrive all these in the mail if you would request these documents over the phone with them at 1-800-829-1040 or by requesting these documents thru visiting their website wherein you would need to fill out Form 4506-T
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4506t.pdf.
http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq-kw31.html
Tax returns are relevant to the information that applicants provide on their citizenship application; thereby officer retains the right to demand these documents to verify those information.
If someone has not filed any tax return because of having no income or earning little income, then it would still be alright so long s/he could explain it to the officer. And even if someone has received public assistant or is on welfare, yet still it not a problem. But if someone is unemployed, then s/he must be prepared to show to INS how s/he has been supporting himself/herself without the means of any visisble income; otherwise officer will deny their case in presuming that such person has been involved in some kind of shady/illegal activities. Submitting an affidavit from someone about being supported would do the trick.
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Divorce/Annulment decrees: It's required if applicant was previously married.
Must be a certified copy. It's also relevant to the information because N-400 asks about all privious marrages. Thus, officer retains the right to ask this document as s/he may prefer.
[6]
Marriage certificate: It is advisable to have it even if a citizenship application is not filed based upon 3 yrs rule of being married to a USC. Recently I came to know that some officers are asking for this just to update the information on citizenship application if applicant has gotton married after filing the application. And sometimes officers do want to verify whom applicants are married to if applicants are currently married. Besides it is also relevant to the information that applicants will provide on their citizenship application about their marital history. So, officer retains the right to ask for this document.
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Court's disposition on any arrest, charge, and citation (including traffic citations): If applicants don't wish their application to be delayed or denied, then they MUST need to take ALL the documents petaining to them about any arrest, charge, citation (even traffic ones) to their interview.
It must be a certified copy from a court about complete record of arrest, charges, conviction and dismissal of case. The application for naturalization will surely be denied if a criminal case is not completely disposed yet.
As far as traffic citation is concerned, then applicants don’t need to worry about anything so long those citations have nothing to do with DUI or reckless driving. But
applicants MUST need to DISCLOSE them in their application and should try their best to bring some kind of proof of paying all those traffic tickets because traffic tickets are also part of court's record. Pay attention-traffic tickets MUST need to be reported on the application. As a matter of fact, INS does say in their latest N-400 that ALL traffic citations must need to be disclosed. However, they don't need a proof of payment wherein fine was under $500. So, what INS is saying that applicants don't need to submit proof of payment for those traffic citations wherein fine was imposed less than $500, but they do require all citations to be disclosed.
I know there has always been a controversy over whether traffic tickets/citations should be reported on N-400 or not, but what people don't understand is that INS requires full disclosure of those citations/tickets regardless they were impact a decision on N-400. Some people have said that people should not disclose about it as it will open a worm of can with INS, but by doing do applicants will be found concealing an information and not being truthful on N-400 as required, which might be a ground for INS to deny N-400 even though this might be a trival matter.
Mostly folks don't know that if someone has received too many traffic tickets, whether those are for speeding, changing lanes wrongly, turning on no U turn zone and etc, then some officers may deny your application. Because recently a case has come into light wherein an officer denied a naturalization application to a person who had received so many tickets. Officer noted that applicant failed to obey the local traffic laws so many times, which obviously proves that applicant has bad character. Applicant appealed, but applicant's appeal got denied. So, it is also recommended to contact an immigration attorney before filing naturalization application if someone falls under this kind of situation. But I hope people would understand the difference between speaking with every other immigration attorney and speaking to very well known and aggressive immigration attorneys.
It's also advised to take with you a full record of restraining order too if someone has obtained a restraining order against you at anytime. You WILL NOT be denied citizenship based upon traffic citations or a restraining order, but officer MAY ask you about it and/or may demand you to submit some kind of documents in relation to these stuffs. Don’t assume that if you were never been convicted, arrested, fingerprinted, detained or violated a restraining order then it means USCIS won’t know anything about those activities. USCIS is actually now checking up public court records too. It has nothing to do with financial civil matter; instead it has to do with family court for restraining order and traffic court for traffic citations.
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Good luck all