N-400 Filing too early

fidanboylu said:
Jackolantern, I just wanted to correct you so that people who read the thread don't get a false idea. 90 day allowance is both for 3- year marriage to citizen with continuos residency and 5 year continuos residency requirement. Either case you are allowed to apply 90 days early, the only constraint is that you need to be married for full 3 years when you take the oath, so if your interview falls before 3 year anniversary, they approve your citizenship but give you a later oath appointment after 3 year anniversary date so that when you become a citizen you have completed the whole 3 year in line with the law. The only reason for them to allow applications to be filed 90 days early is to make up time for the application process.

you can find the 90 day rule in detail on form M-477 http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/attachments.pdf page 5 neutralization eligibility worksheet. There is a footnote that is both attached to the 5 year and 3 year rules in the diagram.

Specifically for my case, I have been a permanent resident for 4 years now, I got my green card through employment. I already had my green card when I got married. So I am past 3 year residency rule if that is what you mean.
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You did not CORRECT anything, you reiterated and expanded upon what had already been stated.
 
I did correct "If you use the 3-year rule you're not allowed to file 90 days before your 3-year wedding anniversary".
thanks
 
fidanboylu said:
I did correct "If you use the 3-year rule you're not allowed to file 90 days before your 3-year wedding anniversary".
thanks
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No you didn't. As I wrote before, you're not allowed to file 90 days before your 3-year wedding anniversary. You may file 90 days before your 3-year green card anniversary, but not before your 3-year wedding anniversary. You're confusing those two distinct concepts.

Specifically for my case, I have been a permanent resident for 4 years now, I got my green card through employment. I already had my green card when I got married. So I am past 3 year residency rule if that is what you mean.
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No, that is not what I mean. I was referring to the fact that you have not completed 3 years of marriage. You are past 3 years of residence, but you're not past 3 years of marriage, so you're not eligible to file N-400 now.
 
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I am referring to a USCIS document M-477 where it says:

"Neutralization applicants may file their applications 90 days before they have satisfied their "continuos residency" requirement"

Continuous Residence definition referring to USCIS website is:

Applicants are required to show that they have:

1) Resided continuously in the U.S. for five years before applying, (see legal basis), or

2) Resided continuously in the U.S. for three years in the case of qualified spouses of U.S. citizens, (see legal basis)

“Continuous residence” means that the applicant has maintained residence within the United States for the required period of time shown above.

Hence, I will satisfy my continuos residency requirement for three years as a spouse of US citizen on April 16th. By form M-477, I am eligible to apply 90 days early.

My wedding anniversary happens to be my 3-year continuos residency date.

thanks
 
fidanboylu said:
Hence, I will satisfy my continuos residency requirement for three years as a spouse of US citizen on April 16th. By form M-477, I am eligible to apply 90 days early.
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At the time of applying, the applicant should have already been married to a US citizen for 3 years. You are short of that
if your 3rd anniversary is in April. Nowhere in any documents N-400 or M477 does USCIS say you can
apply 90 days earlier before that date.
 
M-477 page 5 footnote:
* Neutralization applicants may file their applications 90 days before they have satisfied their "continuos residency" requirement.
 
I have M-477 opened up with the sentence "Neutralization applicants may file their applications 90 days before they have satisfied their "continuos residency" requirement" staring at my face and I am reading your comment: "Nowhere in any documents N-400 or M477 does USCIS say you can apply 90 days earlier before that date", I don't know which one to believe.
 
fidanboylu said:
M-477 page 5 footnote:
* Neutralization applicants may file their applications 90 days before they have satisfied their "continuos residency" requirement.
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Fidanboylu,

I am sorry, but I think you are wrong. If you google some cases you will find something like below. Pretty similar to yours and it got denied:

Applicant: "I am a US Citizen. My wife holds a GC, and has for over 4 years. She applied only 7 days before our 3 year anniversary and was denied specifically for filing too early. The N400 instructions say you can apply 90 days in advance of either 5 years continuous residence, or 3 years continuous residence married to citizen. To Clarify: My wife is a LPR and had been for over 4 years when she applied. She had this green card before we were married. She is now over the 5 year mark. When she submitted her N400 to apply for citizenship (about 6 months ago), she had been married for 7 days short of 3 years married to a US Citizen. Thus, she already had a green card when we got married."

Lawyer's answer: " You are confusing the continuous residence requirement with the marital union requirement. They are two different requirements. In order to apply for expedited naturalization as the spouse of a U.S. Citizen the alien must have been a resident for at least 3 years and have lived in marital union with the U.S. citizen spouse for at least 3 years. Based upon the facts that you present, your wife was 7 days short of 3 years of marital union (the requirement must be satisfied prior to filing and continue until naturalization). Thus, based upon these facts, the denial was proper."
 
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fidanboylu said:
M-477 page 5 footnote:
* Neutralization applicants may file their applications 90 days before they have satisfied their "continuos residency" requirement.
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Many posters here already told you again and again. You can file 90 days early before your 3 year residence
but you CAN NOT file 90 days early before your 3 year marriage.
 
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fidanboylu said:
M-477 page 5 footnote:
* Neutralization applicants may file their applications 90 days before they have satisfied their "continuos residency" requirement.
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That is true, but only if all other requirements have been met. One of those requirements for a marriage-based case is 3 full years of marriage to a US citizen.
 
Just got an email from the lawyer, the requirement is be married to USC and hold a green card for 2 years and 9 months. I have an appointment in 3,5 hours, i will get it confirmed again in person. Also, if you search for 2 years and 9 months, you will see many successful applications. I don't know what part you guys are not getting but for the sake of people reading the thread, I want to get this straight.

WBH, I don't go by what people say, I go by the law and what lawyers say and have seen. Anybody can say anything, it is a free country, and it is free to be wrong and be insistent.
 
fidanboylu said:
Just got an email from the lawyer, the requirement is be married to USC and hold a green card for 2 years and 9 months.
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But that's not the only requirement. There are other requirements such as having 1.5 years of physical presence, and 3 full years of marriage to a US citizen, and 3 months residence in the district or state. You're not eligible unless all requirements have been met. You're looking at one particular requirement and ignoring the rest.
 
Countries visited N- 400

Hi, I have just submitted my N-400 form. However now I realize that for the Countries visited I have mentioned "Dubai" instead of "UAE". Will this be a problem? Will they reject the form? Anyone can give me any information on this issue, I appreciate it.

Thanks...
 
Just re-posting. The answer is coming from a lawyer and the case is a real case, not made-up:


Applicant: "I am a US Citizen. My wife holds a GC, and has for over 4 years. She applied only 7 days before our 3 year anniversary and was denied specifically for filing too early. The N400 instructions say you can apply 90 days in advance of either 5 years continuous residence, or 3 years continuous residence married to citizen. To Clarify: My wife is a LPR and had been for over 4 years when she applied. She had this green card before we were married. She is now over the 5 year mark. When she submitted her N400 to apply for citizenship (about 6 months ago), she had been married for 7 days short of 3 years married to a US Citizen. Thus, she already had a green card when we got married."

Lawyer's answer: " You are confusing the continuous residence requirement with the marital union requirement. They are two different requirements. In order to apply for expedited naturalization as the spouse of a U.S. Citizen the alien must have been a resident for at least 3 years and have lived in marital union with the U.S. citizen spouse for at least 3 years. Based upon the facts that you present, your wife was 7 days short of 3 years of marital union (the requirement must be satisfied prior to filing and continue until naturalization). Thus, based upon these facts, the denial was proper."
 
Fidanboylu,

I want to make sure that your lawyer does not mislead you. There are example cases like yours which got denied because they were filed before the 3rd wedding anniversary. Below is another one I found. The applicant was confirmed by two attorneys and still got denied. I hope you will not be mislead and lose more time and money on this because of early filing.

Here is the case I found:

"My N400 application was denied earlier this week during the interview by the USCIS officer citing ineligibility due to filing too early.

The application was based on marriage to a US Citizen and filed 60 days prior to the 3rd anniversary of the wedding.

Needless to say, this caught myself and my attorney by surprise. Two other attorney's previously confirmed that the N400 can be filed up to 90 days prior to the 3 yrs (as long as the full 3 years have passed before the oath)"

You see, the attorney was caught by surprise. So I would show this case and the previous case I posted to your attorney and ask for further advice. Or they should guarantee that they will reimburse you when you lose $680. They will not be able to re-imburse the ~5 months time you will lose.
 
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I hope Fidanboylu has not already filed. Here is a comment from another user I found. I am quoting:

"The instructions indicate that you must have been married to a USC for 3 years before you can file the paperwork. They indicate that you can apply, if the other conditions are met (in this case being married a full 3 years to a single USC) up to 90 days before you have been a LPR for 3 years. The OP was not married to a USC for a full 3 years when they filed the paperwork, so they were not eligible. Remember, most people who gain GCs through marriage do not get them the same day they were married. There is usually a lag time of 3 months of more between marriage and LPR status."

So to clarify. Usually people who get the green card through marriage get the card 3 months or later which means when they apply at the 2 years 9 months mark they have been married for full three years.

In Fidanboylu's case, he got his card not through marriage, so at the time of his application he will not have been married for full three years. This will raise a red flag with the USCIS officer and the application will get denied.
 
Jackolantern said:
Nwctzn, could you provide links to those posts you found?
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They are on forums competing with this one. Hence, I did not provide them.

But if you just google "N400 - 90 days early rule after 3 years of marriage" and "N400 denied based on eligibility" you will get them.
 
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