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5 year green card anniversary is in late June.
Filed N400 in April per 90 day early filing.
A week later received notice that I could skip biometrics as the ones from my green card were still valid.
A week after that got an interview notice.
Had N400 interview this week (late May) and the IO sent me down the hallway for a same day oath ceremony.
I asked USCIS officer at ceremony check-in if it was ok to be getting naturalized a month ahead of the green card’s 5 year anniversary. He said “don’t worry about, give me your green card you won’t need it anymore”
There was no cell service inside the Field Office so I wasn't googling anything in the hour I waited for the ceremony. I took them at their word that it was no problem and I assumed it was all part of the 90 day early eligibility deal and I was just lucky as things had moved very fast.
Then I get home and hit Google and start reading about the 5 years being non negotiable as it's in the naturalization law wording. Hindsight being 20/20 I wish I'd asked them if I could come back in a month and take the oath, but I didn't. So, here I am naturalized, with a certificate saying I "complied in all respects with all of the applicable provisions of the naturalization laws of the United States". Though one can argue I didn't because 4 weeks short of 5 years is not meeting the 5 year provision.
I'm assuming it's not as simple as calling them up and saying 'hey, how about you give me my green card back for a month and then we have a do over?" Giving back the certificate would be essentially denaturalizing (which would imply I'm a citizen in the first place in which case, just leave me be... we're talking 4 weeks and by the time the wheels of government moved I'd likely be eligible) which isn't quick or easy. Unless they could somehow claim it as meaningless and invalid... but an oath was involved. That's pretty binding under the law.
Friends and family are saying 'forget it, move on, you've got your citizenship... the federal government isn't going to go back and figure out they screwed up'
The internets are saying 'you'll have your citizenship stripped... you're up the creek... you're an idiot for taking the oath early'.
I wish I was blissfully ignorant of the small print and was just happy to have got my citizenship. But I can't unlearn what I've learned.
Question is. What to do? Contact USCIS and open a can of worms or not? Technically they can't revoke citizenship, only a federal court can. Is this really the kind of thing a federal court is going to strip citizenship over years from now? Or do they have bigger more high profile cases to worry about? Seems like it would be a waste of time and money for all parties to likely net out that the USCIS made a clerical error (in federal court the burden of proof would be on the government to show I was knowingly fraudulent... when I wasn't and I clearly stated in my application and on my actual green card that I surrendered that it was issued in June 2019).
Filed N400 in April per 90 day early filing.
A week later received notice that I could skip biometrics as the ones from my green card were still valid.
A week after that got an interview notice.
Had N400 interview this week (late May) and the IO sent me down the hallway for a same day oath ceremony.
I asked USCIS officer at ceremony check-in if it was ok to be getting naturalized a month ahead of the green card’s 5 year anniversary. He said “don’t worry about, give me your green card you won’t need it anymore”
There was no cell service inside the Field Office so I wasn't googling anything in the hour I waited for the ceremony. I took them at their word that it was no problem and I assumed it was all part of the 90 day early eligibility deal and I was just lucky as things had moved very fast.
Then I get home and hit Google and start reading about the 5 years being non negotiable as it's in the naturalization law wording. Hindsight being 20/20 I wish I'd asked them if I could come back in a month and take the oath, but I didn't. So, here I am naturalized, with a certificate saying I "complied in all respects with all of the applicable provisions of the naturalization laws of the United States". Though one can argue I didn't because 4 weeks short of 5 years is not meeting the 5 year provision.
I'm assuming it's not as simple as calling them up and saying 'hey, how about you give me my green card back for a month and then we have a do over?" Giving back the certificate would be essentially denaturalizing (which would imply I'm a citizen in the first place in which case, just leave me be... we're talking 4 weeks and by the time the wheels of government moved I'd likely be eligible) which isn't quick or easy. Unless they could somehow claim it as meaningless and invalid... but an oath was involved. That's pretty binding under the law.
Friends and family are saying 'forget it, move on, you've got your citizenship... the federal government isn't going to go back and figure out they screwed up'
The internets are saying 'you'll have your citizenship stripped... you're up the creek... you're an idiot for taking the oath early'.
I wish I was blissfully ignorant of the small print and was just happy to have got my citizenship. But I can't unlearn what I've learned.
Question is. What to do? Contact USCIS and open a can of worms or not? Technically they can't revoke citizenship, only a federal court can. Is this really the kind of thing a federal court is going to strip citizenship over years from now? Or do they have bigger more high profile cases to worry about? Seems like it would be a waste of time and money for all parties to likely net out that the USCIS made a clerical error (in federal court the burden of proof would be on the government to show I was knowingly fraudulent... when I wasn't and I clearly stated in my application and on my actual green card that I surrendered that it was issued in June 2019).
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