N400: Time outside the United States

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sadiq

Registered Users (C)
Unfortunately I lost one of my old expired passports and cannot provide an accurate date for the following:
Trips outside the US in 2005 and 2004

Duration: Both trips were for 3 weeks

Any suggestions?
thanks
sadiq
 
do you remember the airline you traveled with? if yes, call see if they have you in their database?
that's all i can think of. the second suggestion would be if you remember the months you traveled, put approx. and then month and year, then explain to IO that you have lost the passports and don't remember for sure.
good luck
 
Thanks for the reply. I contacted the airline via email and will try to phone them, but I doubt they have it or will be willing to invest the time to find out. Based on my personal emails and saved itineraries, I can approximate the dates.

Amazing that USCIS requires us to provide this information when the purpose of the magentic biometric card was that so they could track this information in the first place! Well, I'll only try to fight the system once I become a citizen.
 
Yeah, just approximate the dates. It's not like you were gone for 6 months. Mention on the form that the information 'is to the best of your knowledge.'
 
I didn't have dates for several of my older (short) business trips. Some of the dates on my N-400 were therefore approximate, but it didn't seem to bother the IO.
 
sadiq said:
Unfortunately I lost one of my old expired passports and cannot provide an accurate date for the following:
Trips outside the US in 2005 and 2004

Duration: Both trips were for 3 weeks

Any suggestions?
thanks
sadiq
Click to expand...
Make a "good faith" estimate on your application. I did the same thing on mine on a separate piece of paper (I needed this because I had many trips of short duration). Give the approximate dates and durations. Also mention the country or countries you visited. Dress up the statement a bit to sound a little more officious (more like an attorney would write). For example:

"To the best of my own personal recollection, between X & Y (dates), I took between x & y (number of trips) to <foreign country or countries>. The duration of these trips was approximately x days outside of the US, and the duration of the longest trip was not more than x days."
 
I agree with everyone, in particular I like yummyk's approach. I didn't have this issue with N-400, but I had it I think with H1-B and I think my lawyer solved it at the time by saying something like multiple short trips or something like that, as I couldn't remember how many land crossings I had done. It's up to you if you want to spend time with the airline, I don't think it is needed. Other suggestion if it makes you have more peace of mind is to check your credit card records, if you used your credit card during your trip it might help you pinpoint the dates you were out of the U.S. In particular if you used your card at the airport.
 
Guesstimation is fine. Just annotate the N-400 stating that you are putting down best your best guess. Unless the country you visited is of special interest, I really do not see this as a show stopper.

sadiq said:
Unfortunately I lost one of my old expired passports and cannot provide an accurate date for the following:
Trips outside the US in 2005 and 2004
Click to expand...
 
They always go through every page in your passport to make sure you haven't gone to any red flagged countries or to confirm you haven't lied in the N-400 application. Since you don't have your old passport, you should at least carry the photo copy (if you have one). Just pray that officer wont ask for the old passport.
 
Thanks for the advice. I am from Bangladesh, and my trips were to: Bangladesh, India, and Canada; nothing of interest to CIS at least as of now. The longest trips were to Bangladesh and were for 3 weeks every year. I know the exact time spent outside, just not the dates. I will list down that the dates are to the best of my knowledge.

Again, thanks to all for the replies.

best wishes
sadiq
 
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