Do I need to mention years lived (2013-2018) in the US in my citizenship application?

[montyspons]

Hello All,

This post is regarding the following question:
"Do you currently, or have you ever held immigration or citizenship status in a country or territory other than Canada (this includes your country of birth)?"

I'm not sure how to answer this, so I wanted to get everyone's thoughts on it. I have lived in the US as a student between the years of 2013 and 2015 and then as a worker (on OPT - similar to PGWP in Canada) from 2015 to 2018. I'm confused as to whether I need to mention this in my citizenship application?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

 

[Seym]

Well, of course you do. Have you EVER is crystal clear.
Put it as 2 separate entries, one for the student status, one for worker.

 

[sodapop123]

Hello All,

This post is regarding the following question:
"Do you currently, or have you ever held immigration or citizenship status in a country or territory other than Canada (this includes your country of birth)?"

I'm not sure how to answer this, so I wanted to get everyone's thoughts on it. I have lived in the US as a student between the years of 2013 and 2015 and then as a worker (on OPT - similar to PGWP in Canada) from 2015 to 2018. I'm confused as to whether I need to mention this in my citizenship application?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

I just got my citizenship recently and spent some time in the USA.


Yes, you must mention it, as recommended by @Seym above.
I added two separate entries for 'student status' (time spent in the USA on F1) and 'worker status' (time spent in the USA on H!b)


One thing though,
The time you were working on OPT is still considered as 'student status' from the US immigration perspective i.e. it's part of your F1 visa stay. So I included this time under the 'student' entry.
But my OPT back in the day was 1 year, not 3, until i got my h1 work permit and moved to 'worker status'.

 

[montyspons]

Thanks for all your responses. I have one more question. I made a few trips to South-East Asia in the late 2000s as a visitor. I don't have the dates memorized and I'm trying to find my old passport to help figure out what those dates were. Do I have to list them as well? The trips were for the purposes of tourism.

 

[sodapop123]

Thanks for all your responses. I have one more question. I made a few trips to South-East Asia in the late 2000s as a visitor. I don't have the dates memorized and I'm trying to find my old passport to help figure out what those dates were. Do I have to list them as well? The trips were for the purposes of tourism.

I believe the general consensus on this forum is that : Tourist/Visitor visas or time spent on that status in any other country, does not need to be included in the answer to the question "have you ever held immigration or citizenship status in a country....."

I did not add any of my holidays/vacation visits to other countries for this particular question. I only included those where i had an "immigration status"

I've heard some folks do choose to include their dates/entries for such visits. It's your personal choice, but you'll find other threads here discussing the same, if you want more info for your decision.

 

[anash]

I just got my citizenship recently and spent some time in the USA.


Yes, you must mention it, as recommended by @Seym above.
I added two separate entries for 'student status' (time spent in the USA on F1) and 'worker status' (time spent in the USA on H!b)


One thing though,
The time you were working on OPT is still considered as 'student status' from the US immigration perspective i.e. it's part of your F1 visa stay. So I included this time under the 'student' entry.
But my OPT back in the day was 1 year, not 3, until i got my h1 work permit and moved to 'worker status'.

@sodapop123 @montyspons Regarding "date obtained" and "end date", did you use the dates that are on F1 Visa sticker or your entry date to USA which is in i94?

 

[sodapop123]

@sodapop123 @montyspons Regarding "date obtained" and "end date", did you use the dates that are on F1 Visa sticker or your entry date to USA which is in i94?

I used the date i landed in the USA as 'date obtained', so i guess that would be the I94 date (I just looked at old flight tickets to find my entry day and used that).

End date in my case was the day my OPT ended & H1B work permit kicked in (those were the exact same dates). So until that day, i was on F1/Student status in the USA.

This thread has some more detail if you need : https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-i...citizenship-application.875556/#post-11109640