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Russell&Maria

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    60
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Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • City
    Martinez
  • State
    California

Immigration Info

  • Immigration Status
    Naturalization (approved)
  • Place benefits filed at
    Phoenix AZ Lockbox
  • Local Office
    San Francisco CA
  • Country
    Mexico
  • Our Story
    Maria and I met online in November 2013 and it didn't take long for us to realize that we were right for each other. I made my first of many visits to Mexico to meet her in person and that pretty much sealed the deal. We filed for the K1 in February 2014. Our process took about 2 years because Maria had a cancelled visa which required us to file the 601 and 212 waivers before we could receive the K1 visa. The waivers were approved in December 2015 after a 6 month wait and she received her K1 and entered the US in February 2016. We were married on April 30th, filed our AOS in June and received approval in December 2016. Unfortunately her GC was lost by our local Post Office before it was delivered. We filed for a replacement card in March 2017 and it arrived in December 2017. In December 2018, we filed for Removal of Conditions. Delays probably due to the COVID 19 pandemic may have had an affect on the case being approved sooner. In June 2020, we filed for Citizenship although Maria was eligible to file in December 2019. Upon filing for Naturalization, pending I-751 was combined with N-400 and case was transferred to process both. The entire process for Naturalization took 1 year and we received notice for combo ROC/Naturalization Interview in July 2021. Interview was scheduled for August 3, 2021. Maria aced the citizenship test getting the first 6/6 correct and passed the language section as well. She received her approval for both 3 days later and took the Oath of Allegiance on August 24. Maria overcame a lot of barriers throughout this process having to file the 601 and 212 waivers. This truly makes ours a success story. Throughout all of this, our love has remained strong, our life together is awesome and we have no regrets finding love across borders.

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  1. If you came on a K-1 visa, you are eligible to file for citizenship after 3 years of being granted conditional residency provided you have remained married to a US Citizen spouse during that time. Here is our situation: My wife arrived to this country on a K-1 visa in February 23, 2016. We were married April 30, 2016. She filed for Adjustment of status at the end of May 2016. She attended her AOS interview and was granted 2 year conditional residency on December 29, 2016. In December 2018 (2 years later), we filed for Removal of Conditions. On December 29, 2019 (3 years after being approved for conditional residency) she was eligible to file for citizenship because we were and are still married. Even though my wife was eligible to file for citizenship in December 2019, we filed in June 2020 even though she was still waiting on the Removal of Conditions process to be adjudicated (so essentially this was 3 1/2 years after being granted conditional permanent residency). As we all know Covid created massive delays in immigration cases that were in process. In September 2020, she received notice that her ROC and Citizenship cases were being combined which meant she would have a combo ROC/Citizenship interview. On July 5, 2021, she received notice for a combo interview in San Francisco on July 27. She attended the combo interview and was approved for ROC and Citizenship on July 29. On August 24, she took the oath at the USCIS office in SF. In total, she received her citizenship in less than 5 years after becoming a permanent resident due to the fact that she came on a K-1 Visa and provided proof of a stable marriage to a US Citizen after 3 years of residency. My wife never received a 10 year GC. If you have been a legal permanent resident for at least 3 years after being married to a US Citizen on a K-1 visa, you can file for Citizenship at any time even if you have not received your 10 year GC yet. You don’t have to wait until 5 years. Hope this information helps.
  2. Some positive info for those of you who are new citizens (Congtats) and need to get your US Passport. My wife submitted her passport application along with her original naturalization certificate😱 for a passport book and card at our local post office on September 10. We chose normal delivery time and was told up to16 weeks😵‍💫. I checked the application status a about a week later after my check was cashed and it showed it was received and was in process. This past weekend, I checked my Informed Mail through USPS and saw that a package or trackable envelope was scheduled to be delivered from the passport/DOS office in Arizona. I assumed they were returning her naturalization certificate which I was relieved because of the value it holds and she needs it to take care of some other business. Today I checked my Informed Mail and saw that a separate envelope was being delivered today from Virginia which is where my passport card came from when I renewed my passport book and card earlier this year. I checked the DOS site this morning and it showed that her passport application had been approved and she should receive her passport book and card by September 29th. Wow 😮!!! So basically, it took 3 weeks for my wife to get her US Passport book and card and not 16 weeks. I am so glad I didn’t waste an extra $60.00 on expedited service. Now we are officially done ✅!!!!
  3. Finally, we are done!!!!! My wife Maria took the oath of allegiance on August 24, 2021 in San Francisco, received her Naturalization Certificate and is now a United States Citizen!!!!! Wooooo Hooooo!!!!! We filed my wife's N-400 in June 2020. She was eligible to file for Naturalization in December 2019. She still had not been approved for the I-751 Removal of Conditions which had been filed in December 2018. Shortly after filing the N-400 we received noticed that both cases had been combined and were being transferred to another processing center for completion. While this added more time on to the approval of the I-751, it ultimately was the best decision we could have made. On July 5, 2021 while we were in Juarez, MX attending my stepdaughter's permanent resident interview (which she was approved that same day) received a notification that her combo interview had been scheduled for August 3, 2021. We arrived to the SF USCIS office at the scheduled time. I waited outside while my wife went in. Shortly thereafter, my wife texted me to tell me I needed to come inside to go through the ROC interview with her. I went in, took the oath to tell the truth and we were asked some questions to verify our marriage was legit (she came on a K-1 visa in February 2016) and then I was dismissed so that the officer could continue with the Naturalization interview. About 30 minutes later she came out with a blank look on her face. I asked her did everything go okay. She said yes. I asked so are you done. She said I don't know. The officer said everything looks good for an approval but she gave me this sheet which says they are going to review the case. I asked her how did she do on the test. She said I got them all right. She only asked me 6 questions. I asked about the English part.. She said she did fine. As we walked back to the car, we both wondered if we said or did anything wrong. The officer seemed very pleasant but was also very professional. She told me that the officer corrected a few things on the application that we had listed incorrectly regarding the fact that she had a previous cancelled visa due to overstays in the US under a tourist visa. After beating ourselves up for a few minutes wondering, I concluded that overall, everything was going to be fine because we had done everything right up to that point. They were just dotting the "i's and crossing the "t's" on her very thick immigration file. At that point, we just put it in God's hands. On the morning of August 6, I received a text message from USCIS regarding her case decision. Her N-400 was approved!!!!! A few hours later, I received another text message that her I-751 Removal of Conditions was approved as well. This ended a 7+ years long process on the path to Citizenship which was the ultimate ending to our ongoing love story💖😍. In conclusion, I will say this.... as frustrated as we can get with all of the red tape you have to go through dealing with immigration, the system does work if you follow the instructions, file your applications on time and remain vigilant. I hired an immigration attorney to help with the filing of Maria's K-1 visa and 601/212 waivers which we had to file due to her having a canceled visa. It wasn't cheap but well worth the cost because it was our one shot to get it right the first time. We were successful and she was able come to the US to get married to me and continue our love story. After that, we filed all of the remaining processes ourselves. Here is a list of all of the processes we filed during our journey: I-129f Fiance Visa - February 2014 - Approved April 2014 (Did not attend interview until March 2015 due to unforseen circumstances) Was denied at interview but allowed to file 601 and 212 waivers. I-601 Waiver of Inadmissability - June 2015 - Approved December 2015 I-212 Permission to Reapply for Re-entry after Removal - June 2015 - Approved December 2015 I-485 Adustment of Status - June 2016 I-131 Application for Travel Document (with I-485) -Received August 2015 I-765 Application for Employment Authorization (with I-485) - Received August 2015 I-90 Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card (due to green card being stolen by a postal employee before it was delivered to our residence.) - March 2016 I 751- Removal of Conditions - December 2018 - Approved August 2021 N-400 Application for Naturalization - June 2020 - Approved August 2021 Oath of Allegiance - August 24, 2021 I also filed a 1-130 to bring my wife's daughter (my stepdaughter) who was supposed to come on the K-1 visa as a minor child to the US in February 2016 but chose to stay behind at that time. In March 2018 that she decided that she wanted to join her mom in the US. In September 2018 the I-130 was filed and was approved in August 2019. After filing all of the appropriate forms to get an interview scheduled in Juarez, MX, the US Consulate closed for non-essential Visa interviews in March 2020 Due to COVID. Her interview was not scheduled until August 2021. She was approved the same day her mom (my wife) was scheduled for her ROC/Citizenship interview. She entered the US on August 7, 2021 and was able to celebrate with her mom in person on August 24 when she received her Naturalization Certificate.
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