Delaying Oath ceremony

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tomhulu

Registered Users (C)
How long can one postpone or delay their oath ceremony.

I am from a country that does not recognize dual citizenship. As such I need to give up my citizenship when I take up US citizenship. I am hoping to for a way to get all the US citizenship application done and approved and time the Oath ceremony with the giving up of my citizenship in the other country. I am assuming that without the Oath you are not a US citizen. I have also read that Oath ceremonies are quite frequent and more of a formality (since everything has been approved) but one still needs to swear to become a citizen.
 
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I would advise against giving up your previous citizenship BEFORE actually becoming US Citizen. US does not require you to officially relinquish your previous citizenship legally to your country officials. It is enough for US to renounce it in the US citizenship oath. Now, if USCIS loses your file or in case of some other complications you might become stateless, which is not a good thing.

Over and over I realize that I am fortunate that my country of birth recognizes dual citizenship...
 
I agree with you. But I also want to time my US citizenship process such that all I have left is the oath. I would imagine that once you are cleared to take the oath, it is pretty much a formality.

In my current country, only citizens are allowed to own certain types of property. So I want to be sure that my US citizenship is assured (cleared to take the oath) before I disposed of the property asset, renounce citizenship and take up US citizenship. I want to be 99.99% sure that I will get the US citizenship before I sell the property.

Pointless for me to sell the property in my home country only to discover that I cannot get a US citizenship for some reason.
 
Is your country India?

Just wondering as I have seen differing opinions on property ownership.

Maybe you should double check.
 
I think you should be able to delay the oath once, perhaps twice, perhaps delay it a few months, but not forever :) What you call a formality is actually the act that grants you citizenship, before you do that there is absolutely no guarantee. Point would be that if you delay your oath, go to your country, dispose of your property and come back and somewhat run afoul of the law or somewhat you are found ineligible to do the oath then you don't have any right and won't become a citizen. The interview doesn't give you any right, or any guarantee of becoming a citizen. If things go well you get a form telling you that you are recommended for approval, but never guaranteed. The chances of screwing up between interview and oath are not big, but are bigger than 0, so again, perhaps the 99.99% might apply, but it all depends on what happens between interview and oath, and the longer the time between them the bigger the chance that something might go wrong.
 
tomhulu said:
In my current country, only citizens are allowed to own certain types of property. So I want to be sure that my US citizenship is assured (cleared to take the oath) before I disposed of the property asset, renounce citizenship and take up US citizenship.
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You make it sound as if you would have to meet with the country's officials and go through a renunciation process with them. The US doesn't require you to go through any such process with another country's officials before or after acquiring US citizenship, and the other country can't force you to go through such a process unless they arrest you. Normally with countries that ban dual citizenship, they just automatically revoke your original citizenship as soon as you acquire another, without the need for you to go through any separate process.
 
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and unless you tell them the other country it will not know that you get U.S. citizenship. It is not like the USCIS publishes a list of new citizens in The New York Times.
 
You are quite right, I need not tell my country that I got US citizenship. But the crux of the matter is ownership of property. If they should discover that I have another citizenship, they might confiscate the asset!!

My plan is actually to wait till I am cleared for the oath (a good certainty of getting US Citizenship) and I will sell the property, take the oath and then renounce citizenship.

I just do not want to sell the property without some assurance of my getting a Us citizenship.
 
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