Friends,
I have an impending travel that came up just today and need to travel out of the country for 3-4 weeks in July 2012. I applied for US Citizenship end of april (please see signature details) and not yet received the FP appointment.
Looking at the timeline I'm scared it is during July timeframe my FP, Interview... and all things might (???) happen. I wish to pause my application and do the travel. Please suggest if there are any 'method/s' to pause the N400 process up until mid August 2012
Thanks in advance!
You can't really put the N-400 process on hold, the way you can put your mail delivery on hold when you are away from home for a couple of weeks. However, you can slow down the process at several different points.
It seems likely to me that your FP appointment will be before you need to travel and, in any case, as others have noted above, the FP appointment date is not a hard date. E.g., once you get the FP notice letter, you can try to do an early walk-in FP, that is, show up at the Application Support Center with the FP notice in hand but on an earlier date than the actual FP appointment date. In practice, most ASCs allow early walk-in FPs. So even if your actual FP appointment date falls within the period when you are abroad, you'll most likely be able to do your FP before you leave.
Alternatively, you could do your FP after your trip. The FP notice letter usually specifies some time window (a couple of months, if I remember correctly) after the FP appointment date and certain days of the week when you can come and do your FP if you had to miss the original FP appointment date for some reason.
IMO, it is a little more of a worry if your interview is scheduled for a date when you are out of the country. However, usually, the interview letter arrives 3-4 weeks (or longer) before the actual interview date, and in any case the interview will not be scheduled before you have done your FP. If you receive an interview notice before you leave for the trip abroad and if the interview date falls within the period of that trip, you can request, in writing, that the interview be rescheduled for a later date. If you leave for the trip abroad before receiving an interview letter, you should make sure that somebody checks your mail while you are away. In the unlikely event that the interview letter arrives while you are away and that the interview date is before your return date from abroad, you could then mail (from abroad) a letter to USCIS requesting that the interview be rescheduled.
