Three month residency rule

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dedonde2

Registered Users (C)
Would a veteran of the N-400 process offer some help here:

After biometrics and before interview being scheduled, we moved to a different state.
  • Change of address was done and we received interview letter in the new state :)
  • Went to the interview: verdict: "decision cannot be made"
  • Called 800 number after not hearing for about 10 days and getting to 4-month limit: the officer said this is probably because I have not been living in the new district for 3 months and they will probably just sit on it for a few weeks until I satisfy the three month requirement.
Question is, is this correct? My reading of what the uscis website says is different from what the officer said, and I am just worried that they might be waiting for something without requesting it, as happened with my ROC. I have travel arrangements around the new year, which I probably will end up canceling if the case doesn't get resolved by then. (you know how expensive those flights become if you don't buy them early)


Thank you very much.
 
dedonde2 said:
Would a veteran of the N-400 process offer some help here:

After biometrics and before interview being scheduled, we moved to a different state.
  • Change of address was done and we received interview letter in the new state :)
  • Went to the interview: verdict: "decision cannot be made"
  • Called 800 number after not hearing for about 10 days and getting to 4-month limit: the officer said this is probably because I have not been living in the new district for 3 months and they will probably just sit on it for a few weeks until I satisfy the three month requirement.
Question is, is this correct? My reading of what the uscis website says is different from what the officer said, and I am just worried that they might be waiting for something without requesting it, as happened with my ROC. I have travel arrangements around the new year, which I probably will end up canceling if the case doesn't get resolved by then. (you know how expensive those flights become if you don't buy them early)
Click to expand...

Where was the interview conducted? Was it at the DO responsible for your old place of residence? Or for the new one?
 
baikal3 said:
Where was the interview conducted? Was it at the DO responsible for your old place of residence? Or for the new one?
Click to expand...

It was in my current (i.e., new) place of residence.
In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of USCIS when a few days after my online change of address I received interview notice in the NEW state (I never had an interview letter in the old address, and I changed the address immediately after I arrived in my new place).
 
dedonde2 said:
It was in my current (i.e., new) place of residence.
In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of USCIS when a few days after my online change of address I received interview notice in the NEW state (I never had an interview letter in the old address, and I changed the address immediately after I arrived in my new place).
Click to expand...

That's pretty strange.

The three months state/district residency requirement only applies at the time of filing N-400, that is, only at the moment when N-400 is submitted. If you move to a different state after filing N-400, the USCIS does not have to wait for you to accumulate three months residency at that new state before approving your N-400.

However, if you move to a new state after filing N-400, the jurisdiction regarding adjudicating and approving your N-400 gets transferred to the USCIS District Office responsible for that new state. If you move to a new state before the interview, then the USCIS transfers your file and your application to that new DO, which then conducts the interview and after that arranges the oath. If you move to a new state after the interview, your file still gets transferred to the new DO, which gives the final approval to your application and schedules the oath. In both cases there is usually a delay of at least a couple of months associated with transferring your application from one DO to another.

Ordinarily, if you move before the interview, the new DO will not schedule the interview until the file transfer is completed and the application is reviewed at the new DO. So it is very strange that in your case the new DO scheduled an interview basically immediately after you moved and right after you notified the USCIS about moving.

It could be that they made a mistake by scheduling your interview at the new DO too early, before your file was actually transferred there, and that's why you got "decision cannot be made" as the interview outcome.
It also could be that there are some other issues in your immigration history that are causing a delay, e.g. some sort of extended foreign trips or something else.
 
Thanks for the thorough response. So I am not alone in thinking that the reading seems off.

On a related note, isn't uscis required to reach a decision by four months?
 
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