The importance of one's passport for naturalization

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

Filing one's application for US naturalization involved a lot of time and money. Many applicants hire lawyers to file their application and the lawyers charge their fee in dollars of course at roughly US $500.

But my papers starting from the fiancée visa application was filed by my husband Ronnie Dennis which is allowed under U.S. law. But this should be cleared with the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, formerly the INS).

The papers filed in my behalf consists of the affidavit of support, certified medical examination and other documentation as outlined in the attached instruction sheet.

There are more documents asked for by agencies and filed by the applicant. Today I am going to talk about the necessity of having a U.S. passport which facilitates the naturalization process.

My application was filed when I was already a permanent green cardholder. In many cases green card holders would wait for their card to expire in 10 years before applying for naturalization.

But in my case, Dennis and I decided that I don’t have to wait for the expiration since I travel a lot. It is a given fact that U.S. citizens are spared the inconvenience of waiting in line and being interrogated. It was different when II applied for a French visa prior to my visit to France.

When asked whether or not there is a consulate of France in the Philippines and since I held a Philippine passport, I merely answered that there is a diplomatic relationship between France and the Philippines.

But I told the guy that my French visa was issued by their consulate in Georgia, U.S. I didn't want to remember the rest of the inquiry and the interviewer whose command of English leave much to be desired.

I don't know if the woman interviewer was connected to an airline. To sum it up, a passport's value is immeasurable when it comes to applying for naturalization or travel.

Tomorrow we would discuss about the documents needed for applying for US naturalization. Thank you for your suppport.