Impact of receipt of unemployment benefit on Naturalization

[aaronsm]

Hi, if a candidate seeking naturalization has received unemployment benefits any time during the period from green card through naturalization application, is it held against the candidate (or the dependent spouse of the candidate, also applying for naturalization) in any way?

Does the immigration officer/examiner ever interrogate the candidate on his/her receipt of unemployment benefits?

Any specific experiences you can share?
Thanks

 

[baikal3]

Hi, if a candidate seeking naturalization has received unemployment benefits any time during the period from green card through naturalization application, is it held against the candidate (or the dependent spouse of the candidate, also applying for naturalization) in any way?

Does the immigration officer/examiner ever interrogate the candidate on his/her receipt of unemployment benefits?

Any specific experiences you can share?
Thanks

Receiving unemployment benefits does not affect one's naturalization eligibility and has no negative impact on consideration of a naturalization application. See a more detailed explanation at http://www.murthy.com/news/n_unembe.html

 

[Dago Red]

Be prepared

Just be mentally prepared to get harassed if you currently don't have a Job. This happened to a friend of mine last year when she had the interview. If this happens, stay calm and don't get upset. Unemployment is NOT a legal reason to deny citizenship.

 

[baikal3]

Just be mentally prepared to get harassed if you currently don't have a Job. This happened to a friend of mine last year when she had the interview. If this happens, stay calm and don't get upset. Unemployment is NOT a legal reason to deny citizenship.

In fact, it is improper for the IO to harass an applicant who currently does not have a job and your friend could have filed a complaint if that happened to her. Most IOs are not going to make this an issue, unless perhaps if it comes up in the context of a different problem (e.g. if they see that an applicant does not have a job in the U.S. but is spending a lot of time abroad, and suspect that the applicant may be working abroad - something like that could lead to continuous residency questions).
But, in and of itself, the lack of employment is not relevant for naturalization eligibility.

 

[Dago Red]

Her case was straight forward. No extensive stay abroad (less than 6 stays in 5 yrs, all well below 30 days). The usual route F1->H1->I551->Citizenship. Total time in the US >10yrs. First unemployment about 5mo before N400 Interview. IO was really harsh. My friend almost started crying.

I don't see a point in filing a complaint AFTER the fact that you got approved. Maybe IO just had a bad day, and we all know - There are good people as well as assh*les everywhere ...