Documents and preparation for Naturalization Interview:
It's highly recommended that applicants for naturalization should take with them ALL the documents listed below at their interview even if their 'Interview Appointment Notice' may not include any (or some) of them. And it should also be known that an 'Appointment Notice' is just a generic/computerized/general-wording letter in most cases. So it could be possible that it may not contain a list of ALL required documents pertaining to someone's specific situation/case. For example, in one of the immigration forums, a woman received an appointment notice for her naturalization interview wherein she was asked to bring a Selective Service Letter despite of the fact that she was a female, and everyone knows that females are not required to register with Selective Service as per the law.
Thus, it is beyond anyone's imagination as to why she was even asked to bring Selective Service letter when ONLY males are required to register with Selective Service. So keep it in mind that an appointment letter is just a generic/computerized letter in most cases. Also clerks are the ones who send out the appointment letter and not the assigned adjudication officers. And clerks always make mistakes as you may already know this by now. So, make sure to bring ALL the documents mentioned below even if you are not asked for them in your appointment letter. I'm not saying that you must be asked for all the documents listed here, but you will definately be asked some of them. And God knows which one they would ask for at the interview.
And do NOT ever assume that your interview experience would be the same as others...meaning if someone was asked only this and that documents then it doesn't mean that you will be asked the same documents/questions. I see many people say that they were asked only this and that documents and it's unnecessary to carry all other documents. But those who say this don't realize that each officer is an individual, unique and different. The officer who has had interviewed some of these people would not necessarily be involved in interviewing you. So you don't know which document an individual officer might ask for. INS can ask for any documents that pertains to applicant's immigration journey and background. Thus it's better to have all the documents being proactive than some of them.
[1]
Interview appointment letter: It will be required to get inside the INS building since security guard at the front door of the office will ask to see it. And obviously, local district office would need it to pull your file up in order to interview you. However, you might not need this if you are going into a very small INS office wherein only 3-4 applicants altogether would hardly be there such as the INS office in Vermont which is just a little larger than a telephone booth. Because then that small office would already know who is scheduled to be interviewed at that day even if someone won't have this letter handy. Also, appointment letter is not needed by those who would be asked over the phone to appear for an interview as sometimes INS tries to accommodate some applicants just in a last moment which makes them to call the applicant over the phone to come to the interview. So obviously, these people won't need an appointment letter then.
[2]
Passport: It's required mainly to verify applicant's absence from the United States as it contains the record of ALL the trips that an applicant has taken outside the United States which could determine applicant's eligibility for naturalization as to his/her continuous presence in the United States. And it's also required to verify applicant's citizenship/nationality. Officer does retains the right to ask for it as it is relevant to the information on the application. Plus, it's also used to establish applicant's identity which is very important at the time of naturalization. You should bring all the passports (even the expired ones) that you might have carried. Also, it is better to take the photocopy of the first page of the passport wherein biodata is as it has been noticed that some people are recently asked for it. If a passport is recently expired, then it is not a problem because adjudication officers like to see the passport to verify the trips taken outside the US than the validity of the passport.
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Driver License or State Issued Non Driving ID: Officers will always ask for this during the interview to verify whether or not applicant lives in their jurisdiction. It's because applicant must need to be living in the State where s/he will appear for an interview, otherwise that particular office won’t have any jurisdiction on the applicant's case to adjudicate his/her application. It’s relevant to the information that applicant provides on his/her citizenship application about his/her address. Hence, officer retains the right to verify his/her residence information. Also, driving license verifies applicants' identity as a person who s/he claims to be especially when it is a govt. issued picture ID like green card.
[4]
Tax returns for the last 5 yrs: Whether or not applicants are specifically asked on their interview letter to bring their tax returns, they should ALWAYS take their tax returns for the last 5 yrs with them to their interview, no matter what. And it's so important for applicants in NY district office because interviewing officers in NY district office do ask for it in 99.99%of the time. It's my advise that applicants should request tax transcripts from IRS to show to USCIS than tax returns because as per USCIS interim memo to adjudication officers, officers should demand to see tax transcript than copy of tax returns. Why? Because tax transcripts are official record, which means USCIS cannot doubt about the authencity of them unlike tax returns unless you would have certified copies of your tax returns which might cost you a lot of money and time to get them.
I would also like to point it out why tax returns are so important to USCIS. Tax returns are asked particularly to verify or to find out- (a) applicants' current and previous address(s), (b) their current and previous marital status, (c) whether or not they have any children, (d) where and what kind of job applicants have been doing for the last 5 yrs, (e) whether or not they owe any money to IRS, (f) whether or not they have paid the REQUIRED taxes, (g) whether or not they are in violation of any IRS laws, because if they were single but filed their taxes under married status at any time, then USCIS will deny their citizenship application under the clause of having bad character. Because it will then prove that they are in a violation of IRS laws and also a person of a bad character because of cheating.
And if applicants did not pay any of the required taxes then USCIS will deny your application unless you will submit an agreement letter from IRS, State, and local tax offices showing that you have filed a tax return or have arranged to pay the taxes you owe. And
whenever you would have an arrangement with IRS for the payment of owed taxes then you MUST need to bring documentation from IRS, State and local tax offices showing the current status of your repayment program. Actually, tax returns are required for many reasons at the time of naturalization.
Tax transcripts is also know as Form 1722. It takes only a few days to get all these in the mail if you would request these documents over the phone with them at 1-800-829-1040 or thru their website wherein you would need to fill out Form 4506-T. If you would prefer to get it within a few minutes then IRS can even fax them to you right away if you would provide them a fax number over the phone.
It's is very important to know that you should take both- federal and state tax returns with you...Again, both (state and federal) tax returns.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4506t.pdf.
http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq-kw31.html
Tax returns are relevant to the information that applicants provide on their citizenship application; thereby officer retains the right to demand these documents to verify those information.
If someone has not filed any tax return because of having no income or earning a little income, then it would still be alright so long s/he could explain it to the officer as to why s/he did not file the tax return or why s/he wasn't required to file the tax returns. And even if someone has received public assistant or is on welfare, yet still it not a problem. But if someone is unemployed, then s/he must be prepared to show/explain to INS how s/he has been supporting himself/herself without the means of any visisble income; otherwise officer might deny their case in presuming that such person is being involved in some kind of shady/illegal activities. Submitting an affidavit from someone about being supported would do the trick.
[5]
Divorce/Annulment decrees: It's required if applicant was previously married.
Must be a certified copy. It's also relevant to the information because N-400 asks about all the previous marrages. Thus, officer retains the right to ask this document as s/he may prefer.
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Marriage certificate: It is advisable to have it even if a citizenship application is not filed based upon 3 yrs rule of being married to a USC. Recently I came to know that some officers are asking for this just to update the information on citizenship application if applicant has gotton married after filing the application. And sometimes officers do want to verify whom applicants are married to if applicants are currently married. Besides it is also relevant to the information that applicants provide on their citizenship application about their marital history. So, officer retains the right to ask for this document.
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Court's disposition on any arrest, charge, and citation (including traffic citations): If applicants don't wish their application to be delayed or denied, then they MUST need to take ALL the documents petaining to them about any arrest, charge, citation (even traffic ones) to their interview.
It must be a certified copy from a court/arresting authority about complete record of arrest, charges, conviction and dismissal of case. The application for naturalization will be denied without a doubt if a criminal case is not completely disposed yet.
As far as traffic citation is concerned, then applicants don’t need to worry about anything so long those citations have nothing to do with DUI or reckless driving. But
applicants MUST need to DISCLOSE them in their application and should try their best to bring some kind of proof of paying all those traffic tickets because traffic tickets are also part of court's record. Pay attention-traffic tickets MUST need to be reported on the application. As a matter of fact, INS does state on the instructions for N-400 that ALL citations must need to be disclosed. However, they don't need applicants to show a proof of payment wherein fine was under $500. So, what INS is saying is that applicants don't need to submit proof of payment for those traffic citations wherein fine was imposed less than $500, but they do require all citations to be disclosed.
I know there have always been controversies over traffic tickets/citations as to whether they should be disclosed on N-400 or not, but what people don't seem to understand is that INS requires a full disclosure of ALL citations/tickets regardless of those citiations would have any impact on the decision or not. Some people have said that people should not disclose about it as it will open a worm of can with INS, but by not reporting these citiations applicants might risk being accused of concealing an information and not being truthful on N-400 as required, which might use as a ground for INS to deny N-400 or revoke the citizenship many years later on even though this might be a trival matter. I know many people might argue that not disclosing this kind of information cannot be a ground for the deportation, but they are wrong...INS can revoke anyone's citizenship and deport them if s/he was not truthful on the naturalization application regardless of how trivial that information might seem because not disclosing any required information on the N-400 AND not telling to the officer at the time of interview means concealing and misrepresenting to govt. officials under oath and penalty of perjury which is a crime in itself and lying to govt. official is a ground in itself to deny the immigration benefit. There is a lifetime bar on misrepresenting/lying to the immigration officials. So, don't be surprised if even govt. tries to revoke your citizenship in the future for not disclosing ANY required information to them at the time of citizenship.
What people don't understand is that traffic tickets are citations, and according to N-400 all citiations must need to be reported, minor or major regardless...That's a different fact that INS doesn't want you to send proof of paying those tickets which were fined for less than $500 but it doesn't say that you don't need to disclose them. It's very clearly indicated there to mention if someone ever been cited....If I were you, I wouldn't choose myself as to what I should disclose and what is not; instead I would follow the intructions on to report all citations regardless of how trival it is...This way I don't want to get accused in the future about concealing this information if ever INS finds that out somehow...even many years later of obtaining the citizenship. I better to be truthful than being sorry many years later and being deported for being untruthful on my application. I don't care what some IOs have said on this over the phone because you can NEVER rely on these officers anyway since they are known to give wrong and contradictory inforation all the time anyway, instead I would follow the instructions and guidelines what INS has stated about reporting citations. Instructions on N-400 don't say that people can choose by their own which tickets should be disclosed and which don't, nor it states anywhere on the instructions that people can determine by their own, or even based upon what some officers say over the phone, as to which tickets are serious and which are not in order to determine the impact on them on a citizenship application. It's sad that most people determing by themselves which ones to disclose and which don't even though instructions clearly state to disclose all citations.
http://boards.immigration.com/showthread.php?t=285794
Most folks don't know that if someone has received too many traffic tickets, whether those are for speeding, parking, changing lanes wrongly, turning on no U turn zone and etc, then some officers may deny your application. Because recently a case has come into light wherein an officer denied a naturalization application to a person who had received so many tickets. Officer noted that applicant failed to obey the local traffic laws so many times, which obviously proves that applicant has a bad character by showing no regard to US local laws. Applicant appealed, but applicant's appeal got denied. So, it is also recommended to contact an immigration attorney before filing naturalization application if someone falls under this kind of situation. But I hope people would understand the difference between speaking with every other immigration attorney and speaking with good and aggressive immigration attorneys. More on this topic can be read here-
http://immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?t=282983
It's also advised to take with you a full record of restraining order too if someone has obtained a restraining order against you at anytime. You WILL NOT be denied citizenship based upon traffic citations or a restraining order, but officer MAY ask you about it and/or may demand you to submit some kind of documents in relation to these stuffs. Don’t assume that if you were never been convicted, arrested, fingerprinted, detained or violated a restraining order then it means USCIS won’t know anything about those activities. USCIS is actually now checking up public court records too. It has nothing to do with financial civil matter; instead it has to do with family court for restraining order and traffic court for traffic citations.
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