Fingerprints & Biometrics

Moving right along....and the next step is to complete all of my background checks and reviews. To assist the FBI in building my dossier (I doubt they call anything 'dossier's'...but it sounds cool) I will be making a trip to my local USCIS next week for fingerprints and biometrics.

I recieved my official notice - form I-797C (Notice of Action) last week with the details of my scheduled appointment.

I haven't had to go to the Immigration offices since they were the INS! Probably about 10 years ago, to have fingerprints and photos taken for my green card. Wow.

One step closer!

On a side note - now that I have a case number assigned, I'm able to check my status online at the USCIS website. A cool tool that is part of the site is the processing time calculator. I can get an idea of how the office that is processing my N-400 is doing with getting them completed. My local office has a published processing time (as of December 31, 2011) 5.3 months.

So, doing the math on our fingers....I could be finished by the end of June, mid-July.

And It Starts

It's official - I've applied for US citizenship.

The n-400 has been completed, all the supporting documentation accumulated, the photos taken and the fees submitted. It's all in the hands of UPS and on its way to the processing center in AZ.

So now the next phase begins, a phase of mostly waiting. From what I understand, my application is going to a USCIS Processing Center - there are 2, and which one you send to is based on the state you live in. Living in Missouri, my Processing Center is in Arizona. The application will go through an initial processing/screening etc. there and then be sent to the local USCIS office for the remainder of the processing. The n-400 is one of the only USCIS forms that is processed mostly at the local offices, which cuts down on the processing time considerably! I actually found a processing flowchart that someone did online (gotta love Google)....if you were really interested in the details you can go here: n-400 Flowchart.

Have to give a shout-out to the USCIS's advancements in notification processes, I was able to include a request to recieve confirmations and updates by e-mail and text message. That has certainly changed since my initial residency process.

While I'm waiting, I guess I can get started on preparing for the English and Civics tests...that should be entertaining.

Freedom of Information

One week until n-400 submission. My due date for getting this show on the road is quickly approaching! Time to buckle down and get this done.

Since I have been thinking about all of this for about a year now (original self-defined due date was in 2011), I've known about one of the real stickler sections of the n-400 for a while now. I speak of Section 7. Ah, section 7...

Section 7 of the n-400 is devoted to the time a permanent resident has spent outside of the United States. There are some eligibility requirements for citizenship around how much time you spend living inside the U.S. in a given year - basically you have to live here the majority of the time in order to be eligible for citizenship.

In order to complete Section 7, the applicant (aka. me) has to "List all the trips of 24 hours or more that you have taken outside the United States since becoming a lawful permanent resident". HWHAT??? For me - that means listing every trip I've made since December 2002!!! Considering that I have made several trips to Canada a year for personal and even work reasons, and a couple of trips to Mexico - the list of dates I'd need would be a lengthy one!

So, how do you suppose I'm going to do that - is what I asked myself and promptly got to Googling. First step was to call the USCIS to confirm my suspicion of having to get over 9 years of travel dates. Easily confirmed. I was also directed to contact US Customs and Border Protection to try and get the information I'd need.

A little more Googling got me to the US Customs and Border Protection website and my new friend the g-639. Form g-639 is the Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Request form. Essentially, if you ever want to request information under the Freedom of Information Act from the US government - this is the form you would fill out. And that is what I did - I filled out the form asking for all of my entry and exit dates going back to December 2002.

When I told people that I had done this, I was asked why I couldn't just use the stamps in my passport to get the dates. And the answer is that my passport is not stamped every time that I enter or exit Canada....quite often it's just my boarding pass that is stamped! BUT my green card is scanned EVERY time I go through Customs. So, I figured there had to be a record of my entries and departures somewhere.

To hedge my bets - I also tracked down a contact for Canada Customs to see if they could provide me with the information. They sent me a nice email saying that they don't have it. No Freedom of Information equivalent in the homeland??? Hmm.

This all took place in April. The report with my dates arrived just in time for Christmas - like a little present in a manilla envelope. It may not have been speedy - but it did the trick.

Section 7 has been successfully completed.

Forms Glorious Forms....

Granted, it's been a while since I've had to be actively involved with the immigration process (the last foray was changing my "temporary resident" status to "permanent resident" status back in 2002), I think I can safely say that I've already experienced more than my fair share of forms....forms and more forms.

The application for citizenship is thankfully only one (from what I can tell, and hope) known as the N-400. I've been spending some time with my new friend N-400 over the last year, reading, re-reading and mentally preparing myself to fill it out.

Given my self-assigned submission due date of 2/16/12, N-400 and I are going to be spending a lot more time together over the next few weeks. If you're curious on what I'll be completing, take a gander;

N-400 Info

N-400 isn't the most intimidating of the forms I've completed over the years, but it is one of the more entertaining ones. Some of the highlights to N-400 include the requirement to list ALL trips over 24 hours that I have made since becoming a Permanent Resident (Section 7, Part C.), questions about my Affiliations (Section 10, Part B) - the questions about being a Communist or Nazi are good ones - and the Yes/No questions on "Good Moral Character" (Section 10, Part D).

I guess all of what is being asked in N-400 is good information to have, I mean you only want the best of the best as citizens, right? No communists, habitual drunkards or polygamists need apply.

What's the big deal?

First lesson - there are benefits to being a U.S. Citizen that pretty much form the foundation for why us immigrants decide to obtain it. Do you know what the USCIS list as being the Rights and Responsibilities of U.S. Citizens? No need to Google...here they are:


Rights of U.S. Citizens

Vote in Federal elections

Serve on a Jury

Bring family members to the United States

Obtain citizenship for children born abroad

Travel with a U.S. passport

Run for federal office

Become eligible for federal grants and scholarship

Responsibilities of U.S. Citizens

• Support and defend the Constitution





• Serve the country when required





• Participate in the democratic process





• Respect and obey federal, state and local laws





• Respect the rights, beliefs and opinions of others





• Participate in your local community
  

Now you know!

Another benefit that wasn't mentioned....is namely around participation in social services. As citizens, programs like Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, Unemployment and even Welfare are available. Permanent residents pay into all of these programs - we pay the same payroll taxes and mandatory deductions - but are not eligible to claim any benefits.









Basically, if you are going to make your life in this country, being able to participate in the decision process (voting) and have access to social benefits (limited as they may be) are pretty compelling reasons to take the plunge. Admittedly, these are a couple of the reasons I'm choosing citizenship over remaining a permanent resident. After nearly 13 years, I think it's time to participate in the process a little more actively.





Second lesson - I'm not just granted automatic citizenship. I was asked this recently, and explained that being married to an American really only helps get residency status. The process of citizenship is basically the same for everyone.Unlike most who apply for U.S residency, I was guaranteed status by being married to a U.S. citizen. We still had to go through the residency application process - all the forms, the screenings etc. but I didn't have to go through a lottery or other initial step.









I'm eligible for citizenship now because I've;

• Been a lawful permanent resident for at least 5 years.

• Been a lawful permanent resident for at least 3 years and married to and living with the same U.S. citizen for the last 3 years.

Source: USCIS Form N-400





So, now that I'm eligible (have been for about 7 years to be honest), I have to fill out the application form, undergo the screenings and tests and then be sworn in. According to USCIS's website recently, it'll be about a 4-6 month process and run me a cool $680.00 (ack!)

2012 is the year

No, it's not the year the world is going to end (well, hopefully), it's the year I'm going to become a U.S. Citizen. Ya, ya - I know what you're saying - "you've said this before...wasn't 2011 supposed to be the year?" Well, yes, that is correct - I have said this before, and yes, I had intended on getting it done in 2011....but stuff happens, or doesn't in this case.

2012 is different though - this is the year that I HAVE to do something. Much like the Mayan calendar's doomsday date for us (these correlations are what I get for watching History channel while I'm writing this) my green card's time is also up in December 2012. So, I my choices are to either become a citizen or renew the green card for another 10 years.

I've been approaching the necessary decision from a mostly rational stance - trying to decide what "makes the most sense" and which choice is most fiscally responsible...always comes down to the dollars, doesn't it? Citizenship looks like it will be the winner.

Why write a blog about it? Two reasons mainly; Firstly, I doubt that many of my friends, relatives or countrymen realize what exactly is involved in applying for and gaining citizenship and secondly I have to work through how I feel about the whole thing - will I still be me? What will becoming American mean to me? Will I not be Canadian anymore?

I hope to figure that stuff out over the next few months, and not lose my mind from willingly engaging in another immigration process.