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I have two foreign national friends...One from the Dominican Republic told me that she is not worried about the cost of applying for US citizenship. She told me her aunt became a US citizen after hiring a lawyer and the fee for citizenship (excluding the lawyer) was only 40$ Is that even possible? Or is that story simply wrong? She is married to a US citizen and will apply for naturalization after she is here only 3 years. How much is she going to realistically expect to cough up for naturalization?
My other foreign national friend has been in this country for 30+ years since he was a baby. He never got his US citizenship. He told me it was too expensive since he supports a wife and three kids on a modest salary. So I looked up on the gov website and it did say that the total fees for applying for US citizenship was 680 dollars! Is there anyway he can get around this high fee if he has been here just about his entire life?
So you can see why I want to know this...is there a way around the 680 USD that is said to be required to become a US citizen? Or can a lawyer or knowing someone get some strings pulled for you?
I have two foreign national friends...One from the Dominican Republic told me that she is not worried about the cost of applying for US citizenship. She told me her aunt became a US citizen after hiring a lawyer and the fee for citizenship (excluding the lawyer) was only 40$ Is that even possible? Or is that story simply wrong? She is married to a US citizen and will apply for naturalization after she is here only 3 years. How much is she going to realistically expect to cough up for naturalization?
My other foreign national friend has been in this country for 30+ years since he was a baby. He never got his US citizenship. He told me it was too expensive since he supports a wife and three kids on a modest salary. So I looked up on the gov website and it did say that the total fees for applying for US citizenship was 680 dollars! Is there anyway he can get around this high fee if he has been here just about his entire life?
So you can see why I want to know this...is there a way around the 680 USD that is said to be required to become a US citizen? Or can a lawyer or knowing someone get some strings pulled for you?
She is wrong.
I have a family member who works for a lawyer who specifically deals with Immigration Law and a friend who is an Immigration Lawyer. Trust me their clients pay a nice fat fee to the lawyer and all the USCIS fees as well. There is no way around it and as far as I am aware there are no programs that help with such fees.
I am extremely lucky to have someone in these areas to help me with my husbands paperwork and not pay a fee to a lawyer but I did/do have to cough up everything else required.
A person living in US for 30 years cannot afford 680 dollars?
Quote:
Originally Posted by lentzr
I have two foreign national friends...One from the Dominican Republic told me that she is not worried about the cost of applying for US citizenship. She told me her aunt became a US citizen after hiring a lawyer and the fee for citizenship (excluding the lawyer) was only 40$ Is that even possible? Or is that story simply wrong? She is married to a US citizen and will apply for naturalization after she is here only 3 years. How much is she going to realistically expect to cough up for naturalization?
My other foreign national friend has been in this country for 30+ years since he was a baby. He never got his US citizenship. He told me it was too expensive since he supports a wife and three kids on a modest salary. So I looked up on the gov website and it did say that the total fees for applying for US citizenship was 680 dollars! Is there anyway he can get around this high fee if he has been here just about his entire life?
So you can see why I want to know this...is there a way around the 680 USD that is said to be required to become a US citizen? Or can a lawyer or knowing someone get some strings pulled for you?
So you can see why I want to know this...is there a way around the 680 USD that is said to be required to become a US citizen? Or can a lawyer or knowing someone get some strings pulled for you?
Of course not. The stated fees are the stated fees. You can confirm them by going to the USCIS website which is linked in the first "sticky" on this forum page.
Just went through it last year, $680 is correct.
Plus taking time off work to go to the fingerprint, then interview, then oath appointments, driving possibly several hours etc.
Just went through it last year, $680 is correct.
Plus taking time off work to go to the fingerprint, then interview, then oath appointments, driving possibly several hours etc.
After you sent in the app and other paperwork, how long did the rest of the process take?
Just went through it last year, $680 is correct.
Plus taking time off work to go to the fingerprint, then interview, then oath appointments, driving possibly several hours etc.
Thats a nightmare and putting me off it for now too. 4.5hr drive to the office too I have.
I got lucky- my office is Fort Smith, Arkansas, a small office. 3.5 weeks from sending off the docs to fingerprints, 7 weeks from there to the interview date, and 9 days from interview to oath, so total from sending off docs to being a citizen just under 3 months.
This isn't a centralised process, and your waiting times depend a lot on where you file. I know some people in NY who files the same month as me and only got the interview 4 months after I became a citizen, and oath several months later- their process took most of a year!
I got lucky- my office is Fort Smith, Arkansas, a small office. 3.5 weeks from sending off the docs to fingerprints, 7 weeks from there to the interview date, and 9 days from interview to oath, so total from sending off docs to being a citizen just under 3 months.
This isn't a centralised process, and your waiting times depend a lot on where you file. I know some people in NY who files the same month as me and only got the interview 4 months after I became a citizen, and oath several months later- their process took most of a year!
I've been here long enough now that it was either pay to get citizenship or pay to renew my green card. I don't know why I didn't do it before now, but after reading Brian's post...........yeah..........it was because getting here in the first place was a long, drawn out, expensive, frustrating, time consuming process and I hated the thought of dealing with those folks again.
We're moving to Wyoming in a week so I filed it with the address where we'll be living out there. Hopefully it will go as smoothly as yours did. We had to deal with Memphis TN last time and it was a nightmare.
I don't dare ever look in the illegal immigration section of this forum. It would tick me off too much.
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