Filing for Citizenship based on my employment green card or Marriage to a citizen.

[pmisra]

I have had green card for 5+ year which i received through my employer.
I have also been married to a US citizen for 5 years.

So I am eligible to file in either category, which is the preferred way. (of course first one will require less document submission like marriage certificate etc. but other might look good from a Immigrant officer point of view?)

 

[WBH]

I have had green card for 5+ year which i received through my employer.
I have also been married to a US citizen for 5 years.

So I am eligible to file in either category, which is the preferred way. (of course first one will require less document submission like marriage certificate etc. but other might look good from a Immigrant officer point of view?)

If it require less document submission, then it is look better from a Immigrant officer point of view.
If marrying a US a citizen is a plus, then the IO will see it anyway even if you file under 5 years because
on N400 you will be requried to pout down spouse name and citizenship.

So use 5 years. Unless you have a crminal record that is between 3 and 5 years old or you meet 3past 3 years of physical presence not not 5 years of physical presence,
then 5 years route is alwasy better than 3 years route without any other exception (maybe there is but I can not think up any except two I menditoned)

 

[Jackolantern]

If you apply with the marriage-based option, they probably will want to see several documents to substantiate your marriage, like joint lease/mortgage, joint bank account statements, etc. Applying with the regular 5 year rule allows you to avoid supplying that mountain of documents (they may still want to see the marriage certificate though).

 

[pmisra]

It seems like Employment based green card way is better.
One other question, I have tried to remember the start date and end date of my several jobs but there may be a 1-2 day gaps in when i actually might have started or ended. can something like this be an issue?

 

[Jackolantern]

Listing the month and year of employment is fine. You don't have to list the exact date for every job. And even if you do have the exact dates, gaps of a few days or weeks between jobs don't matter at all.

 

[JPBoston]

I got my GC through employment but applied for naturalization after three years of being married to a citizen because I saved myself a little time by applying earlier. The only documents that I submitted with my N-400 forms were my wife's passport details page, our marriage certificate and our child's birth certificate (submitted copies of all of these and not originals). For the interview, I had all the originals with me. Yes I also did gather other marriage "proof" related docs like bank statement, mortgage statement, wedding pics, etc but it wasn't a big deal really. In the end for me, all the IO asked me what my wife's name was and what our child's name was. She did not ask to see any of the backing documents. So it really depends on the IO and can't really say that applying based on employment is better for the interview than based on marriage. If anything, especially if you have children, it probably proves stronger the authenticity of the marriage and is unlikely to lead to hard questioning about your marriage intents.

 

[Jackolantern]

I got my GC through employment but applied for naturalization after three years of being married to a citizen because I saved myself a little time by applying earlier. The only documents that I submitted with my N-400 forms were my wife's passport details page, our marriage certificate and our child's birth certificate (submitted copies of all of these and not originals). For the interview, I had all the originals with me. Yes I also did gather other marriage "proof" related docs like bank statement, mortgage statement, wedding pics, etc but it wasn't a big deal really. In the end for me, all the IO asked me what my wife's name was and what our child's name was. She did not ask to see any of the backing documents.

It seems to be some kind of unwritten law of nature that they will ask for documents in inverse proportion to the documents you have with you. People who bring almost nothing get denied or have to spend time after the interview to gather the documents and wait for a decision, while people who bring 1000 pages of stuff only get asked for one or two simple things.

 

[JPBoston]

It seems to be some kind of unwritten law of nature that they will ask for documents in inverse proportion to the documents you have with you. People who bring almost nothing get denied or have to spend time after the interview to gather the documents and wait for a decision, while people who bring 1000 pages of stuff only get asked for one or two simple things.

Never has a truer observation been made on this forum (until, of course, I just stated what I just said here).

I guess everyone should go into their respective interviews as comprehensively prepared as possible. It helps with your confidence if you have backing docs to cover any questions that may come up.

 

[faysal]

I have had green card for 5+ year which i received through my employer.
I have also been married to a US citizen for 5 years.

So I am eligible to file in either category, which is the preferred way. (of course first one will require less document submission like marriage certificate etc. but other might look good from a Immigrant officer point of view?)

If you were applying for citizenship two years earlier, your wife's route would have been attractive. Now that you can do the thing your own, I don't know why you wanna to give your wife the bragging right...you get your citizenship on me...whenever she feels...if I were you would apply based on 5 years of greencard...

 

[WBH]

If you were applying for citizenship two years earlier, your wife's route would have been attractive. Now that you can do the thing your own, I don't know why you wanna to give your wife the bragging right...you get your citizenship on me...whenever she feels...if I were you would apply based on 5 years of greencard...

He can still file N400 that way without his wife knowing it. I don't think marriage based N400 need signature from teh citizen spouse.

 

[JPBoston]

He can still file N400 that way without his wife knowing it. I don't think marriage based N400 need signature from teh citizen spouse.

Correct. You would still need to submit wife-related docs like passport page copies and marriage certificate but if you have direct access to these, you can submit the N-400 application without needing your wife's express involvement. The bragging rights argument is kind of silly and if your wife really wants to make a childish point of it, I think you probably have bigger issues with your relationship with the wife.

 

[WBH]

Correct. You would still need to submit wife-related docs like passport page copies and marriage certificate but if you have direct access to these, you can submit the N-400 application without needing your wife's express involvement.

And there is a bad aspect of not letting the spouse know:

It has been reported sometimes the IOS make a call to the citizen spouse. If the citizen spouse does not know you
are applying based upon being married to her/him, she and him will be surprised and can give funny answers to the
IOs.

But let it be known that if one is qualified under both categories, one has the right to change category during the interview
(but perhaps not allowed once interview is done)