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Naturalization Eligibility Screening

Naturalization eligibility screening that lays an applicant’s passport stamps and travel records over the trips she remembers, counts each day abroad and checks her record before anyone files.

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From remembered trips to a prefilled N-400 ↓
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The problem

Five years of travel rebuilt from memory, a passport and a spreadsheet

At intake the applicant lists her trips as she recalls them. A paralegal sets that list beside passport pages full of faint stamps in several languages and the travel history she printed at home, then counts days abroad on a spreadsheet. The border record misses a drive out across a land border, and the stamps miss what the record holds.

The danger is whatever nobody wrote down: a four-day drive she forgot, a stay she calls about five months that ran past six, an old ordinance citation she thinks does not count. The N-400 asks about each one, so a filing that leaves one out can end in a denial, a lost fee or a referral to removal proceedings.

Built forAccredited representativesImmigration attorneysIntake paralegalsLegal directors

The Problem Today

Applicants remember trips in months, and one trip past six months can push a filing back years.

818,500
people naturalized as citizens in fiscal year 2024 published
18.1%
of N-400s denied in May 2026, up from 8.3% two years before published

Rebuilt by hand today

  • Stamps
  • Travel log
  • Day counts
  • Court files
  • Short trips forgottenA long weekend abroad is missing from the intake
  • Old citations surface lateThe form asks about any citation, ever

The Solution

  1. Records laid over memoryStamps and travel history set against the trips the applicant recalls
  2. Each day countedDays here and days abroad counted against what the law needs
  3. Long trips explainedPast six months, agents find the job, home and family she kept
  4. Citations to an attorneyEach goes with a reason; a named person signs the decision

Built-in controls

  • An accredited representative decides each case
  • Each arrest or citation goes to an attorney
  • Nothing filed without the applicant signing

What You Get

Clinics file only when the applicant qualifies, with each trip and citation disclosed.

25 min
of staff time per applicant, down from about 2.5 hours our estimate
90 days
early-filing window, computed to the day for each applicant published
  • The earliest filing dateShown the moment a trip breaks residence
  • No fee lost to an early filingApplicants file once, when they qualify
  • N-400 prefilled and citedEach trip and answer traced to its document
From intake to N-400

How naturalization eligibility screening works on one applicant’s file

In the order a clinic screens an applicant, from the intake list to the prefilled form.

  1. 01Travel calendar, as she remembers it

    A five-year travel calendar drawn first from what the applicant remembers

    How it works

    • Each trip she lists at intake becomes a bar across its days, year by year
    • Her memory gives 12 trips and 369 days, with no trip over 6 months
    • The 11 documents she brought wait in the file, not yet checked

    Intake paralegalTakes down the applicant’s own account once, in a shape her records can be laid over and a spreadsheet of months never was.

  2. 02Records over her memory

    Passport stamps and travel records laid over the trips she remembers

    How it works

    • Reads 24 passport stamps and 27 of 28 crossings in her travel history
    • Two trips she never mentioned appear hatched: one of 6 days, one of 4
    • Her stay of about five months turns out to be 187 days, five days past six months
    • Days here fall from 1,457 to 1,414 of 1,826

    Accredited representativeSpots the trip that breaks residence early enough to build a rebuttal, rather than trusting a memory rounded to months.

  3. 03Trips, reconciled

    Each trip checked against its departure row, its arrival row and its stamps

    How it works

    • 14 trips in one table, each marked as matching, dates corrected or found in the records
    • Each row shows whether she mentioned it, the travel-history rows and the stamps read
    • A drive out with no departure row takes its date from a hotel folio

    Intake paralegalNo more holding a faint stamp up to the light, or guessing a departure date the travel history never recorded.

  4. 04Ties kept during the long trip

    Evidence of ties gathered for any trip that ran past six months

    How it works

    • Finds 3 ties for the 187-day trip: job held, lease and rent paid, daughter in school
    • An HR email shows unpaid family leave with her position held
    • 7 rent payments of $1,385 come from her own checking statements
    • Two filing dates side by side: today if rebutted, 4 years and 6 months after her return if not

    Accredited representativeDecides the rebuttal with the job, home and family evidence already cited; the applicant is not sent away to collect it.

  5. 05Day counts

    Physical presence drawn as a line against the days the law requires

    How it works

    • Days here climb while she is home to 1,414, clearing 913 with 501 to spare
    • 13 trips under 6 months, 225 days, with no effect on residence
    • The 187-day trip sits alone in the presumed-break band, its rebuttal accepted
    • The dates that decide filing sit on one line, green card to today

    Accredited representativeConfirms a count she can show the applicant on one chart, where the spreadsheet gave her only a total.

  6. 06Record and good moral character

    Good moral character checks, each shown beside its source passage

    How it works

    • Reads police, court, tax and voter records, one check at a time
    • 7 checks: 1 flag, 1 note and 5 clear
    • The flag, an ordinance citation from before the period: $86.40 of merchandise, a $250 fine paid, no criminal charge
    • The agent asks its question and cites the clinic rule instead of ruling

    Accredited representativeLearns about the old citation at the table, from the disposition itself, before the applicant answers a question about any citation she has ever had.

  7. 07Referral to the attorney

    A referral to the supervising attorney that cannot leave without a reason

    How it works

    • Any arrest or citation, ever, goes to an attorney under the clinic’s rule
    • The referral names the item, its case number and the attorney
    • The reason is required, and starts from the facts the agent read
    • Nothing about the citation is decided until the attorney answers

    Supervising attorneyReceives each citation with the question already framed and the disposition attached, so a 4-minute review does not start from the applicant’s memory.

  8. 08Eligible, or refer to an attorney

    Four decisions, each by a named person, before anyone can sign

    How it works

    • Presence, residence, record and three months in the state, each its own decision
    • Each shows who made it and when, or the step still open
    • The signature stays locked at 1 of 4 decisions open
    • An intake paralegal prepares the file but cannot sign it

    Accredited representativeSigns eligible to file knowing each part was decided by someone with the right to decide it, and that the attorney’s part was not skipped.

  9. 09N-400, prefilled

    An N-400 prefilled from the applicant’s documents, each answer cited

    How it works

    • Each answer carries a link to the document it came from
    • A plain explanation of the citation, drafted and waiting for the attorney
    • The applicant reviews and signs her own form; no agent files anything

    Supervising attorneyApproves disclosure wording drawn from the disposition, so the answer on the form and the papers brought to the interview say the same thing.

Twelve remembered trips became fourteen, and 154 days became 187

One applicant’s file, as she told it at intake and as her records tell it.

CountWhat she rememberedWhat the records show
Trips abroad1214
Days abroad369412
Longest trip154 days187 days
Days here, of 1,8261,4571,414, with 913 needed
Trips over 6 monthsNone1, a presumed break
Earliest filingTodayToday if rebutted; 4 years and 6 months after her return if not
Around the screening

Stamps, sources, fees and the clinic board behind each screening

What the paralegal, the representative and the legal director open beside the calendar.

The long trip, opened154 days remembered against 187 in the records, with the two travel-history rows and both passport stamps drawn beside the bar they changed.
Each tie at its sourceClicking any citation brings up its source document at that line, as with the HR email approving unpaid family leave with her position held, beside her W-2 wages.
The fee she qualifies forHousehold income of $68,400 for 2 people sits under $86,560, so the form carries the reduced fee of $380 against $710 online.
The whole clinic day38 applicants by table and time: 24 ready to file, 5 for an attorney, 2 not yet eligible with an earliest date, 7 waiting for documents.
Every read and decision on her fileEach read, count, flag and decision, agents and people alike, from the documents uploaded at intake to the rebuttal accepted.
The rules the clinic setsThe six-month and one-year lines, the 90-day window, 913 or 548 days, referral rules, who decides, and retention. The legal director approves changes.

Two forgotten trips, a five-day overrun and an old citation, in one file

What the agents found in one applicant’s documents that her intake answers did not hold.

Two trips she never mentioned

A six-day vacation and a four-day drive across a land border, found in the travel history and a hotel folio. Both go on the form.

About five months that were 187 days

She came back five days past six months: a presumed break. Without a rebuttal, the earliest filing moves 4 years and 6 months past her return.

A citation from before the period

An ordinance citation for $86.40 of merchandise, fine paid, no charge. It falls outside the five-year window, but the form asks about any citation ever, so it goes to the attorney.

A return filed on extension

One year’s return went in on extension with no balance owed. The agent marks it a note and says why: filed on time, nothing owed.

Accepting a rebuttal, clearing a citation and signing are calls for people

Agents read, count and draft. Clinic staff and the applicant make these calls themselves.

Accepting a rebuttalThe agent gathers the job, lease and school evidence. Only an accredited representative or an attorney may accept it.
Calling a citation a barThe record checker flags and asks. A supervising attorney clears or holds each arrest or citation.
Signing eligible to fileThe accredited representative signs once all four decisions are made. An intake paralegal prepares and cannot sign.
Filing the formThe applicant reviews and signs her own N-400. No agent files it, sends it or logs into a government website.
Changing a ruleThe six-month line, the referral rules and retention change only when the legal director approves.

What clinics want settled about naturalization eligibility before filing

What is naturalization eligibility screening?

Naturalization eligibility screening checks, before an N-400 is filed, that an applicant has lived here long enough without a break, has spent enough days here, and has nothing in her record that bars her. This solution reads the stamps and travel records, counts the days, checks the record and prefills the form; an accredited representative decides.

Do trips over six months break continuous residence?

A trip of more than six months and less than a year is presumed to break it, and a trip of a year or more breaks it. The solution flags the first kind, gathers evidence that the applicant kept her job, home and family here, and shows both filing dates. A person decides whether the presumption is rebutted.

What if the travel history misses a trip?

It often misses a drive out across a land border, and stamps can be faint or absent. The agents read both, lay them over what the applicant remembers, and take a missing date from another document such as a hotel folio. A faint stamp is asked about, not guessed.

Can an applicant naturalize with an old arrest or citation?

Often, if it is disclosed and explained. The form asks about any arrest or citation ever, so the solution finds it in the records, shows the disposition and refers it to an attorney with a reason. The attorney decides whether it is a bar and approves the wording of the disclosure.

How is physical presence counted?

Day by day. Each trip counts its return date minus its departure date, and the days left are set against what the law needs on the five-year or the three-year path. The count is drawn as a line, so the representative sees when the applicant crossed it.

How is applicant data protected?

It stays in the clinic’s own workspace, with registration and social security numbers masked on screen and in exports. Files are deleted with a log once the clinic’s retention period closes, and no applicant’s file is ever used for model training.

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Find the forgotten trip
before the officer does.

Take an applicant your clinic has already filed, add her stamps and travel printout, and compare our day counts with the ones on your spreadsheet.

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