I did my best to remember...

I

iluvfra

Registered Users (C)
Hi there,
I did my best to remember all stays outside of the US during the last 5 years.... but I am not 100% sure concerning all trips...Yikes!

Well, I counted a total of 6 trips - a total of 46 days outside of the country during my 5 years.

Does the officer have a way to check what I put down against an internal data base?

Will the officer be able to corner me on this issue during the interview???

Well, I filled out the N-400 in good faith. Any thoughts on this matter?
 
This is always hard to answer, if what you forgot to mention is a trip of more than six months, then it is a big deal. If you forgot to mention a trip to train in a terrorist camp, that's also a big deal. If you forgot a week trip to Canada, then it is probably not important. What you could do is mention to the IO that you filled that part to the best of your recollection, but that you might have forgotten some small trip. Unless the forgotten trip was either too long or to an infamous place you should be perfectly fine. I am sure thousands of people make honest mistakes while filling this out. I wouldn't doubt they can check some of these trips against their databases if they want, but I have never heard in this forum of an interview where an IO confronted and cornered an applicant on something like this.


My 2 cents.
 
46 days in 5 years - is nothing, i think trips that short in total - aren't even discussed on interview, he will pprobably just ask how much time total, or were there any trips over 6 month, but in inlikely case of IO asking more details- tell truth - that you did your best to remember.

i think forgetting dates of trips is lot less dangerous the "forgetting" felony
 
Wouldn't worry. I make a LOT of trips. Even had a job in Mexico and crossed every week for a while. I added the statement "to the best of my knowledge and nothing intentionally left out". I don't have the exact count, but I had to file an Excel as ammendment. For a trip to Hong Kong I don't even have any receipts as it was all paid directly by the company, no expenses occured to me.

The IO just took my corrected statistics and put them into the file - no questions asked and when I told him I have a temp job in Germany he told me that this isn't a problem.

On the other hand, I own a house now for well over 10 years, thus perhaps this states more where I live than any trips made.
 
MartinAub said:
Wouldn't worry. I make a LOT of trips. Even had a job in Mexico and crossed every week for a while. I added the statement "to the best of my knowledge and nothing intentionally left out". I don't have the exact count, but I had to file an Excel as ammendment. For a trip to Hong Kong I don't even have any receipts as it was all paid directly by the company, no expenses occured to me.

The IO just took my corrected statistics and put them into the file - no questions asked and when I told him I have a temp job in Germany he told me that this isn't a problem.

On the other hand, I own a house now for well over 10 years, thus perhaps this states more where I live than any trips made.
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I was in the same position when I filled in my N-400. I live close to the Mexican border and I have a lot of "day" trips to Mexico. I included the list of trips that I knew I had taken, and I also included a general statement that indicated I had taken these trips and, while the vast majority of them were less than 24 hours in duration (and hence not reported on the N-400, per instructions), some may have been longer than 24 hours. I estimated that I had no more than 6 - 8 of these trips, and that the longest duration of these trips was not more than 2 days outside the US. Thus, by including a good faith estimate, I was trying to indicate a few things: (i) that I am not trying to conceal my travel; (ii) that I genuinely cannot remeber every trip that I took, (iii) that I made many trips that were less than 24 hours, which are not reportable.

I know the USCIS has a record of many of my trips (but not all of them) so I included this information in order to be as forthright as possible. My total number of reportable trips was something like 15, with a total of 58 days outside the US (not including the ones mentioned above). I also have employment and pay records for my entire duration here as a LPR. Like MartinAub, I also own a house here, which can be seen as a strong tie to the US.

Best of luck in however you decide to report it.
 
I didn't list my trips on the form itself. I took advantage of the "if you have too much to fit on the form use a separate sheet" instruction, and simply put "See Attachment XYZ" on the form itself.

My trip list included as sorts of fuzzy language like "to the best of my recollection" and things like "no more than N trips, each of which was no longer than M days".

The key is to be completely honest. Honesty beats precision.
 
Flydog said:
I didn't list my trips on the form itself. I took advantage of the "if you have too much to fit on the form use a separate sheet" instruction, and simply put "See Attachment XYZ" on the form itself.

My trip list included as sorts of fuzzy language like "to the best of my recollection" and things like "no more than N trips, each of which was no longer than M days".

The key is to be completely honest. Honesty beats precision.
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That was my guiding principle as well. In fact, Flydog, it was the language that you used in your N-400 that allowed me to come up with my general statement. I believe at the time (last summer) we both agreed that one could be both truthful and nebulous at the same time...in fact, a lot of attorneys make their living that way!

I think when you include a general "catch all" statement, the most important things you show are honesty and a commitment to not omit anything material.
 
"..it was the language that you used in your N-400... "What language are you referring to? There is just a table that you fill in - right?
 
iluvfra said:
"..it was the language that you used in your N-400... "What language are you referring to? There is just a table that you fill in - right?
Click to expand...

My trip list included as sorts of fuzzy language like "to the best of my recollection" and things like "no more than N trips, each of which was no longer than M days".
 
iluvfra said:
"..it was the language that you used in your N-400... "What language are you referring to? There is just a table that you fill in - right?
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That's correct. However, the N-400 does specify to add in an additional sheet of paper with extra trips, if necessary. I did this, and included an extra sheet with my trips in the tabular format that is used in the N-400. However, I also added a general statement on this additional page that outlined the information that I noted above.
 
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