Some permanent residents live close to a U.S. border and have family or business purposes for routine trips across the border. When applying for U.S. citizenship with Form N-400, you should make every effort to document the dates of these trips, particularly trips that are 5 days or longer. However, after five years, these trips can be too numerous to accurately document each date. CitizenPath provides a helpful sample template for these situations.
Frequent Trips Example
Victor is a Mexican citizen with a green card in the U.S. He lives in San Diego, California, so that he can be close to family in Tijuana, Mexico. During the last five years as a permanent resident, Victor made numerous trips across the border to visit his mother and extended family. In fact, he makes this trip regularly, about once per month. He typically stays in Mexico for the duration of a weekend (Friday and Saturday nights). Victor now wants to apply for U.S. citizenship through naturalization. He’s confused how to prepare Part 9 of Form N-400 because his trips are frequent and numerous – too many to list on the form.
Mistakes on your Form N-400 can cause costly delays or a denial.
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Frequent Border Trips Solution
As a general rule, we recommend that you document each individual trip outside the United States if possible. If you have frequent and regular trips outside the U.S. that are too numerous to list individually, you may be able to include a an additional sheet that explains your history. Write “See addendum” in the space provided for the country in Part 9, Item 3 of Form N-400. You must be sure to include a separate sheet of paper that describes the time outside the U.S. to the best of your ability. Make a good faith estimate of the number of trips and total days outside the United States.
N-400 Frequent Trips Addendum
The sample document below is an example of a fictitious applicant who made numerous trips across the Mexican border.
The example is a starting point. You can modify it to meet your needs. Upon completion, print a copy and place it behind your N-400 application.
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