Isabel&Will

Received my notice that they received my application in the mail yesterday 02/28/2024 and received another notice today 02/29/2024 that they are reusing my biometrics! First win I've had through this whole process I feel like, lol. I think it's too soon for any other updates at this time but I'm thankful to not have to do the biometrics again because my closest USCIS office is now 3-4 hours away

I decided to submit my N-400 today, will update if anything happens 😅 I had my biometrics back in Feb 2022 so I have a feeling they will want another one.

Yep I feel that. The prediction for mine has been inching sooner (allegedly August 2023) but I'm not holding my breath since mine ended up going to Potomac where it seems applications go to die 😥 I ended up getting a new job so there's a part of me that doesn't want to have to go in for an interview until August anyways because the closest service center is now 3-4 hours away and I don't want to have to take time off during my probationary period, but I'm nervous that nothing will happen for a long while after that...

Received my 48 month extension a week or so ago, expiry date on my physical card is 03/18/2022 and they issued the new extension on March 6. I'm really thankful, we moved states so this confirmed that they updated my address correctly and also prevents a 3-4 hour trip one way to get the stamp for at least a little while! We're at Potomac so....who knows how much longer I'll be waiting 😥

I'm glad you found a way to make it work and good luck with your application! I believe PQ is the French abbreviation for Quebec (shorthand for "Province du Québec") so I think it would have made it there either way, but from what I've read they stopped using that regularly in the 90s so it's interesting that the system hasn't been updated

I had to apply for a new Canadian passport from the US since I changed my last name when I got married. I just sent it off a couple weeks ago so I don't have information on whether or not it was successful unfortunately, but they did process my payment 😅 I will try and update once I know more but the processing times are pretty long. I went the Walgreens route, mainly because there were no recommended photographers near me. Keep in mind that the people working there when you go may not be knowledgeable about non-US passport photos and you will (probably) have to cut your own photos. They also had a photo paper shortage for a while so you may run into that as well 🙃 Their passport computer screens had a walkthrough on how to take and crop passport photos from many different countries, but I had to help walk them through it because they'd never done it before. I'd definitely recommend bringing the official "Examples of acceptable and unacceptable passport photos" with you and comparing if you can, especially since the photos themselves can be somewhat pricey. I think the resulting photos were acceptable but they are only valid for 6 months rather than what I believe is the usual 12 when applying from Canada (passport application requirements, not because they were taken at Walgreens). I sent my application via USPS and was required to fill out a customs form. The address given for applications from the US didn't have a street number or PO Box (it's literally just "Passport Program", City, Province, Postal Code) so you may not be able to fill in some of the fields on the customs form, so just be careful with that. I put "Passport Program" as the business name and skipped the street number fields and it seems to have gotten where it needed to go. The USPS clerks unfortunately didn't have any insights or advice and told me they don't know how Canadian addresses work so I kinda just had to cross my fingers and hope for the best. Definitely get some form of tracking, especially if you have to send any original documents.