A few months ago I decided that it was time to apply for Citizenship. I have been a Permanent Resident since 1990 and I decided to wait until I had five years of paid taxes before I applied. When I looked back at my tax records, I noticed that I had not done my 2001 taxes. So I hired a tax firm and had my taxes retroactively done and I paid all fees and back due taxes that I owed to the IRS.
Once that was taken care of I applied on my own. I went through the motions, had my fingerprints taken, completed my interview and passed my historical exam. After the interview, I was given a piece of paper that said, “ A decision cannot yet be made about your application- Pending Review”. I figured that they would be calling me or mailing me a letter to go do the oath at some other time. The Officer who interviewed me did not mention anything specific as to why I was not given an oath date.
A few weeks later, a friend of mine, who had also applied for citizenship, went on his interview and they told him, right then and there, that he was ready to do the oath. When he spoke to me about this, it made me wonder as to why my situation had been different. One day, I began looking at my application to see if there was anything funny in there and I noticed that one of the questions asked, “Since becoming a Lawful Permanent Resident, have you ever failed to file a required Federal, state of local tax return?” (The important word here would be EVER). It turns out that I had answered the question no. I think that the way that I had originally read the question was if I had failed to file a tax return through the present or if I had failed to pay overdue taxes; and since I was confident that I had purposely paid all taxes, I answered no.
At this point I am not sure of what I should do. I mean it was a very stupid mistake on my behalf (or am I reading into the question too much?), but if I am reading the question correctly, I believe that this may be the discrepancy that has delayed my oath date or even citizenship itself. Any suggestions?