Delay in N-400 Filing Procedure

From Rosemarie Fan, DHS community liaison in San Francisco:

A few weeks ago, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a notice in the Federal Register announcing we would change the filing address for citizenship applications (N-400s) beginning on October 14.  However, the technology for this switch is not quite ready.  Until further notice, we ask our stakeholders and customers to use the same filing addresses they’ve used before, and those addresses are listed on our website.  The upshot of this: N-400 filing addresses are not changing right now!  I pasted the Update below for your convenience. It is already posted on our website.  If someone does by chance submit their application to the direct mail lockbox, our understanding is that USCIS will forward those applications via overnight mail, at no cost to the customer, to the appropriate Service Center for processing.

Until further notice, non-military residents of California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, Guam and CNMI will continue to mail their applications to:

California Service Center
P.O. Box 10400
Laguna Niguel, CA  92607-1040

Anyone applying under the special provisions for U.S. military, regardless of where they live, should send their applications to:

Nebraska Service Center
P.O. Box 87426
Lincoln, NE  68501-7426

Ultimately, we will transition to a “direct mail” system like we have for many other applications because it centralizes up-front processing and improves consistency and efficiency.  When that happens we will issue a news release and let you know.

Rosemarie

USCIS Delays Implementation of Direct Mail Program For N-400, Application for Naturalization

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today it will delay implementation of the Direct Mail Program for the N-400, Application for Naturalization.  A Federal Register notice is scheduled to be published Oct. 10, 2008, announcing this delay.

Last month, USCIS published a notice in the Federal Register, which would have changed the filing address for N-400s from USCIS Service Centers to two lockbox facilities in Arizona and Texas.  Implementation of this new process would have begun Oct. 14, 2008.

USCIS is delaying implementation of this new filing procedure to conduct additional tests of the technology involved.   Accordingly, the Sept. 12 notice will be withdrawn Oct. 10, 2008.

Applicants for naturalization should continue to submit their Form N-400 according to the instructions on the form until further notice.   In almost all cases, this means applicants will submit their N-400s to a USCIS Service Center.

For additional information, visit us on the Web at www.uscis.gov or call the National Customer Service Center at (800) 375-5283.

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