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My husband and I intend to apply for citizenship soon. We reside in NYC. Both been GC holders for 4 years and 8 months. my last trip to home country lasted 196 days. Also never held a job here. My husband is in a better position as he has held a full time job here for the last two years. From your experience, do you think success chances are higher if we file through an attorney or you think it won't matter? Would appreciate any advice.
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Becoming an US citizenship under the 5 year permanent residence eligibility is a relatively simple and straight forward process, particularly in your case as you are coming from a not long ago residency process. The N-400 is easy enough to complete and the only hurdle may come from completing the traveling abroad section if you or your husband traveled abroad quite often and didn’t keep a log. But in general you don’t need an attorney for a simple case like this. It really doesn't matter if you worked or not, you were legally a resident
My wife and I did it ourselves without an attorney in a case like yours and my wife became a citizen 4 months after her application, and I’m now waiting for the Oath date. The complication may come precisely here, as my case moved swiftly until I had my interview, was recommended for citizenship, was told I’ll get my oath letter in two weeks and close to a month has passed without news (good or bad). This can be a bit unsettling as the USCIS case status as well as the help line have been close to useless at least in my case (no information on status at all) and I ended up requesting an Infopass appointment for my case. This situation has made me think if it would have been better to hire an attorney, but then I don’t think there is much an attorney can do different from what I can do, which is just wait as my case was recommended for approval and the USCIS is just late issuing the oath letter
In my opinion, an attorney is justified if a case has an exception, like not registering for military service if you had to, being charged in court with a crime, being put in jail or in general being involved in things that can put your “good moral character” in doubt. Or being outside the US for more than 180 consecutive days. If not I don’t think it’s worth it.
I have several friends that became citizens after the 5 years residence eligibility, none of them used an attorney and they all became citizens without any problem at all
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