Did not Register for Select Services

B

Bellagio777

New Member
Hi All,

I never registered for Selective Services http://www.sss.gov/Default.htm. I came to the US at age 17 on an F-1. Later I received an H-1 and subsequently a Green Card at the age of 25. So technically I was supposed to register with SSS before turning 26. Now I am 29 and have a naturalization interview coming up in 3 weeks and I received a notice ( I-797C) listing items I need to bring to the interview and amongst them is Any Evidence of Selective Services Registration. I do not have any evidence. I contacted SSS and they do not have any record of me. They are sending me a form showing I was not registered. I have requested them to send me proof of when they mailed out letters asking me to register and what address(es) these letters were mailed out to.

So now that I have detailed the situtation I have a few observations. Doing a little investigation I discovered that on I-485 - the permanent resident application http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-485.pdf page 4 it states something to the efect that once you are approved for permanent resident status, USCIS will send my information to Selective Services which will then register me.

I also looked up instructions for filing out the 1-485 http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-485instr.pdf and on page 8 it talks about Selective Services and how USCIS will register you for it.

When I spoke to an employee of Selective Services over the phone she said something to the extent that USCIS was supposed to automatially register me when they approved my Green Card.

The question is what should I do now ? I have my interview in 3 weeks. I will be receiving a letter from SSS showing I was not registered. Is my application for Naturalization going to be denied even though the above evidence suggests that USCIS should have registered me in SSS ?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks you
 
there is tons of stuff on this - just search the website - it all depends on how old you are now and whether it has been 5 years since the required time lapsed.
 
You'll need to explain to the IO at the interview that you were told by SSS that it was up to USCIS to register you and that only now you found out they never forwarded the information over to them. I don't see an issue as you didn't intentionally fail to register when you were supposed to, and therefore in your case it can't be used against good moral character requirement.
 
Bobsmith is right. You'll need to give a very good explanation. You will also need the letter from SS indicating your status with them. When I filed my N-400, I had the same issue. The SS website sucks big time. When I put my social in there, it showed that I was not registered. I wrote them a letter and they replied back with a confirmation that I was actually registered. So, you never know. It was them that screwed up and not you.
 
Many schools, DMV and other organizations are registering in SSS. Call them and provide them SSN. They will tell you.
 
You will get only one letter from Selective Service stating that you didn't register with them. That's all. You will not get anything from them by saying when and where did they send the notice to you to register with them...

Not registering with Selective Service is not an automatic denial nor it's a sure sign of having a bad moral character in order to deny the application. The key point that immigration officer would concern of is- if your failure to register with Selective Service was WILFUL and DELIBERATE. Now, it's VERY important to you take a sworn affidavit (notorized one) wherein you should state that-

Your failure to register with Selective Service was not wilful nor deliberate, neither you receive any notice from USCIS and Selective until to date to your obligation to register with Selective Service.


You will be fine unless there is another moral character issue in your application....
 
zuzkin said:
Bobsmith is right. You'll need to give a very good explanation. You will also need the letter from SS indicating your status with them. When I filed my N-400, I had the same issue. The SS website sucks big time. When I put my social in there, it showed that I was not registered. I wrote them a letter and they replied back with a confirmation that I was actually registered. So, you never know. It was them that screwed up and not you.
Click to expand...

Got the link : http://www.sss.gov/Default.htm
 
Last edited by a moderator:
zuzkin said:
:rolleyes: Why are you quoting me???

The word "put" is at the past tense. It was 8 months ago when I did it.
Click to expand...

sorry bud, i quoted your text and asked for the link ... but then found the link in this same thread. Edited my reply but the quote remained.
 
the same case with me. the IO officer asked why I did not register for SS. I told that i was in visa and got only my GC at 31 yrs old. She verified and checked the dates and wrote on my app that he became LPR at 31.
 
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