question about naturalization application.

[bakersf]

Hello everyone,
In a few weeks I apply for citizenship, very excited. But I have a few questions.

In the question about filling out time out of the united states for trips: lets say I left the usa for two weeks from February 2 and came back to usa february16, how do you count your days of absence in that case: do you include february 2 and february 16 as days out of the usa?

I am 36 now. I did not register with selective service, and I do have a status information letter. Should I submit that letter with the n400 form?

In the question about clubs and organizations. i am a member of a few university associations that i will list. Shouid I also mentiion that I am a member of facebook? I mean that sounds ridiculous. But should I mention it anyway?

All your responses will be appreciated and best of luck to all!!

 

[nwctzn]

Hello everyone,
In a few weeks I apply for citizenship, very excited. But I have a few questions.

In the question about filling out time out of the united states for trips: lets say I left the usa for two weeks from February 2 and came back to usa february16, how do you count your days of absence in that case: do you include february 2 and february 16 as days out of the usa?

I am 36 now. I did not register with selective service, and I do have a status information letter. Should I submit that letter with the n400 form?

In the question about clubs and organizations. i am a member of a few university associations that i will list. Shouid I also mentiion that I am a member of facebook? I mean that sounds ridiculous. But should I mention it anyway?

All your responses will be appreciated and best of luck to all!!

Basically two methods are discussed for counting partial days: I used the first method and I counted partial days in the US as days being in the US; i.e., I counted both departure and arrival dates as days in the US. If you do not have a border-line case where you barely satisfy the physical presence requirement (at least 30 months in the US within the last 5 years) you will be fine with this method. However, say you have only about 30 months presence in the US within the last 5 years, then it is advised to be conservative and use the second method where you count either the arrival or the departure dates as a day out of the US.

No need to send in the selective service letter. They might ask for it for the interview. Even if they do not ask for it, take it with you to the interview just in case.

I listed my professional memberships, but not AAA, Sam's Club or Facebook.

 

[BigJoe5]

Hello everyone,
In a few weeks I apply for citizenship, very excited. But I have a few questions.

In the question about filling out time out of the united states for trips: lets say I left the usa for two weeks from February 2 and came back to usa february16, how do you count your days of absence in that case: do you include february 2 and february 16 as days out of the usa?

I am 36 now. I did not register with selective service, and I do have a status information letter. Should I submit that letter with the n400 form?

In the question about clubs and organizations. i am a member of a few university associations that i will list. Shouid I also mentiion that I am a member of facebook? I mean that sounds ridiculous. But should I mention it anyway?

All your responses will be appreciated and best of luck to all!!

Your questions are already answered (here and in your duplicate posts) but in regard to facebook.....

It is in the news lately that folks are pondering if an potential "organ donor's" clearly expressed wishes to be a donor via their social media postings can overcome the situation where they died before they got around to updating that info elsewhere such as on their DL.

 

[Marusia_GC]

In the question about clubs and organizations. i am a member of a few university associations that i will list. Shouid I also mentiion that I am a member of facebook?

All your responses will be appreciated and best of luck to all!!

Mention just your students', professional, religious, political organizations (if any), for which you pay membership fees. No social networks, retail or other service cards, like AAA or Costco. I listed IEEE membership, where I am a very active member and even an officer of one of the Societies, and a couple of other organizations, in which I participate because of my work. I added an Art Museum, to which I send donations, but I think even this is excessive.

 

[marko812003]

Departure and arrival day do NOT count as the days out of country. Simply because you were in the country on those dates.

I had one trip that was 179 days, and IO didn't questioned it

 

[nwctzn]

Departure and arrival day do NOT count as the days out of country. Simply because you were in the country on those dates.

I had one trip that was 179 days, and IO didn't questioned it

You are right, in general.

But for border-line cases on physical presence (i.e., at least 30 months in the US), an interviewing officer can go by the guideline to count half of the arrival day and half of the departure day as a day in the US which in effect is counting either only the arrival or only the departure day as a day in the US. This issue can become critical if an applicant makes an appeal to a denial based on insufficient physical presence in the US.

And then, there is this one obvious case: Say you leave for Mexico on January 1 at 12pm and you return to the US the following day on January 2 at 6pm; i.e., you spent 30 hours out of the US and hence, you need to report it on the N400. So for this case, you would need to count either the departure or arrival day as one day out of the US, i.e., you cannot count both days as days in the US and you cannot write 0 days on the N400 form. On the other hand, if you have a trip less than 24 hours (e.g., you leave on January 1 at 12pm and you enter on January 2 at 11am), you do not need to report the trip at all and in that case both departure and arrival days are days in the US. Complicated ha?

Long story short: if you do not have a border-line case you can go by the first method and count both arrival and departure days as days in the US. This was the case for me since I did have plenty of physical presence and I had no long absences at all. So even if the officer would have corrected it during the interview, it would not have affected my case. On the other hand, if you want to play it safe, and especially if have a border-line case, then you should count only one of the departure/arrival days as a day in the US.

Regarding your 179 day trip you mentioned: Assuming the officer would have "corrected" you, you would be 180 days out of the US which would be exactly the border line and depending on the officer's mood on your interview day, not a big deal.

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