which route should I apply to become a citizen?

J

Jeimygirl

Registered Users (C)
Although this is kind of in the future, I like to think ahead...

I moved to the US in 1995 and haven't left yet.

In March 2007 I got married (current)

In June 2007 I received my Residency (NOT through marriage)

I'm wondering if it makes a difference if I apply for citizenship though marriage, or if ijust wait my 5 years from the time I became a Resident and apply?

I've hear somewhere I may actually be able to use some of the time I've been in the US as an advantage to get my citizenship faster. I moved here legally under my dad's work visa (unsure of which one right now)

Thanks!
 
Jeimygirl said:
Although this is kind of in the future, I like to think ahead...

I moved to the US in 1995 and haven't left yet.

In March 2007 I got married (current)

In June 2007 I received my Residency (NOT through marriage)

I'm wondering if it makes a difference if I apply for citizenship though marriage, or if ijust wait my 5 years from the time I became a Resident and apply?

I've hear somewhere I may actually be able to use some of the time I've been in the US as an advantage to get my citizenship faster. I moved here legally under my dad's work visa (unsure of which one right now)

Thanks!
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If you apply through marriage to a US Citizen, it will be 3 years minus 90 days.
If you apply not through marriage, it will be 5 years minus 90 days.

No, you can only use the time after becoming a Resident.-:D
 
What rick stated is true. Doesn't matter how long you been in the US. It is dependent only on your residency since date. and the policy has changed on the 90 day issue. it's considered 3 months now being how there were constant complaints with application being rejected for filing to early they have changed it to counting by months now. for example if you are 01/01/2004 the day you can submit will be 10/01/2008 if going for 5 years. also bare in mind it is also based on the date they received your application not the post mark date.
 
That's good to know! I figured the residency thing I heard wasn't true (too good to be true for immigration)

So in my case I got approval june 11 2007

I could apply march 11, 2010 correct?

Is there a difference afterwards with obtaining it trhough marriage? Such as I know if u divorse with a marriage GC they can take it or u can't reapply after or something along those lines.
 
If you are going through marriage just sure that the person is either a US citizen already from birth or if through naturalization that they have been naturalized for at least 3 years already. You also have to be married to the same person for at least the past 3 years without being divorced. If you were divorced in the period of the last 3 years but got remarried again with the same person I do believe that the clock gets reset and you have to wait again which would then mean you might as well wait the 4 years 9 months if that comes sooner.
 
Jeimygirl said:
That's good to know! I figured the residency thing I heard wasn't true (too good to be true for immigration)
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There is some partial truth to it. You can use the months or years of marriage before your green card was approved to count towards the 3 years of marriage, but you can't count any residence before your PR approval date. Note that you need a FULL 3 years of marriage before applying, unlike the 3 years minus 90 days of being a permanent resident, so in order to apply before the full 3 years of residence, you need to have been married before obtaining your PR.

So in my case I got approval june 11 2007

I could apply march 11, 2010 correct?
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Actually, you could apply on March 13*, which is 90 days before June 11. But it is still advisable to wait until the 11th or few days later, because sometimes they miscount by 1 or 2 days and wrongly reject your application before the interview, which causes you to waste weeks or months of waiting, even though you may have been in the right.
Is there a difference afterwards with obtaining it trhough marriage? Such as I know if u divorse with a marriage GC they can take it or u can't reapply after or something along those lines.
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If applying through the marriage route, you have to be still married when you apply and stay married during the process. They also ask for additional documents to prove your marriage is genuine, like joint bank statements, joint lease or mortgage, life insurance with the spouse as beneficiary, etc.


*if you got married after March 13, you would have to wait until later in March to apply (your 3 year anniversary). Similarly, if your spouse became a US citizen after you got married, you also have to wait until your spouse's completion of 3 years as a US citizen so you couldn't use March 13.
 
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Jackolantern said:
There is some partial truth to it. You can use the months or years of marriage before your green card was approved to count towards the 3 years of marriage, but you can't count any residence before your PR approval date. Note that you need a FULL 3 years of marriage before applying, unlike the 3 years minus 90 days of being a permanent resident, so in order to apply before the full 3 years of residence, you need to have been married before obtaining your PR.


Actually, you could apply on March 13*, which is 90 days before June 11. But it is still advisable to wait until the 11th or few days later, because sometimes they miscount by 1 or 2 days and wrongly reject your application before the interview, which causes you to waste weeks or months of waiting, even though you may have been in the right.

If applying through the marriage route, you have to be still married when you apply and stay married during the process. They also ask for additional documents to prove your marriage is genuine, like joint bank statements, joint lease or mortgage, life insurance with the spouse as beneficiary, etc.


*if you got married after March 13, you would have to wait until later in March to apply (your 3 year anniversary). Similarly, if your spouse became a US citizen after you got married, you also have to wait until your spouse's completion of 3 years as a US citizen so you couldn't use March 13.
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This is all very good info. Thanks! Showing proof of a genuine marriage is no problem. We've been married almost 2 years and everything we have is joint. I would probably wait until april anyways to avoid that being too early problem. Then again a lot could happen and waiting may be better for me to not have to depend on a marriage. I'm just tired of all the green card problems I'm having already I just want to finish and have no more worries. With the technology that we have now, immigration should run so much smoother, yet its like getting teeth pulled!
 
qrfalpha said:
If you are going through marriage just sure that the person is either a US citizen already from birth or if through naturalization that they have been naturalized for at least 3 years already. You also have to be married to the same person for at least the past 3 years without being divorced. If you were divorced in the period of the last 3 years but got remarried again with the same person I do believe that the clock gets reset and you have to wait again which would then mean you might as well wait the 4 years 9 months if that comes sooner.
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My husband was born here and hasn't libes outside the US, except his tours of dity in the army he did before we got together.

I'm still a little cloudy as to wherether they can take your citizenship away after you get it thoguh marriage if you happen to divorce within a certain time period after obtaining it.
 
Jeimygirl said:
This is all very good info. Thanks! Showing proof of a genuine marriage is no problem. We've been married almost 2 years and everything we have is joint. I would probably wait until april anyways to avoid that being too early problem. Then again a lot could happen and waiting may be better for me to not have to depend on a marriage. I'm just tired of all the green card problems I'm having already I just want to finish and have no more worries. With the technology that we have now, immigration should run so much smoother, yet its like getting teeth pulled!
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Yeah, immigration is so smooth that they are going to put up a USCIS KIOSK up in the moon for any aliens that want come to Planet Earth. We call them (USCIS) our own "home grown nuclear engineers".
 
Jeimygirl said:
That's good to know! I figured the residency thing I heard wasn't true (too good to be true for immigration)

So in my case I got approval june 11 2007

I could apply march 11, 2010 correct?

Is there a difference afterwards with obtaining it trhough marriage? Such as I know if u divorse with a marriage GC they can take it or u can't reapply after or something along those lines.
Click to expand...

As long as if in March 11, 2010 you would have been married 3 full years to a US citizen (i.e. your spouse has been a US citizen for all those years). Anyway, make sure you calculate the date correctly, it is not 3 years minus 3 months, it is minus 90 days, and it is probably better to count 85 days to avoid any rounding errors.
 
Jeimygirl said:
I'm still a little cloudy as to wherether they can take your citizenship away after you get it thoguh marriage if you happen to divorce within a certain time period after obtaining it.
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They can't take away your citizenship for that. I think you may be confusing it with the conditional greencard (which isn't what you have). If you get your greencard through marriage to a US citizen and the marriage is less than 2 years old, you get a conditional greencard. After two years you have to apply to have the condition removed. If you get divorced before the condition is removed, USCIS can start removal proceedings. (There are exceptions for battered wives, etc.)

http://www.visa2003.com/greencard/conditional.htm
 
Jeimygirl said:
I'm still a little cloudy as to wherether they can take your citizenship away after you get it thoguh marriage if you happen to divorce within a certain time period after obtaining it.
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Before they grant your citizenship, the burden is on you to provide evidence of having a genuine marriage. But after you are a citizen, if they are going to revoke it the burden is on them to prove to a court that you had a fraudulent marriage. Divorce alone is not sufficient proof of fraud.
 
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I have pasted this in other post as well... N-400 application residency since date is now calculated as 4 years and 9 months or 2 years and 9 months depending if you choose option A or option B. There was a controversy regarding how applicants were being rejected for the 90 day issue so that now the screening is measured by months.
 
qrfalpha said:
I have pasted this in other post as well... N-400 application residency since date is now calculated as 4 years and 9 months or 2 years and 9 months depending if you choose option A or option B. There was a controversy regarding how applicants were being rejected for the 90 day issue so that now the screening is measured by months.
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Was there a USCIS memo about that? Can you provide a link?

Even if that is truly the new rule they're supposed to follow, it still makes sense to wait a few extra days, because whenever USCIS sends out their memos it can take a year or two for all the employees to read it and start following it. In some cases, 4 years and 9 months is 92 days before the 5 years, so those still following the 90 day rule would reject the application.
 
Oh I'm not debating that people should wait a few extra days. The fact that everyone has waited that long already you should always be on the safe end and wait I agree. The 90 day rule was being used in the past following a "matrix" a date guideline that was created yearly to determine the 90 day policy but when people started sending in complaints to the local service centers especially during the fee increase in 2007 the policy got changed internally to accept application based on months.
 
thank you for everyones reply. i knew about a divorce affecting a green card obtained through marriage just wasnt sure about citizenship once obtained.

i'mm still working on getting my physical green card at hand!
 
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