Moving out of state before filing N-400

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SanjayRamaswamy

New Member
Dear friends,

My situation has changed from what I wrote last time.

The date on my green card is Oct 1, 2004 and been a resident of Houston, TX for the past 9 years. Thus I will be eligible to apply for US citizenship in 1st week of July this year ( 4 yrs 9 month thing ). I now have a job offer in San Jose, California and I will need to move in the second week of June. Can I still apply my N-400 from the Houston field office or should I apply from San Jose, CA after living in San Jose for 90 days? Does it help If I keep my house here in Houston, TX , pay bills, etc. to file as a resident of Houston?

My objective is to take advantage of filing N-400 90 days prior to 5 years of residency. 90 days is a big deal to me and if it takes to wait 90 days in San Jose, CA I'm willing to decline the new job offer.

Regards,
Sanjay
 
SanjayRamaswamy said:
...I now have a job offer in San Jose, California and I will need to move in the second week of June. Can I still apply my N-400 from the Houston field office or should I apply from San Jose, CA after living in San Jose for 90 days? Does it help If I keep my house here in Houston, TX , pay bills, etc. to file as a resident of Houston?

My objective is to take advantage of filing N-400 90 days prior to 5 years of residency. 90 days is a big deal to me and if it takes to wait 90 days in San Jose, CA I'm willing to decline the new job offer...
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Couple of things to consider:

If you are permanently re-locating to San Jose, CA as part of this new job, the correct thing to do would be to wait until you get to San Jose, establish district residency, and then file the N-400. That would be the logical and correct thing to do.

If you only moving to San Jose for a temporary assignment, then it would make sense to file from Houston because you will continue to maintain a residence there.

Filing from Houston even though you are moving to San Jose could raise questions for USCIS once they determine the sequence of events either before or during the interview.

I am not sure I would turn down a (better?) job just on the basis of this 90-day district residency requirement unless you really needed US citizenship for your job. In the grand scheme of USCIS processing times, what is 90 days? Sure things are moving quickly in some places now, but can you really predict how things will move whether in Houston or San Jose?

IMHO, You should take the job if it is a match for you on a variety of other factors, and worry about the N-400 filing date after you have considered all of that.
 
Your interview might be 6 months, 1 year, or even 18 months after you apply. If you're still in San Jose at that time, you're going to have trouble convincing them that you're still a resident of Houston. Unless you're sure it is a short-term assignment and you'll be back in Houston, you should wait the 90 days and apply as a resident of San Jose.
 
In Houston, it is taking (On average) 4 months from filing to Interview.

Are you offered a better job, full time etc then you should move to CA-- No point missing out a decent opportunity. You can file N-400 any time after July.
If you are offered a temp position and you are keeping your permanent residence in Houston then apply in Houston-- My 2 cents.

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Employment based GC (2004)
N-400
Houston DO
4/7/2009: Priority Date
4/15/2009: NOA (Application received)
5/11/2009: FP Notice
5/15/2009: FP Done (Early walk-in)
x/xx/2009: IL (Next)
 
Thank you all for the replies. Actually the job offer is good but not great considering the high cost of living in CA. Also I need the citizenship soon because I need to upgrade my wife's I-130 as soon as I get my citizenship. I've waited long enough and if I can save 90 days and gain more time because of faster processing in Houston I'm all for it.
 
SanjayRamaswamy said:
Thank you all for the replies. Actually the job offer is good but not great considering the high cost of living in CA. Also I need the citizenship soon because I need to upgrade my wife's I-130 as soon as I get my citizenship. I've waited long enough and if I can save 90 days and gain more time because of faster processing in Houston I'm all for it.
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If you take the job in San Diego and apply as a Houston resident, you risk getting denied (especially if the job is not a contract with a specified end date) and wasting a lot more than 90 days.
 
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