Speaker: The Naturalization process may be lengthy and somewhat expensive, but overall it's fairly simple. However, many applicants make some common yet preventable mistakes. They can be expensive mistakes or they can be mistakes that can slow down the process. Even worse, some mistakes to ruin someone's chances of ever becoming a U.S. Citizen. Meredith Brown is an Immigration Defense Attorney who some applicants call on after they have made mistakes and they all almost always have to pay a price for their errors.
Meredith Brown: I have seen immigrants lose up worth of $20000. Normally it's roughly around $5000 to $10000.
Speaker: She says that people who complete their own application maybe unaware of the ramifications of fudging a little here or there.
Meredith Brown: It's very important to tell the truth and I think sometimes people may be glossed over at some points, for example, lying about an old arrest or not consulting with an Attorney about a criminal history. That's very important because at the time of the interview, the Immigration Officer will be asking questions under Penalty or Purgery and so one can be creating another crime in essence if they don't answer the questions correctly or if they don't completely fill out the forms.
Speaker: In fact, the incorrect or missing information on the application could be trivial, so trivial that it's own, it could have no bearing on someone's eligibility, but Government officials often conclude that even a little white light is enough to disqualify some applicants based on one of the other requirements, that they be of good moral character.
Meredith Brown: Another problem can be, for example, if a person has lived outside the United States for more than six months and they neglect to disclose that fact or they underexaggerate it and it turns out that they have abandoned their legal permanent residency, it does go back and actually get a person into removal proceedings before an Immigration Judge.
Speaker: Brown says, you should grab the work of the applicants before they make potentially devastating or expensive mistakes. She cautions people to make sure that the lawyer or agency they turn to for legal advice actually knows Naturalization Law. Some have the mistaken belief that in the United States, a notary public knows the law.
Meredith Brown: That's a big deal with the Latino Community because in Latin America, a Notary public is somebody who is essentially a lawyer. It involves a process, where a person has go to the University. Then you have to take exams and it's a very serious title, whereas here in United sates, Notary publics are very important. They basically seal documents, they make sure that one's identity is more or less correct when one is signing an important document, but that's basically it.
Speaker: There are even more potential problems, Brown says, when people reply online. When applicants don't get an immediate response from a slow computer, they often make the mistake of sending in two applications, even worse, it's easy to send in two credit card payments, without even knowing it or suppose they carelessly select something by mistake.
Meredith Brown: They can inadvertently on something that really doesn't apply to them. That's calling attention to their case, then also the opposite, they cannot fill it out correctly and then at the time of the interview, run into problems with the adjudicating officer. So it's really best to do things in writing. I prefer to do things with a hard copy.
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