Neillc37

So I did the naturalization test a few days ago. 'Congratulations I am recommending you for citizenship' said the guy. He leads me out and congratulates me again. I sit down for a long wait to take the oath.
After an hour that same USCIS guy phones me up on my cellphone. 'In reviewing your application I see you had two green cards'. Yes that's right I say. I gave up my GC and went back onto my original H1-B then reapplied to get the green card again. I did this so my wife who was on H1-B could stay in the US without working since the H1-B gives your wife rights but the GC doesn't. 'Ah, so you did it to get status for your wife. They entered the old visa number. I have pulled you from the oath ceremony. I need to speak to legal to see if you are eligible to be a citizen. Wait till we send you a letter'. I am unsure who 'they' are or even if there was an old visa number.
Anyone had something like this happen to them? Did you have to wait long? We waited for months to get the interview.

S Folinsky

These days if there is ANY question, CIS hesitates.

If I was still in practice, I would have intervened as soon as possible and gone "up channels."

One of the functions of an attorney is to be a type of insurance policy when the unexpected happens.

Neillc37

So my companies legal thinks what I did was legal. They tell me to wait for the letter. You seem to be suggesting I should get legal council right?

Pulaski

Please excuse me for taking your thread off at a slight tangent with a question, but your employer had previously applied for a green card for you (on an H-1), but not your wife (on an H-2)?

Neillc37

I came to the US many years before my GF. She came to work here as well on H1-B. I was in GC processing when we got married. Too late for my new wife to join GC processing. I then knocked her up. I wanted her to have the option of not working after the baby was born.
My original H1-B was still active. So the company I worked for sent us up to Canada. We gave up the green card and went back onto the H1-B. Immigration argued for two hours at the border if this was legal before accepting it was and letting us in. We applied for a GC again but this time with my wife as part of it. I have had the second GC for 7 years.

sir_eccles

Probably would be a good idea to seek a legal consult. If I may make a suggestion, do not go to the company lawyer. From his point of view he is primarily the company's lawyer and from their perspective their actions may indeed have all been above board. Your perspective may be different.

S Folinsky

The way you wrote this suggests that you married before the first LPR was granted but then you state that it was "too late" to include her. Absent more facts, those two statements are inconsistent.

To others following this thread, what OP did was a common strategy back in the day. Lets say you had two software engineers from India working for a company -- one already has his green card, the other was here on an H-1. They go back to India to get married -- the LPR could not bring his new wife back with him due to visa backlogs. In contrast, the H-1 [who was a co-worker with the LPR] could bring his new wife here immediately as an H-4. Back in the day before current H-1b lottery, the strategy was for the LPR to abandon LPR status in order to obtain H-1 status and his new wife H-4. Upon returning as an H-1, the immigrant process would begin anew.

With the developments of the various processing and availability backlogs, the became to be NOT a good strategy.

General comment: government agencies tend NOT to have institutional memory. It causes strange things at time and OP appears to be a victim of that.

Neillc37

I don't understand the details. I was told my GC application had processed too far along for her to piggyback on it. She hadn't started to apply for a GC yet. This is from memory and it was in 2003 and I am getting a bit old!

Neillc37

I contacted a lawyer to see what it will cost. They want $250 just to tell me if I should do something or not. Doesn't seem money well spent. I will wait till I get the letter or my patience runs out.
Thanks for the ideas.

Marocco

Out of curiosity, what happens if the OP's naturalization application is denied? Does he stay a LPR, or would the denial result in removal proceedings?

md95065

I guess that would ultimately depend on the precise reason why it was denied (and whether or not that reason was something that could be fixed simply by filing more paperwork).

That's when you want to have your own attorney (although I tend to agree with the OP that there isn't much point in spending money on a legal consultation until they find out if there really is a problem at all and, if so, exactly what it is).

S Folinsky

As a general rule, the "too late" is when the "principal" immigrant obtains LPR [aka GC status]. Lets put it this way, when I was in practice, I had a case where client was going abroad for his immigrant visa interview and during the interview prep, he asked about his fiance who was going to marry after coming back with his green card. I was able to go "don't do that! Get married before you leave." We then started new wife's case after hubby returned with visa in hand as a "follow to join."

I've seen cases where the applicant had been granted the immigrant visa and got married before boarding the plane to the US. An FTJ visa was later granted with no problem.

ian-mstm

My understanding is that if naturalization is denied, then the applicant would remain a PR... unless it's subsequently determined that he shouldn't have received PR status in the first place.

Ian

sir_eccles

I think if naturalization is denied for falsly claiming to be a US citizen, that can potentially result in being deported. Or at least make things pretty tricky to resolve.

crg

Did both green cards have the same alien file number? Perhaps CIS needs to review another file before proceeding.