Oath Ceremony Scheduled, but date and time on notice DON'T EXIST

[cmrabet 2]

My N-400 case updated last Saturday 22nd to "We scheduled your Oath Ceremony..", and today Monday 25th my Oath Ceremony notice was available on my Documents section at myuscis.gov site. The notice in PDF format is asking me to appear at the Federal Court on April 26, 2019, Lynchburg (VA). I still haven't received the printed version by snail mail.

 

They date on the notice looked odd to me because I don't remember seeing it on the Courthouse's calendar, so I called them to confirm. The staff at the Federal Court told me that there is no Naturalization Ceremony planned for April 26, and that the only one they have planned is on April 12, and offsite. They told me to contact USCIS (800 number) because they had other cases of people with double notices, notices with wrong dates, etc..

 

After this I called the USCIS 800 number, .. after 30 minutes in line I got hold of an agent who transferred me to a T2 officer, a very rude lady. She told me to go by what the letter is saying. I told her that the Court itself where I'm supposed to have the ceremony is saying that there will be no ceremony, but she kept repeating that the letter from USCIS is what counts, that the court "might not know yet", and that "USCIS will arrange something".

 

I called back the Federal Court and told them what I was told, they laughed and said that that's not how it works. The said they have all the ceremonies of 2019 already planned ahead of time, and that if they were going to have one in April 26 they would know by now..

 

After this I called back to USCIS three more times, but each time the agent tried to transfer me to a T2 officer, they said they were all busy and were not taking more calls. 

 

I feel now kind of stuck in the middle of nowhere, I'm not sure what to do apart of calling USCIS again tomorrow and hope that a T2 officer can solve my problem. I also went to see if I could get an Infopass at my field office (Norfolk, VA), but the soonest availability they have is April 8, four days before April 12, the actual date on which the Federal Court will have the ceremony, so it might be very tight.

 

* Have you ever seen a situation like this?

* Could this be just an error with the online letter and that the printed one will be different?

* What should I do now? If I "go by the letter" and show up at the courthouse on April 26, there might be no ceremony, and I would have failed to get naturalized. If it's an error, and they actually meant to send me to the one on April 12, I have very few days to sort it out, but here are no infopasses available.

 

Any help will be much appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[bestluck 71]

3 hours ago, cmrabet said:

My N-400 case updated last Saturday 22nd to "We scheduled your Oath Ceremony..", and today Monday 25th my Oath Ceremony notice was available on my Documents section at myuscis.gov site. The notice in PDF format is asking me to appear at the Federal Court on April 26, 2019, Lynchburg (VA). I still haven't received the printed version by snail mail.

 

They date on the notice looked odd to me because I don't remember seeing it on the Courthouse's calendar, so I called them to confirm. The staff at the Federal Court told me that there is no Naturalization Ceremony planned for April 26, and that the only one they have planned is on April 12, and offsite. They told me to contact USCIS (800 number) because they had other cases of people with double notices, notices with wrong dates, etc..

 

After this I called the USCIS 800 number, .. after 30 minutes in line I got hold of an agent who transferred me to a T2 officer, a very rude lady. She told me to go by what the letter is saying. I told her that the Court itself where I'm supposed to have the ceremony is saying that there will be no ceremony, but she kept repeating that the letter from USCIS is what counts, that the court "might not know yet", and that "USCIS will arrange something".

 

I called back the Federal Court and told them what I was told, they laughed and said that that's not how it works. The said they have all the ceremonies of 2019 already planned ahead of time, and that if they were going to have one in April 26 they would know by now..

 

After this I called back to USCIS three more times, but each time the agent tried to transfer me to a T2 officer, they said they were all busy and were not taking more calls. 

 

I feel now kind of stuck in the middle of nowhere, I'm not sure what to do apart of calling USCIS again tomorrow and hope that a T2 officer can solve my problem. I also went to see if I could get an Infopass at my field office (Norfolk, VA), but the soonest availability they have is April 8, four days before April 12, the actual date on which the Federal Court will have the ceremony, so it might be very tight.

 

* Have you ever seen a situation like this?

* Could this be just an error with the online letter and that the printed one will be different?

* What should I do now? If I "go by the letter" and show up at the courthouse on April 26, there might be no ceremony, and I would have failed to get naturalized. If it's an error, and they actually meant to send me to the one on April 12, I have very few days to sort it out, but here are no infopasses available.

 

Any help will be much appreciated.

 

Thanks.

I got ceremony scheduled in April as well and I called court house and they still not received list of people for ceremony in April , so I got USCIS Letter in mail to go court house with address above and time so i will follow USCIS and court don't know when they will get letter but court have ceremony on that date so just waiting to see , I will follow USCIS Letter and go 

 

Good luck  

[cmrabet 2]

6 hours ago, love_my_wife said:

Yes, they are known to do typos/mistakes on oath letters. I saw a recent post where a Seattle applicant got oath time as 8:30pm. He was able to contact USCIS who said there was a mistake and got it corrected.

Thanks.

 

I'm calling again today, I haven't slept at all last night, just thinking about this issue in bed..

Edited March 26, 2019 by cmrabet

[cmrabet 2]

5 hours ago, bestluck said:

I got ceremony scheduled in April as well and I called court house and they still not received list of people for ceremony in April , so I got USCIS Letter in mail to go court house with address above and time so i will follow USCIS and court don't know when they will get letter but court have ceremony on that date so just waiting to see , I will follow USCIS Letter and go 

 

Good luck  

Thanks.

 

The thing in my case is that when I talked with the court clerk on the phone,  she didn't say that they didn't get the list of candidates yet, she said there is no ceremony planned for that date at all. They have one before that date, and several after in the following months, but not that particular date.

Edited March 26, 2019 by cmrabet
typo

[sexyafrican36 42]

I will say you wait till you have the actual notice in hand because that might have the correct information and if not it’s often deschedule online and sometimes rescheduled immediately or a few days later. But I woul say wait for the notice in the mail.

[cmrabet 2]

34 minutes ago, Sexyafrican36 said:

I will say you wait till you have the actual notice in hand because that might have the correct information and if not it’s often deschedule online and sometimes rescheduled immediately or a few days later. But I woul say wait for the notice in the mail.

Thanks, that's what I decided to do, I'll wait until I get the letter in my mailbox.

[KMENDLESS 9]

keep us updated... tks

[cmrabet 2]

I received today the letter via regular mail, it says the same location and time.

 

It seems very strange to me that the courthouse denies any ceremony that date (they have one before and many after), but USCIS still has scheduled it. I started to think this is a one person thing? Like I will be there on my own with an officer that just shows up to give me the oath and send me home.. otherwise I see no explanation.

 

I also have an infopass at my field office in a week from now, I might go to check what's going on if I still hear then from the courthouse the same story.

 

What do you guys think?

Edited March 28, 2019 by cmrabet

[jefferyd 12]

My Oath ceremony was scheduled for this past Tuesday at 1 pm.  I know the events director at the museum where it was to be held and I was talking with him about it a month beforehand and he told me that it was wrong, the ceremony was at 9:30 am.  He called the judge who confirmed it.  They called USCIS and USCIS sent out corrected notices, which just confused a lot of people.  The morning of the ceremony half the people were no-shows, no doubt confused about the correct time so fortunately for them the judge decided to stay around and they had another ceremony in the afternoon for the rest of the candidates who were showing up for 1 pm.    The musical act that was on the program to perform, the passport office and social security didn't show up for our morning ceremony, I imagine they were there at 1 pm.

 

Find out who organizes events at the courthouse, show them your letter, and have them get in touch with their contact at USCIS or it might never get fixed.

[cmrabet 2]

14 minutes ago, jefferyd said:

My Oath ceremony was scheduled for this past Tuesday at 1 pm.  I know the events director at the museum where it was to be held and I was talking with him about it a month beforehand and he told me that it was wrong, the ceremony was at 9:30 am.  He called the judge who confirmed it.  They called USCIS and USCIS sent out corrected notices, which just confused a lot of people.  The morning of the ceremony half the people were no-shows, no doubt confused about the correct time so fortunately for them the judge decided to stay around and they had another ceremony in the afternoon for the rest of the candidates who were showing up for 1 pm.    The musical act that was on the program to perform, the passport office and social security didn't show up for our morning ceremony, I imagine they were there at 1 pm.

 

Find out who organizes events at the courthouse, show them your letter, and have them get in touch with their contact at USCIS or it might never get fixed.

Thanks.

 

I will go tomorrow to the courthouse with the letter.

 

When they sent the updated notice, did you get a notification and a new PDF in your myuscis online profile? Or you just got it in the mail?

 

If the latter, how many days it took you to receive?

[jefferyd 12]

11 hours ago, cmrabet said:

Thanks.

 

I will go tomorrow to the courthouse with the letter.

 

When they sent the updated notice, did you get a notification and a new PDF in your myuscis online profile? Or you just got it in the mail?

 

If the latter, how many days it took you to receive?

First I got a phone call from USCIS telling me the time had changed.  Then a few weeks later I got an email from someone at the field office telling me the time had changed and she attached a new pdf notice of oath form. She also mailed me a new copy which came about four days later, but the notice on my myuscis profile never changed. 

[Going through 5,668]

On 3/25/2019 at 9:32 PM, bestluck said:

She told me to go by what the letter is saying. I told her that the Court itself where I'm supposed to have the ceremony is saying that there will be no ceremony, but she kept repeating that the letter from USCIS is what counts, that the court "might not know yet", and that "USCIS will arrange something".

Well, in that aspect, the officer was correct.  The date on the letter, not the courthouse, is what will make the difference whether it's recorded as a no-show (if there does happen to be a ceremony on that date that the court clerk was not aware of, and you didn't show up to take your oath).

 

16 hours ago, cmrabet said:

I received today the letter via regular mail, it says the same location and time.

I would call USCIS today and speak to a L2 officer to confirm the info.  Tell them you've been in constant contact with the court clerk who is still insisting there is no oath ceremony planned (that he/she can see) on that date.  The officer may put in an online request for your oath to be rescheduled, however.  Keep in mind that if there IS an oath ceremony on that date it could work against you as you might have to wait a bit longer to take your oath, if this happens.

 

All else fails, I would strongly suggest you STILL show up for the date/time recorded on the letter just in case.

Edited March 29, 2019 by Going through

[cmrabet 2]

9 hours ago, jefferyd said:

First I got a phone call from USCIS telling me the time had changed.  Then a few weeks later I got an email from someone at the field office telling me the time had changed and she attached a new pdf notice of oath form. She also mailed me a new copy which came about four days later, but the notice on my myuscis profile never changed. 

Thanks, see update below.

8 hours ago, Going through said:

Well, in that aspect, the officer was correct.  The date on the letter, not the courthouse, is what will make the difference whether it's recorded as a no-show (if there does happen to be a ceremony on that date that the court clerk was not aware of, and you didn't show up to take your oath).

 

I would call USCIS today and speak to a L2 officer to confirm the info.  Tell them you've been in constant contact with the court clerk who is still insisting there is no oath ceremony planned (that he/she can see) on that date.  The officer may put in an online request for your oath to be rescheduled, however.  Keep in mind that if there IS an oath ceremony on that date it could work against you as you might have to wait a bit longer to take your oath, if this happens.

 

All else fails, I would strongly suggest you STILL show up for the date/time recorded on the letter just in case.

Thanks for your response, see update below.

[cmrabet 2]

I usually wake up every day at 4am so I can workout (I have a home gym), read, study, and do other things that I can't do when the kids are around after I come from work in the evening (4am to 8am is my me-time). So today, I woke up as usual, and while having a coffee around 4:10am, for some reason I felt compelled to check my USCIS online profile (?), and ended up in the Schedule an Appointment area (INFOPASS). 

 

I couldn't believe what I was seeing, 9:10am was available for selection TODAY!, the rest of the day and the week were grayed out, as well as next week (which is how it usually is). What are the odds for this to happen? So I jumped off the chair, set the appointment, took a quick shower, and hit the road to Norfolk VA, a 200 mile drive. I arrived at the USCIS office at 9am.

 

When I was attended in the reception I explained my case and I was given a number. When I went into the waiting room, a very nice and friendly officer came out from a room and called my name,  she told me she was the officer who scheduled my ceremony and that there was a mistake. The date was correct, but the location was wrong (It's not Lynchburg). She kindly asked me to wait for her to fix, and she told me she was going to give me another letter with the right address, as well as send a copy by mail too. After 10 minutes she came out with the final letter showing the right location, Roanoke, and she also congratulated me.

 

The 400 mile drive was totally worth it, I still can't believe the coincidences today.

 

Thanks everyone for your help.

Edited March 29, 2019 by cmrabet

[sexyafrican36 42]

Way to go!