Long Long Wait for Citizenship Interview - Should I be Worried?

[SeabagsFull 0]

My wife, a Thai national, immigrated to the U.S. on an I-130 nearly 4 years ago. I did a DCF to get her here, a process that was speedy & error-free. In January 2014, she applied approximately 2 months early for citizenship; you're allowed to file up to 90 days before the 3-year mark.

It is now 9 months later & still no word. USCIS web site lists her N-400 application as being under review. Normal queue wait time for Seattle is about 6 months. The site shows that the last completed applicant submitted his/her package in late February, a full month after my wife filed. Last month we sent an inquiry to Seattle; they responded only that her application was under review & gave no reason for the delay.

We are legitimate in every way; if there is a red flag it's probably my wife's transferring some money to my U.S. bank account (we sold our house in Thailand, & the only way we could transfer the money to the States was by her doing it in her name), & yes, I reported our bank account info to the U.S. Treasury Dept. Does the long wait indicate that an immigration officer has a concern about something? Is there any way that I could mail in a personal letter of support, perhaps to address any possible issues I believe they could be balking on?

I read somewhere online that a federal law mandates USCIS process applications in a timely manner, & that I could ask a court to order them to render a decision. But ... does USCIS have to have a legitimate reason to deny an applicant citizenship or can they do so arbitrarily (i.e., a court order might make them angry)?

Any thoughts? Anything I can do?

Edited October 23, 2014 by SeabagsFull

[TBoneTX 43,057]

*** Thread moved from General Immigration Discussion forum to the U.S. Citizenship forum, where the topic fits better. ***

[EM_Vandaveer 2,368]

Did you receive NOA1? Has your wife done her biometrics? If no, go for an Infopass, your mail might have gotten lost.

[mrgoodguy 5]

I think InfoPass is the best thing an applicant can do!

If you are a permanent resident, if you can travel and work WHY would you be even think on getting court involved ?

USCIS has other priorites and unfortunately, processing N400 is not one of them!

[SeabagsFull 0]

My wife recently received her biometrics appointment, so we are relieved that the process may be finally moving along. I believe that the reason(s) for our long wait are legitimate, though I would have expected more cooperation between Homeland Security (the folks with whom I initiated my wife's permanent residence status via DCF) -- who investigated & determined our relationship was on the up & up -- & USCIS. In fact, virtually any flag that could've been raised in our application has a resolution logged by another agency (e.g., Treasury Department, IRS, Department of Defense, etc.). Interagency cooperation is simply an electronic database exercise.

That said, my answers below are theoretical so as to answer the posters' questions.

Did you receive NOA1? Has your wife done her biometrics? If no, go for an Infopass, your mail might have gotten lost.

Yes, we received an original NOA1 as can be inferred in the OP (i.e., her application # is listed on the USCIS web site).

After a second call to USCIS, we received a biometrics appointment.

Thought about Infopass, but we did not seem to fall into an authorized category. Maybe I misread the process, but it's OBE now that we have an appointment.

I suppose that my wife's application could have been misdirected from the drop-box to somewhere besides Seattle, which would explain the long wait; however, I would assume that whoever updates USCIS' web site also scans the application & documentation into the computer.

I think InfoPass is the best thing an applicant can do!

If you are a permanent resident, if you can travel and work WHY would you be even think on getting court involved ?

USCIS has other priorites and unfortunately, processing N400 is not one of them!

You might be right about the InfoPass, though I believe that I read we didn't have a legitimate reason to request an appointment. I'll recheck that if the need arises again.

Why consider court action? Definitely not my first choice, but the federal law exists for a reason. There are bona fide reasons to reject an applicant, but personal morality issues that fall outside the agency's mandate are not supposed to influence an agent's decision (i.e., can you imagine a Muslim processing an application for a Christian? If personal subjectiveness were allowed, the application could be rejected).

Carrying this thought a bit further, consider that most Republicans seem to be against immigration. A Tea-Party agent who gets an application from a Pakistani or young Asian who's married to an older American may not be able to find anything wrong with the application, & in most cases would move the process along; but then there's that rare individual -- like a Ted Cruz wanna be -- who may decide to sit on the application forever. I'm not saying that's what happened with my wife, but when we see applicants who filed several months after my wife receive their citizenship, then we can't help but wonder what's up. A federal court -- if requested to after a timely manner, usually 6-7 months -- will order USCIS to render a decision, thus ensuring fair treatment to an applicant.

Your third sentence sounds like a troll post. If processing N400 applications is not a priority of USCIS, then what is?

[JimmyHou 610]

I think InfoPass is the best thing an applicant can do!

If you are a permanent resident, if you can travel and work WHY would you be even think on getting court involved ?

USCIS has other priorites and unfortunately, processing N400 is not one of them!

If you have applied for citizenship and paid the application fee, then USCIS should make a decision on your application. Of course there are other priorities, but there's no reason an application should take 18 months as it has with some people on this website. You get the court involved because it is a legal course of action open to you when USCIS fails to address your case.

If you are a permanent resident you can work and travel, but you can't vote, get a US passport, sponsor certain family members for immigration, or get certain jobs.

So if you apply in January 2014 and in May 2015 you're still waiting for an interview letter and you've already made service request and Infopass appointments and contacted your representatives, then I think it's very reasonable to take them to court.

[DC85 113]

My wife, a Thai national, immigrated to the U.S. on an I-130 nearly 4 years ago. I did a DCF to get her here, a process that was speedy & error-free. In January 2014, she applied approximately 2 months early for citizenship; you're allowed to file up to 90 days before the 3-year mark.

It is now 9 months later & still no word. USCIS web site lists her N-400 application as being under review. Normal queue wait time for Seattle is about 6 months. The site shows that the last completed applicant submitted his/her package in late February, a full month after my wife filed. Last month we sent an inquiry to Seattle; they responded only that her application was under review & gave no reason for the delay.

We are legitimate in every way; if there is a red flag it's probably my wife's transferring some money to my U.S. bank account (we sold our house in Thailand, & the only way we could transfer the money to the States was by her doing it in her name), & yes, I reported our bank account info to the U.S. Treasury Dept. Does the long wait indicate that an immigration officer has a concern about something? Is there any way that I could mail in a personal letter of support, perhaps to address any possible issues I believe they could be balking on?

I read somewhere online that a federal law mandates USCIS process applications in a timely manner, & that I could ask a court to order them to render a decision. But ... does USCIS have to have a legitimate reason to deny an applicant citizenship or can they do so arbitrarily (i.e., a court order might make them angry)?

Any thoughts? Anything I can do?

-since you are not interviewed yet you can't sue USCIS under section 1447(b)

This section of the law allow the applicant to sue uscis if the failed to make a decision after 120 days of the first interview.

- USCIS can't deny your wife just because you guys went to the court.

your wife case took that long for one of 2 reasons

1-You didn't do the biometric and the case is closed.

2- They forget about your case or misplaced it

3- Your wife still in background check [ FBI delay]

In both cases you need to push your case, if you didn't do so nobody will do and uscis doesn't care.

- what the best solution to do right now.

1- Go for inforpass and see what's holding your case.[ if you get a word that they will work on your case that's good]

if you didn't hear back or they told it's stuck in background check

2- open a case with the DHS ombudsman [http://www.dhs.gov/topic/cis-ombudsman]

3- Seek your congressman help

if nothing worked within 2 months of doing all these things.

4- check with an immigration lawyer if you can go for "writ of mandamus", basically you petition the federal court to force uscis to make a decision. This is different than section 1447b which will give jurisdiction to the court over your case.

Keep records of all your requests, calls, queries etc

Good luck [ sorry I noticed your second post after I wrote this ]

Edited November 13, 2014 by DC85

[SeabagsFull 0]

-since you are not interviewed yet you can't sue USCIS under section 1447(b)

This section of the law allow the applicant to sue uscis if the failed to make a decision after 120 days of the first interview.

- USCIS can't deny your wife just because you guys went to the court.

your wife case took that long for one of 2 reasons

1-You didn't do the biometric and the case is closed.

2- They forget about your case or misplaced it

3- Your wife still in background check [ FBI delay]

In both cases you need to push your case, if you didn't do so nobody will do and uscis doesn't care.

- what the best solution to do right now.

1- Go for inforpass and see what's holding your case.[ if you get a word that they will work on your case that's good]

if you didn't hear back or they told it's stuck in background check

2- open a case with the DHS ombudsman [http://www.dhs.gov/topic/cis-ombudsman]

3- Seek your congressman help

if nothing worked within 2 months of doing all these things.

4- check with an immigration lawyer if you can go for "writ of mandamus", basically you petition the federal court to force uscis to make a decision. This is different than section 1447b which will give jurisdiction to the court over your case.

Keep records of all your requests, calls, queries etc

Good luck [ sorry I noticed your second post after I wrote this ]

Thanks, DC85; some good solid information there.

So since we're scheduled for a biometrics appointment, does that mean things are back on track? Any reason to "push" for the next couple of months or so?

[SeabagsFull 0]

My wife was naturalized on 12-23-2014, total process time being over 11 months from filing.

A Vietnamese there submitted her application about the same time as my wife, another Vietnamese about 2 weeks before that, & a Chinese about a year ago. Westerners whom I talked with (i.e., 2 Canadians & a Briton), however had about half the wait time. So I'm going to go out on a limb here & say that perhaps there's a quota system based on country, & that applicants are throttled through in a manner that's in keeping with those quotas.

Anyway, it's done. We're through. And good luck to those still in queue.

[DC85 113]

My wife was naturalized on 12-23-2014, total process time being over 11 months from filing.

A Vietnamese there submitted her application about the same time as my wife, another Vietnamese about 2 weeks before that, & a Chinese about a year ago. Westerners whom I talked with (i.e., 2 Canadians & a Briton), however had about half the wait time. So I'm going to go out on a limb here & say that perhaps there's a quota system based on country, & that applicants are throttled through in a manner that's in keeping with those quotas.

Anyway, it's done. We're through. And good luck to those still in queue.

Congrats for completing the process. I don't think there is any quota based on the country. Most likely, they forget about the case, and then they noticed it has been sitting for a while. Human error is always there. But the most important that you are done with uscis.

[kt128 4]

My wife was naturalized on 12-23-2014, total process time being over 11 months from filing.

A Vietnamese there submitted her application about the same time as my wife, another Vietnamese about 2 weeks before that, & a Chinese about a year ago. Westerners whom I talked with (i.e., 2 Canadians & a Briton), however had about half the wait time. So I'm going to go out on a limb here & say that perhaps there's a quota system based on country, & that applicants are throttled through in a manner that's in keeping with those quotas.

Anyway, it's done. We're through. And good luck to those still in queue.

There's no quota. I am Vietnamese, and it only took me 2 months to get naturalized. But congrats!

My wife was naturalized on 12-23-2014, total process time being over 11 months from filing.

A Vietnamese there submitted her application about the same time as my wife, another Vietnamese about 2 weeks before that, & a Chinese about a year ago. Westerners whom I talked with (i.e., 2 Canadians & a Briton), however had about half the wait time. So I'm going to go out on a limb here & say that perhaps there's a quota system based on country, & that applicants are throttled through in a manner that's in keeping with those quotas.

Anyway, it's done. We're through. And good luck to those still in queue.

There's no quota. I am Vietnamese, and it only took me 2 months to get naturalized. But congrats!