lost old passport

[zopak]

Hi,

I have a green card and will apply to citizenship soon. During the interview or at any stage of applying to citizenship is it a problem if I don't have my old passport? My current passport goes back up to a year ago. But my passport before that I can not find. ( As far as writing the travels within last 5 years outside the usa i am fine with that as I remember everything exactly. )

 

[baikal3]

Hi,

I have a green card and will apply to citizenship soon. During the interview or at any stage of applying to citizenship is it a problem if I don't have my old passport? My current passport goes back up to a year ago. But my passport before that I can not find. ( As far as writing the travels within last 5 years outside the usa i am fine with that as I remember everything exactly. )

Generally, not having an old passport is not a problem during the N-400 process. In fact, as an LPR you are not even required to maintain a currently valid passport from your home country.

Sometimes, an IO may ask to see the current/prior passport to double-check the travel dates - but this is unlikely to happen if you did not have extended absences from the U.S. within the last 5 years and in any event such requests are not mandatory, and, if push comes to shove, there are other ways of verifying travel dates (such as the CBP arrival/departure records, copies of old tickets, etc - again, unlikely to be relevant if there were no extended absences from the U.S.)

 

[zopak]

thanks. in your answer you mention CBP. What is that?

In that same subject, they can easily see and verify all my entry and exit dates anyway right? (I mean tehy log in when I come back to us, but do they also log it in when I exit? )

 

[baikal3]

thanks. in your answer you mention CBP. What is that?

In that same subject, they can easily see and verify all my entry and exit dates anyway right? (I mean tehy log in when I come back to us, but do they also log it in when I exit? )

CBP means Customs and Border Protection.

When you check-in for an outgoing international flight, the airline transmits the passenger manifest to the CBP, so the CBP does have info about both your entry and exit dates.
It is possible to request a copy of your entry/exit data from the CBP:
https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/de...-of-my-travel-in-and-out-of-the-united-states

However, in most cases this is entirely unnecessary. Except in the cases where there were some extended absences and where either continuous or physical presence requirements may be an issue, the IOs usually accept the travel info supplied by the applicant in the N-400 on faith.

 

[complexity]

zopak - Agree with baikal on the response. However, as a precaution, just so you don't give them an opportunity to use it as an excuse to delay your case, I would strongly recommend that file a police report and take a copy of that report with you to the interview. This will cover your basis. Just saying it is lost may lead them to say, file a police report and bring it back in 3 months to another interview. Just my thought.