Part 3 of 3: American Residency and Citizenship Process

Part 3

Detailed Citizenship Process: How we qualified for an exemption under INA 319(b)

Background and some information

After obtaining residency for Miguel the end of 2017, we spent a year going back and forth between the Dominican Republic and the United States every few months. We had some work trips and ministry fundraising/sponsor connection trips planned, so we made sure to space them out in 4-6 month increments. The reason we did this was to avoid hassle at the border whenever we entered the country. 

Normal residency requirements include: 

• Continuous presence: meaning, you must continuously live in the United States as a Legal Permanent Resident (LPR) for at least three years, as the spouse of a US citizen, and not be outside of the US for six months or longer at a time during those three years. If you leave the United States for more than six months, USCIS may presume that you abandoned your permanent residence in the United States and deny your citizenship application without compelling evidence for reasons to not return. If you stay abroad for one year or longer, permanent residence will automatically be assumed abandoned, unless applying for certain exceptions. 
• Physical presence: meaning, when applying for citizenship, you must have physically lived in the US for at least half of three years, as the spouse of a US citizen. On the N-400 application, you need to fill in travel dates so they can count how many days you have physically resided in the US.

During this time, we had heard of INA 319(b). More information can be found at: https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-g-chapter-4. But, the part that specifically applied to us is the following (pertinent parts highlighted):

Any person, (1) whose spouse is (A) a citizen of the United States, (B) in the employment of the Government of the United States, or of an American institution of research recognized as such by the Attorney General, or of an American firm or corporation engaged in whole or in part in the development of foreign trade and commerce of the United States, or a subsidiary thereof, or of a public international organization in which the United States participates by treaty or statute, or is authorized to perform the ministerial or priestly functions of a religious denomination having a bona fide organization within the United States, or is engaged solely as a missionary by a religious denomination or by an interdenominational mission organization having a bona fide organization within the United States, and (C) regularly stationed abroad in such employment, and (2) who is in the United States at the time of naturalization, and (3) who declares before the Attorney General in good faith an intention to take up residence within the United States immediately upon the termination of such employment abroad of the citizen spouse, may be naturalized upon compliance with all the requirements of the naturalization laws, except that no prior residence or specified period of physical presence within the United States or within a State or a district of the Service in the United States or proof thereof shall be required.

What this meant for us was that Miguel could apply for citizenship as soon as he became an LPR, without needing to meet the continuous and physical presence requirements, based on my status as a missionary serving overseas with an organization established in the US. And, I would continue to serve overseas for at least a year after filing N-400. And, at the time of his interview, we would have intention to reside in the US after no longer serving as missionaries. 

You can bypass this next section of our navigating his Conditional Status for residency if it does not apply to you.

Filing to remove the conditions on residency

In December 2017, Miguel had been given Conditional Status as an LPR due to us being married for less than 2 years when he obtained residency. If we would have filed for citizenship in 2018, we could have avoided this step, but at the time, we were still figuring out finances and timing to apply for citizenship, so we continued to made periodic trips until we could have enough time stateside to get the paperwork sorted. This opportunity came in the summer of 2019 when our first son was born. By the time we were ready to file for citizenship, we were also closing in on the 90 day period of needing to file to remove the conditions on his residency. If we filed for citizenship and the process was still going when residency ran out in December, his case could be disqualified. So, we ended up having two cases going at the same time with USCIS.

In mid-October, we filed I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residency, at the address corresponding to our state of residence (found under "where to file" at: https://www.uscis.gov/i-751). 

Documents and Forms:

1.  I-751 Completed and signed by both of us Rose's note: in Part 11 of the form, we explained that Miguel's physical address was in the DR due to his wife being a missionary abroad and included that address in the explanation. Since we would have the N-400 filed shortly after filing this, it would help USCIS to understand our physical presence outside the US.
2. Copies of back and front of his green card
3. Evidence of our relationship (our Dominican marriage certificate with an English translation, 10 pictures of us dated and with a short description on the back, copy of our son's birth certificate, a few bank statements from our joint bank account over the past almost two years)
4. Payment for filing - in 2019 it cost $595 plus $85 for biometrics. Cost may have gone up since.

My brother received all our mail in the US and let us know of appointment notices during this entire process. We also had an online account with USCIS that was very helpful as long as we kept an eye on the account (we didn't receive email alerts from that account).

An appointment to capture his biometrics was scheduled for late November. We only received a 2 week notice and were unable to make it, so we had to call the number on the appointment notice to reschedule for mid-December. 

After taking his biometrics, he was told his new green card should be mailed soon. We heard nothing more about this specific case until we went in for the naturalization interview.

Filing for citizenship

Our organization generously covered some legal fees for us to help navigate our unusual situation. Even the lawyer we worked with who has helped many people with immigration and naturalization processes had never had clients who filed under the INA 319(b) exemption. She was very helpful in recommending additional information to file with form N-400, Application for Naturalization, to support our case. After having done the process, I would feel comfortable going at it again without a lawyer for our specific case, but the source of information she was for us and contact she had when we entered some uncharted territory was excellent to have.

The end of October, all paperwork was signed and ready to mail in to the USCIS address corresponding to our state (found under "where to file" at https://www.uscis.gov/n-400). Our lawyer included a straightforward cover letter explaining what our application contained and why. 

Documents and Forms:

1. Form G-28, Notice of Entry of Appearance of Attorney or Representative (this is not necessary if not using a lawyer)
2. Completed N-400, Application for Naturalization (a 20 page document with in depth details of Miguel's personal information, residences in the past 5 years, employment, family, trips and time spent outside of the US, etc.)
3. Two passport style photos (these ended up being useless as they scheduled a biometrics appointment at the embassy/consulate, but it was still required at the time)
4. Annotated copy of INA Section 319(b) evidencing basis for his eligibility to apply
5. Sixteen exhibits to support the application 
• Copies of both sides of his green card (Required Item)
• Copy of my American passport picture page and my American birth certificate (Required Items. these proved my US citizenship. Social Security card could have been used as well, I believe.)
• Our Dominican marriage certificate and an English translation (Required Item. marriage legitimacy)
• Our son's birth certificate (Necessary Item)
• Bank statements over the past two years from our joint account (Supporting Item)
• Jointly filed federal and state tax returns from 2018 (Required Item. 2018 was the only year we filed jointly before submitting N-400 since Miguel's residency was approved the very end of 2017 and we couldn't file jointly for 2017)
• Letter dated Aug. 2019 from our organization stating my employment as a missionary since 2017 and I will be doing so until 2021 or longer (Necessary Item. this helped prove my status as employed overseas as a missionary)
• Employment letter dated May 2017 from our organization stating my position and fundraising salary efforts (Supporting Item.)
• Job description from our organization for me (Supporting Item)
• Earnings statements/pay stubs from our organization for me (Supporting Item. helped prove cash flow between myself and the organization proving my missionary status)
• Letter from Miguel's supervisor containing his job description (Supporting Item. helped connect us to the same organization and as such both being under missionary status and legitimately married and working together)
• Written statement from Miguel stating his intent to reside in the US after we no longer serve as missionaries (Required Item. listed in INA 319(b) as required)
• The four remaining exhibits contained our organization's bylaws, certificate of good standing and incorporation from the state they are registered in as a non-profit/religious organization, IRS letter evidencing 501(c)(3) tax status, and some literature, including pictures, of our organization's ministry activities. (Required and Necessary Items. these proved I was serving under a bona fide organization according to INA 319(b) requirements and supported our ministry activity as legitimate)
6. Payment for filing - in 2019 it cost $725 plus $85 for biometrics. Cost has gone up since.

Just over a week later, we received a notice stating they needed a fingerprint card from Miguel. We had known to send in the passport photos but nothing had been stated anywhere about fingerprint cards. They sent us a packet to use and the notice gave information to schedule a biometrics appointment at our embassy. This biometrics appointment was done in mid-December; they took his picture and fingerprints digitally so his passport photos were never used nor was the fingerprint card they had sent. The crossover from our two cases happened here as we ended up going to our home state a few days later for another biometrics appointment for his I-751/residency case, explained in the above section! It was a bit confusing for anyone not following our process closely. 

In January, our lawyer received an email from an Immigration Services Officer (ISO) out of the field office in our residency state where Miguel's naturalization interview would take place. He personally reached out to see when we would be available to go in for the interview since our file fully explained our overseas status. She had never received such an accommodation before and was a bit worried it might not be legitimate, so she reached out to her lawyer contacts. No one was able to give her a straightforward answer (evidence of how unusual our case was) so she contacted USCIS general line directly to see if this correspondence could be validated. They couldn't validate the actual correspondence but did say an interview appointment had been scheduled and subsequently canceled for January. Putting two and two together, we assumed it was canceled while this ISO was waiting for a reply. By that time, this same ISO had emailed us personally with the same request. Our lawyer then called him directly and let him know a range of dates we had available to travel. We emailed him and gave him the same information and he let us all know we would receive a standard notice of appointment but it would likely be scheduled to be held by April. A month later, we received a notice scheduling the naturalization interview for Tuesday, March 17 (2020).

To attend the interview, they requested we bring:

• The notice letter
• Miguel's green card
• Evidence of Selective Service Registration (Miguel was past his 26th birthday when he first became a resident which nullified the need to register)
• His passport and any other travel documentation not connected to passport and green card
• Original documents of our marriage certificate (and its translation) and my birth certificate

At the interview, the officer ended up asking for several things just to verify the information in our file, but we had left the rest of our documents in the car, not realizing we needed them.

We could have used:

• Social security cards to verify numbers (we didn't have Miguel's memorized but recognized the last 4 digits, so it worked out)
• Tax returns for 2019 if we had already filed (the interview was before April 15, so it wasn't required)

Valuable tidbit: For the month leading up to this appointment, we had made it a point to study the N-400 form inside and out, along with the 100 questions USCIS posts on their website as part of the civics and history exam, and the practice sentences for the English reading and writing comprehension exam. Everything in the interview was connected to these 3 facets. 

Becoming a citizen - The Story

At the time, we booked his flights and decided that he would go by himself, leaving me and our son home in the DR for the 5 days since we had traveled so much in those past six months. 

He was scheduled to fly out on a Monday early afternoon right at the point in history when things were going crazy with the ever-increasing travel bans around the globe due to Covid-19. We were keeping our eye on flights, hoping for a price drop allowing us to re-book the itinerary so that all three of us could go after all. Our worry at the time was that travel restrictions might find Miguel stranded stateside indefinitely, myself and our son still in the DR. Sunday evening, we were able to do exactly that and quickly put last minute preparations into place for our house, etc. for the week we were planning to be gone. 

Monday was travel day, heading out of the DR shortly after 1 PM for a flight with a 4 hr. layover in Chicago. When we arrived in Chicago, it took a bit of time navigating immigration and switching terminals, then finding a place to settle in for the next few hours, before we were finally able to get into our emails. Only to find, an email with news of Miguel's interview for the following day was canceled... The email was sent as we were boarding our plan out of the DR. By this time, the immigration office was closed, so we contacted a few people, asking for prayer for a solution. 

Tuesday at 8 AM, I called the number of the person who emailed the cancellation notice, only reaching voicemail. The evening before, we remembered the ISO who had emailed us back in January asking for date ranges of when Miguel would be available to travel up for the interview, so, I called his number next and, miracle #1, he picked up immediately! I briefly explained our case and without asking any questions, he said he would check into it and give us a call back. Two hours later, an hour before we had to take off to make Miguel's appointment on time, we still hadn't received his call, so I tried calling him again - no answer. Half an hour later, repeat call - again no answer. With not much time left before needing to decide whether or not to just make the 2 hour trip to the USCIS field office, I tried calling the person who emailed the cancellation notice again, and miracle #2, she picked up this time! She told me they were expecting us and she thought the ISO had confirmed with us to come at our normally scheduled time. So, off we rushed with a friend, L, who drove us down!

We amazingly arrived 15 minutes early. Heading through security, we were informed only Miguel could come through as the applicant due to strict protocol because of the virus, so our friend and I headed back out to the parking lot. As we were exiting, L mentions he should give Miguel his number in case he needed to call for any reason and hurried back inside to give him his card. Then, knowing the interview would likely take about 2 hours, we headed off to a fast food place with Wi-Fi so I could try to connect to get some work done. Maybe 10 minutes after parking, L gets a call from Miguel saying they wanted me to attend the interview after all, so we quickly headed back. 

In the meantime, Miguel had gotten through security and to the front desk, only to be told interviews were canceled. He explained our case again and a supervisor was called over, who, thankfully, confirmed they were expecting us, then asked where his wife is. He said I was outside and he could go get me, but by that time, we had already headed out in search of Wi-Fi - unbeknownst to us, leaving Miguel without a phone (he left it in the car since he would have had to turn it off inside the building anyway). Miracle #3, a man who also had his interview canceled was outside on his phone, which he graciously allowed Miguel to use to, miracle #4, call L using that card with his phone number on it. 

We pulled back up to the building and Miguel and I went back through security without a problem. A few minutes later, after confirming his details, our interviewing officer, waiting on us in the lobby, led us back to his office. After formal, mandatory introductions, he sat down and informed us that this interview was to review both our case of filing to remove conditions on Miguel's residency form I-751 AND his case of filing for naturalization form N-400.

We had never been informed that we would be interviewed regarding I-751. It sometimes happens but we were never sent any notice of such an interview. Interviewing for the residency case, to approve that before being able to interview for citizenship, is why they wanted me there. Miracle #5, if we had stuck with our original plans of myself and our son staying in the DR for this trip, we, literally, have no idea what would have happened had Miguel shown up to that interview alone. Likely, it all would have been rescheduled for a later date. 

The interview went extremely well, with zero complications, and was done within an hour. The officer asked about our travel plans, and when we informed him we planned to fly back to the DR within a week, miracle #6, he said he would request a provision to complete the swearing-in by oath to finalize Miguel's citizenship that same day. Usually this is done by the courts once a month or so with however many applicants were approved that month, depending on the state and case loads; but the courts were already shut down by then due to the virus. We had thought the swearing-in might require another trip later in the year and were grateful to avoid that. Forty-five minutes later after lots of signing, paperwork shuffling, and waiting on the electronic system, we were told Miguel was formally approved for both cases and to wait in the lobby to be called in for his swearing-in. 

Valuable tidbit: For the month leading up to this appointment, we had made it a point to study the N-400 form inside and out, along with the 100 questions USCIS posts on their website as part of the civics and history exam, and the practice sentences for the English reading and writing comprehension exam. Everything in the interview was connected to these 3 facets. The English comprehension part existed of the officer saying one simple sentence and Miguel answering it and then writing down the answer.  The 100 questions can be found at: https://my.uscis.gov/prep/test/civics. Miguel got the first 6 right so the officer didn't need to ask him the 4 remaining of the 10 preassigned questions. 

We waited for about twenty more minutes until an upper-level administration person with the authority to perform the oath confirmation arrived. She had us fill out the sheet of paper that comes with the Oath Ceremony Scheduling notice that affirms no pertinent information has changed. Then, with another personnel member as a witness, she led Miguel through the formal swearing-in and presented him with his certificate of naturalization. On March, 17, 2020, after countless prayers, mind-boggling grace and favor, and a day that was nothing less than miraculous, Miguel became a dual citizen!

The very next day, all USCIS offices suspended their services temporarily due to the virus. Our lawyer is pretty sure Miguel was the last American citizen to be sworn in, at least in our residency state, before nationwide quarantine took effect.

It was worth it all.

** please keep in mind that this article documents our particular case process, and any information contained here is not guaranteed to be applicable to your case **