Can a Chapt. 7 bankruptcy delay or cause a denial of citizenship?

A

AmerCan

Registered Users (C)
Got the NOA for my wife's case, only info shows they've mailed out the appointment letter for biometrics. Was going over some papers and got to thinking about something:

We filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2012--discharged in 2012. No abuse of process or criminals issues claimed, no contest from debtors, mostly debt that arose from the birth of our second son and getting behind on some bills and getting stuck with some medical bills. All fed and state taxes 100% current, we never took any form of public aide (welfare, food stamps, etc).

The N-400 has no slot on it for financial issues, and I got to wondering: Could filing Chapter 7 in 2012 cause a denial of my wife's application for to be a USC?
 
Wonder if it'll even come up in the N-400 interview? If it did, could it count against moral character, or is bankruptcy so common these days that it's more common for them to see?
 
woweu2006 said:
Financial difficulty is NOT a factor for citizenship application.
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My concern is the whole "moral character" thing. But I don't see how it'll come up in the interview when we're not behind on taxes, don't have any criminal issues with our Chapt. 7, and we don't owe any support payments. So I wonder if it'll even be mentioned.
 
well here's the thing. There's no place on the form N400 that asks you for disclosing anything related to your financial life. so you are not withholding any information in that regards. If you are specifically asked about bankruptcy, then you will have to answer truthfully at the interview. Again I don't have the benefit of having case history of naturlization applicants and their interview experiences so couldn't tell you if people are asked about this kind of stuff.

As the lawyers at avvo suggest, in their experiences they have seen their clients go through the naturlization process even with bankruptcy in their records.

I undertand how frustrating it can be not knowing for sure but the it's one of those things where you may have to wait for the final thing to be over until then you may have the lingering concern which is only natural but I hope you won't let it get the best of you :)

Another suggestion: You could post a question for free for our esteemed Rajiv Khanna at the biweekly community phone call and get the answer there and you will be able to ask follow up questions if time allows.
 
So they're looking for criminal, tax, or failure to support issues? Which means the chance of it even being mentioned is near zero since it shouldn't pop up on the background checks?

We went over that form half-dozen times before we mailed it. And we're still thinking we missed something or forgot to include something.
 
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