Nervous Please Help.

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Scubagirl

Registered Users (C)
Background:
I am a natural born US citizen. My husband of 8 years applied for citizenship 2 years ago. He applied as the 5 continuous years rule (not as my spouse). He immigrated here as a baby, he went to school and college here. He has been a permanet legal resident for 25 years. When he applied just over 2 years ago his passport was current. He thought the citizenship process would be faster. His passport expired 6 months ago. He crossed the border into canada on a green card only (by land) 4 months ago for a relatives funeral (stayed 2 days). His green card was scanned at that time. Otherwise he has never left the U.S. for more than 2 months (one time event), he has no criminal record, he works, he pays his bills.
His interview is scheduled for Jan 20th 2009 his passport is expired.

My Questions:
1. Will the expired passport be a problem?
2. He registered for selective service years ago. I printed out the verification online - will this be enough or do we need one directly mailed from selective service?
3. Will the fact he crossed the Canadian border without his passport a few months back be a problem?
4. Can I go with him to the interview (even just to sit in the waiting room).
5. Should I take our marriage license, my passport and birth certificate just in case? (even though he did not fill out the application as applying as my spouse)
6. What is the best source to study for the citizenship test? (I believe he is exempt from the english test if I read it right)
7. Is their anything else we should take that they don't mention in the letter?
8. Any other advice to ease my nerves?


I thank you for any responses. It took 8 years for us to get this far (with the government changing forms, fees, ect.... I just don't want it to fall through at this point).
 
I will try to answer some of the items that you seem to be most worried about. Expired passport should not cause any problems. I would not worry about it . I had gone to Canada couple of times without passport. That didn't cause any issues for me.

Many District Offices allow relatives in the waiting room. Mine did, so no harm in going with him. Take documents that you have with you. Its not worth worrying about documents that they haven't asked and that you don't have. Interview process is not as complicated as some of the posters make it sound like here. Just remember - Interview Officers are people like you and me. Most are good and kind.
 
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I don't know about the rest, but expired passport is not a problem. I went to interview with expired passport. They don't care. I also had my lawyer go with me and he reassured me that would not be a problem and it was not.
 
Green card holders are not required by the US to have a valid passport. Many green card holders can't get a passport even if they want one because either they are stateless, or they are refugees and the country they escaped from refuses to give them one or doesn't have a functioning government.

However, if you do have a passport, they'll want to see it at the interview even if it's expired.
 
1. Will the expired passport be a problem? No. CIS does not care about that. They only need the dates of entry to establish continuous residency but they can also accomplish that through CBP records.
2. He registered for selective service years ago. I printed out the verification online - will this be enough or do we need one directly mailed from selective service? I would get a Selective Service Letter to be safe. It takes a few days to get one in the mail.
3. Will the fact he crossed the Canadian border without his passport a few months back be a problem? I do not see that being an issue, just list the trip in your N400 form.
4. Can I go with him to the interview (even just to sit in the waiting room). Although the IL might state that only the necessary people need to come. But I don't see why you can't go and wait for him.
5. Should I take our marriage license, my passport and birth certificate just in case? (even though he did not fill out the application as applying as my spouse) Yes. It wouldn't hurt.
6. What is the best source to study for the citizenship test? (I believe he is exempt from the english test if I read it right). The English test is so simple and basic that it's not a cause of worry but he will be exempt if he meets age criteria and also length of permanent residency. CIS's website has sample questions for the new and old tests. Maybe you can make flash cards. Or you can role play with him so he could practice.
7. Is their anything else we should take that they don't mention in the letter? There is a good sticky on this forum about documents to bring to interview
8. Any other advice to ease my nerves? :) He will do great. Sounds like a straightforward case.
 
Scubagirl said:
5. Should I take our marriage license, my passport and birth certificate just in case? (even though he did not fill out the application as applying as my spouse)
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Definitely take the marriage certificate (not the marriage license, which preceded the certificate). If they know the applicant is married they will usually ask for the certificate, but they normally won't ask for any more marriage-related documentation under the 5-year rule.
 
Thanks Waterman00 that was very helpful.
Jackolantern - thank you also - I don't have a marriage certificate only a license - so I am going to go ahead and get the certificate. I didn't realize this was a problem until trying to get on my husband's health insurance this summer - apparently we don't have the certified document. But it appears to be easy to get. Thank you I would have never thought of that.
 
Scubagirl said:
Thanks Waterman00 that was very helpful.
Jackolantern - thank you also - I don't have a marriage certificate only a license - so I am going to go ahead and get the certificate. I didn't realize this was a problem until trying to get on my husband's health insurance this summer - apparently we don't have the certified document. But it appears to be easy to get. Thank you I would have never thought of that.
Click to expand...

A marriage certificate is a MUST. After we got married, my wife attempted to update her records with her new last name. Not a single agency, government or private, would accept the marriage license as legal proof of name change.
 
Thank you Vorpal - My mother works for the county in which we got married and she is getting the official certificate for us today, so we will have that in plenty of time. I will make sure we take it to the interview.
It is amazing how fast your time went for citizenship. My husband applied quite a bit before you and it seems we lag behind you in the process. I hope once he is approved he can move through the oath and passport process as quickly as you did. :cool:
 
Scubagirl said:
It is amazing how fast your time went for citizenship. My husband applied quite a bit before you and it seems we lag behind you in the process. I hope once he is approved he can move through the oath and passport process as quickly as you did. :cool:
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Oh, my time wasn't fast at all! It seems that your husband may have become a name check victim, hence the length of his processing timeline. The "normal" processing times are considerably less than 1 year. It just so happened that I applied at the end of the summer 2007 backlog, right after everyone rushed to beat the July 2007 fee increase.
 
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