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citizenship decision pending
- Thread starter ludov
- Start date
I am still waiting for a decision to be made after my interview for citizenship. Do I need to put in a change of address if I get a job out of state, but I am not planning to move my family immediately?
Please let me know. Thanks
Moving to a different state after the interview but before the oath will considerably delay the approval of your case. The final approval and the oath are supposed to be conducted by the DO responsible for the applicant's place of residence at the time of the oath. This means that your case would have to be transferred to another DO, which always takes quite a bit of time. Moreover, one of the naturalization requirements is being a resident of the state where the applicant naturalizes for at least 90 days. This means that they'd have to wait for at least 3 months after your move to another state before the oath there can be scheduled. In all likelihood the actual delay will be more than 3 months.
Does it still apply if my family maintains residence in my current location? I would have to sell my house before I move my family...
Please advise
In that case, I personally believe it is OK if you maintain your current address as your immigration purpose address
Does it still apply if my family maintains residence in my current location? I would have to sell my house before I move my family...
Please advise
The regulations relating to the issue are extremely out of date. There is no hard and fast rule at present. If you change your address online, that's all you need to do. The computer will change your jurisdiction. It will prevent you from being scheduled in the old (current) jurisdiction and you will end up being scheduled for oath in the new jurisdiction. There may be something built into the USCIS computer system like a required supervisory review but I am not sure about that. As to the business about having to wait 3 months...the statute only talks about an initial filing prerequisite and nothing more. The controlling statute on case transfers is quite clear that no such waiting time is mandated. It is more of a logistical delay in transferring the physical file, descheduling an Oath (if any), voiding a certificate (if any), re-scheduling an Oath and printing a new certificate.
However, if you have been interviewed and believe that you will be scheduled for Oath soon and have various logistical concerns...won't you simply be in temporary quarters for a while as you seek to sell your current home and look for a new one? Why change anything with USCIS?
INA Sec. 316. [8 U.S.C. 1427]
(a) No person, except as otherwise provided in this title, shall be naturalized, unless such applicant, (1) immediately preceding the date of filing his application for naturalization has resided continuously, after being lawfully admitted for permanent residence, within the United States for at least five years and during the five years immediately preceding the date of filing his application has been physically present therein for periods totaling at least half of that time, and who has resided within the State or within the district of the Service in the United States in which the applicant filed the application for at least three months, (2) has resided continuously within the United States from the date of the application up to the time of admission to citizenship, (3) during all the periods referred to in this subsection has been and still is a person of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States.
INA 335 INVESTIGATION OF APPLICANTS; EXAMINATIONS OF APPLICANTS [the Service is now USCIS and A.G. is DHS Secretary]
(f) An applicant for naturalization who moves from the district of the Service in the United States in which the application is pending may, at any time thereafter, request the Service to transfer the application to any district of the Service in the United States which may act on the application. The transfer shall not be made without the consent of the Attorney General. In the case of such a transfer, the proceedings on the application shall continue as though the application had originally been filed in the district of the Service to which the application is transferred.
8 CFR § 334.17 Transfer of petition for naturalization.
(a) Application for transfer. An application to transfer a petition for naturalization, filed prior to October 1, 1991, shall be made on Form N–455, in quadruplicate, to the district diector exercising administrative jurisdiction over the place where the court in which the petition is filed is located.
(b) Action by district director. If the district director consents to the transfer, he shall so indicate on each copy of Form N–455, which shall be filed with the clerk of court in which the petition is pending. If the district director does not consent to the transfer he shall so indicate on each copy of Form N–455 which shall be filed with the clerk of court, with a memorandum of the district director setting forth the reasons for the denial. The applicant shall be notified by the district director of the filing of Form N–455 with the clerk of court, and whether consent has been given by the district director. ..................
[The form N-455, Application for Transfer of Petition for Naturalization, is not currently in existence. A Federal Register Notice was published in 2006 with some minor follow up but eventually died without action.]
As BigJoe5 says, the text of CFR in relation to the transfer of naturalization applications is rather obsolete, and it is possible and even likely that the current de facto practices of USCIS deviate from it in various ways. (it is also possible that such practices are not uniform since the Adjudicator's Field Manual does not appear to provide explicit guidance on this issue). It may indeed be the case that the 3 month in state residency requirement applies only at the time of filing, but the CFR text is somewhat ambiguous in this regard. E.g. a portion of INA 335 quoted by BigJoe5 reads: "In the case of such a transfer, the proceedings on the application shall continue as though the application had originally been filed in the district of the Service to which the application is transferred." It is possible to interpret this clause as implying that all the naturalization requirements (including the 3 month in state residency) are supposed to be satisfied at the DO to which the application was transferred (since that would have been the case if the application was filed there originally).
In any event, older posts in this forum show that moving to a different DO wile N-400 is pending usually results in rather significant delays. So if you can avoid such a move, you should.
In any event, older posts in this forum show that moving to a different DO wile N-400 is pending usually results in rather significant delays. So if you can avoid such a move, you should.
As BigJoe5 says, the text of CFR in relation to the transfer of naturalization applications is rather obsolete, and it is possible and even likely that the current de facto practices of USCIS deviate from it in various ways. (it is also possible that such practices are not uniform since the Adjudicator's Field Manual does not appear to provide explicit guidance on this issue). It may indeed be the case that the 3 month in state residency requirement applies only at the time of filing, but the CFR text is somewhat ambiguous in this regard. E.g. a portion of INA 335 quoted by BigJoe5 reads: "In the case of such a transfer, the proceedings on the application shall continue as though the application had originally been filed in the district of the Service to which the application is transferred." It is possible to interpret this clause as implying that all the naturalization requirements (including the 3 month in state residency) are supposed to be satisfied at the DO to which the application was transferred (since that would have been the case if the application was filed there originally).
In any event, older posts in this forum show that moving to a different DO wile N-400 is pending usually results in rather significant delays. So if you can avoid such a move, you should.
No, that interpretation is flat out wrong. The key phrase is "the proceedings on the application shall continue".
IT DOES NOT SAY "proceedings will backtrack to force the filer of a transfererred application to re-complete a filing prerequisite that was already fulfilled upon original filing."
If your family and primary residence remain in the district area you applied from, then you wouldn't need to perform a change of address.I am still waiting for a decision to be made after my interview for citizenship. Do I need to put in a change of address if I get a job out of state, but I am not planning to move my family immediately?
Please let me know. Thanks