r/N400citizenship

Good afternoon,

First I’d like to thank you for taking your time to address my question. And if you refer me to a paid legal advice I also would have no problem with it. I’m hoping maybe someone had a similar situation as I did and maybe able to help me.

I’m a 30M Filipino, California resident, and have been in the US for 20 years. I’m a registered nurse in the ER as my occupation and I’m married to a citizen, but I’m going through the traditional way of citizenship.

My green card has expired so I applied for naturalization. During the interview I disclosed a criminal arrest when I was 16 years old and completed 1 year probation and now the records were sealed/ expunged.

Meat and bones: I did not pass approval at the interview because of need of evidence request.
I’m submitting evidence with claims of “ No records.”
I have a letter form the custodian that my name search resulted in ,” no case file.”
Is this enough evidence to submit ?

I described the situation as best as I can during the interview but here is a summary just incase.
Sorry if I’m over sharing but I’m trying to be as transparent as possible for the sake of good data and hopefully some sound counsel.

Situation: I was in high school and my friend had a medical marijuana card. A handful of the high schoolers knew we always had marijuana on us and yes, we would sell it to them. On 4/20, it’s considered a holiday for those that smoke marijuana, and there was a classmate of us that brought a joint from us, that we received form a medical marijuana dispensary, and later on he would have an adverse reaction while attending to watch a high school football game. Later it was revealed he also had pcp, was intoxicated, and had other drugs in his system. ( just fyi, we also consumed the same products as the one we gave him and we were ok.)
The result of that was they obviously disclosed they bought the joint from us and they thought we had “ laced it.” Am meaning they thought we had tampered with the joint and added other drugs, which was happened occasionally in that community (Obviously we didn’t and the class mate was eventually ok.)

1. The next day my buddy and I got pulled into the principals office and a police officer did a wonderful job getting me to confess ( I was a terrible criminal.”
2. Our parents had to pick us up at the station , and I don’t recall if they had to pay a bond.”
3. Court wise, the attorney was able to bring it down to case of possession of 1 marijuana joint.
4. I did community service and 1 year of
   Probation was completed without incident.

Afterwards they said they sealed the records. Since they I haven’t interacted with that situation except for when I tell the story of how I was such a knuckle head when I was younger ( I still am but in different forms 🤣)

My efforts:

1. I went to my local courthouse and they referred me to the Juvenile court because they didn’t have any record from me.
2. The juvenile court told me that they didn’t have any records under my name. But they advised that maybe i can get my records unsealed if i really needed it. They then referred me to the probation department hoping they had records of me and also referred me to the “ custodian.”
3. I called the probation office that handled my case and told them my situation. The head of the probation was dumbfounded and asked, “ why would you want your records unsealed?.” And proceeded to tell me that if those records were sealed or expunged and after years have passed they sometimes physically destroy the files or they delete it from their records.

OP input: I think my mistake was I didn’t get any form of paper work form any of these interactions prior to going to my interview.

At the interview:

1. I passed the test for language and history
2. But was not recommended for approval to due to need for evidence regarding my criminal incident.
3. Instructed to complete N-14, request for additional information, documents, or form. The interview said I just need to submit some paperwork related to the incident or if no records, a paperwork that shows that.

Post interview:

1. I did my due diligence this time and asked any leads I could find. Nothing came up.
2. I was able to visit the superior court and obtain a legal document, a name search result, from the custodian of record for the superior court of California.
3. The search concluded, “ NO CASE FILE”

My question and big worry

1. On the custodian letter there is a section that states .” I have conducted a thorough search of all Court Records, excluding those that are sealed pursuant to California Rules of Court, Rule 2. 550, or are confidential by law.”
2. I’m worried that because it says it’s excluded sealed records they may want copies somehow ? I’m not exactly sure
3. Should I submit with this paper only or should I try to continue to inquire about filing a request for the sealed copy ?

Thank you for your time!
Please let me know if I can answer any question

Or

If I should list the documents I have ( sensitive info covered) if it’s going to help in anyway.

Thank you!!

Hey guys. Need a little bit of advice - I had my combo interview start of the month. In the interview, the officer when ending said he can’t make a decision because he needs supervisor signature for the I751 but I passed the test and everything. He also mentioned that the supervisor might ask for more documentation for my 2025 Tax Return as I owe money on it. I received an RFE a few days after asking for Tax Agreement or Repayment plan and the current status of the repayment plan. My issue is that I have filed the Tax Return and have been waiting on the approval to go through so those things are still pending IRS approval. What would be the recommended path as I have a few weeks to submit the document? My CPA said that I should’ve gotten the approval for filing by this past week but don’t see it in my IRS portal.

Has anyone recently done or been scheduled for an Oath Ceremony in Los Angeles? Can you please share timeline.

I Passed N400 interview on March 27 and got the message that my application is under review and I’ve been placed in line to be scheduled. Nothing since then. I have upcoming travel and waiting for this ceremony is so stressful.

Hi folks, I got a random email that says "We have taken an action on your case" after 7 months of application date. Last actual action on the case was Biometrics Reuse notice that was about 6 months ago. But when I login nothing seems changed and status is the same "USCIS is still working on your case". What could this mean?

Hi guys I just wanted to give an update on how my combo interview went this morning in Sacramento FO.
Applied for I-751 2023, and N400 Oct 2024 under 3year married to USC spouse.

Got to Sac at 6:15 for my 7;30 AM interview, found parking and walked to get in line at 6;40am. We were #2 in line.
They opened the doors about 15 mins before 7:30, Cleared through security, and went up to floor 2. Checked into my interview with my spouse, and then got sent to the waiting area at 7:25am. By this time many more people were walking in, some families with kiddos. Got called back by my agent within 20 mins of waiting, so past my appointment time.
My agent was very nice and lovely, which instantly made me feel a little less nervous about the whole interview. She was the youngest agent I’ve encountered throughout my journey, which was refreshing.

I-751:
She started with the I-751 interview, which I was brought many documents and evidence including our son’s birth certificate. She said that because we have a 15 month old son together, she didn’t really need to ask us about our relationship-which was nice but we had also prepped a lot to answer any questions lol! She did just ask my spouse about his job but that’s all. She reviewed my application and asked a few questions about the documents I provided including travel dates. She updated one travel date that I forgot to include in my initial N-400 application. She asked if I had any other supporting evidence and I handed her over my folders of documents (I did upload most of them to my USCIS account last night to make it easier for the agent).

N400:
We moved on to my N400, she told my spouse that he could stay in the room just had to be silent and couldn’t help at all during the tests- he agreed.
We did the civics test first, she asked 6/6 questions and said I passed (will include the questions at the end). We then did the reading and writing, she said I passed and congratulated me about passing the tests. We then reviewed all my information again from my application like address, names used, and added my son to the application. We confirmed everything and said we were all finished with both interviews. She handed me the paper stating a decisions cannot be made yet, but that I passed the tests, until a few more checks go through (I assume it’s the new fingerprints that need to be ran from the “new” law that passed a few weeks ago). She escorted us out and thanked us. Overall a very smooth process thanks to the agent, I was extremely extremely anxious for no reason.

Civics Q’s:
-where is the Statue of Liberty?
-why is there 50 stars on the flag?
-name one way the US was involved in 1800’s?
-what happened at the constitution convention?
**cant remember the others!

A little timeline on my case:
-DACA recipient for many years.
-together with USC spouse for 11 years, married for 6, 1 child together.
-applied for GC 2020, applied for ROC 2023, applied for N400 2024, reached out to House Rep Feb 2026, got interview notice 2 months later in late April 2026, interview early May 2026.

Now I wait for my oath ceremony!!

Best of luck to everyone in this sub, peace be with us all.

Hi, I got my marriage based green card in December 2023. After receiving a green card, in January 2024. I moved to my home country to wrap up things there and also to see if I get a job transfer with my employer which I fortunately got and I came back to the US in July 2024. However my stay outside the US was in total 192 days. I have been in the US since then and my other trips involved a couple of trips of one month to my home country and around 2 weeks trip to Europe for work. Shall I file N400 in September 2026 or the safer side wait till April 27?

Thanks a lot in advance for the help.

Hello everyone,
I have pending N400 case and recently I have received an email from USCIS saying “action has been taken on my case” (but no update on myUSCIS account).
When I contacted Emma today, Emma agent said :

“it was a discretionary update to advise that your case is still under review “
And end the chat.
What does this mean?

Background:
6 years on GC. Filed last September, biometric reused, and waiting for the interview date.
TIA

Do I upload Tax transcripts if applying for naturalization on the basis of General Provision ( 5 yrs residence)?

My husband had his oath ceremony cancelled back on December 2025 we are from one of the countries on the travel ban list . April 13th 2026 he was scheduled for the oath ceremony . that
took place on may 6 2026 . He finally has his citizenship all the glory be to God . This platform helped us a lot during the time of stress and uncertainty.
So hopefully this can give someone hope and peace of mind. Hang in there it will all be alright.

Just wanted to share for anyone that’s waiting on their convo interview in NJ. Our FO is cranbury and I applied for my N-400 in March 2026 pending an I-751 from December 2024… had to redo my biometrics in April and just got a date for an interview June 11th… I’ve spoken to some people waiting and wanted to give a little hope at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully things start moving fast for everyone that’s also been waiting, we are certainly ready to complete this era of our lives and feel safer in this environment.

[supprimé]

I applied in mid October 2025 and already had a permanent green card. Biometrics were re-used. Going by the official timeline (currently 7.5 months) I should be all set by end of May. But I didn't get invited to my interview yet. Looking at this subreddit, it seems like several people got their interviews around December 2025 cancelled and rescheduled for August/September 2026. Given that I was wondering whether I should expect an even later date?

We're looking to spend ~3 months of this summer in Europe and I'm now wondering whether I should rather go early (so that I'll hopefully be back by the time I get the interview if it will likely drag out to September+) or rather go late (if I can expect the interview to occur within the official timeline (e.g. by around end of month)). As we have a little toddler I'd really like to avoid having to fly back and forth in the middle of the trip just to attend the interview or having to cut the trip short.

Would appreciate any thoughts and recent experiences. Thank you!

Applied in Jan, biometrics done in Feb, and still waiting for interview scheduling. Curious to know others’ timelines and updates.