N-400 January 2024 filers

[cardia 146]

On 2/5/2024 at 8:57 PM, cardia said:

Logged in today to find an update: my interview has been scheduled for mid-March. Filed Jan 1, so this is shockingly fast.

 

Hey, everyone! A little over two weeks to go until my interview and I'm nervous. Filing under the 3-year marriage rule, could someone give me feedback on the packet I'm bringing to the interview?

• Green cards: 2-yr, 10-yr; EAD/AP card
• My Philippine passports that I used to enter; corresponding I-94
• Spouse's U.S. passport
• Birth certificate: mine, spouse, and our child's
• Marriage certificate
• 4 years of IRS tax return transcripts
• Leases for our current and past 3 years of residences, affidavit for 1 year of residence together at spouse's parent's home
  • Renter's insurance for our current home
  • Electric, water, and Internet bills for the past year at our current residence (should I be bringing 3 years' worth? I can't even find them anymore as they are closed accounts for our previous residences 😬)
• Beneficiary pages for our brokerage accounts, spouse's life insurance
• Pages stating current status for joint health insurance
• Bank statements dating to the start of our marriage, about 5.5 years worth (should I bring less of this? 😅)
• Joint car title

[minivatreni 193]

2 hours ago, cardia said:

 

Hey, everyone! A little over two weeks to go until my interview and I'm nervous. Filing under the 3-year marriage rule, could someone give me feedback on the packet I'm bringing to the interview?

• Green cards: 2-yr, 10-yr; EAD/AP card
• My Philippine passports that I used to enter; corresponding I-94
• Spouse's U.S. passport
• Birth certificate: mine, spouse, and our child's
• Marriage certificate
• 4 years of IRS tax return transcripts
• Leases for our current and past 3 years of residences, affidavit for 1 year of residence together at spouse's parent's home
  • Renter's insurance for our current home
  • Electric, water, and Internet bills for the past year at our current residence (should I be bringing 3 years' worth? I can't even find them anymore as they are closed accounts for our previous residences 😬)
• Beneficiary pages for our brokerage accounts, spouse's life insurance
• Pages stating current status for joint health insurance
• Bank statements dating to the start of our marriage, about 5.5 years worth (should I bring less of this? 😅)
• Joint car title

Seems like you’re more prepared than most people and have everything you need. Don’t forget your drivers license as well. Is it a combo interview? 

[leilabird 18]

14 hours ago, Rearviewmirror said:

 

Your three year anniversary is in August?! That's pretty confusing as your interview will be before you're eligible to be approved. Unless you mean you've already passed the 3 years.

I’m very confused. Not sure what 3 year you’re referring to. I’ve been a permanent resident since 2015. Nearly 9 years

[cardia 146]

30 minutes ago, minivatreni said:

Seems like you’re more prepared than most people and have everything you need. Don’t forget your drivers license as well. Is it a combo interview? 

 

Thanks for the reassurance. I know, it is likely overkill, but I'm reminded of the time where we were ill-advised to not submit any evidence with our AOS by the lawyer that we'd hired. By sheer luck we didn't get RFE'd before our interview was scheduled, and the IO was quick to commend us for our preparation when he saw that I had come with probably a literal ton of evidence. To help ward off the anxiety I'm doing the same thing with naturalization!

 

Not a combo interview, they waived me at ROC. Good call on the DL, I usually have mine in my wallet but I think I will move it into my folder to have it for quick access.

[cardia 146]

Commenting again on this thread as I review the civics questions before I head off to bed: this is so strange, to be at the finish line after all these years. I attended high school here in America and reviewing these questions made me revisit my memories of U.S. history class, and that feels like eons ago. It feels like I've come full circle, lol!

[minivatreni 193]

22 minutes ago, cardia said:

 

Thanks for the reassurance. I know, it is likely overkill, but I'm reminded of the time where we were ill-advised to not submit any evidence with our AOS by the lawyer that we'd hired. By sheer luck we didn't get RFE'd before our interview was scheduled, and the IO was quick to commend us for our preparation when he saw that I had come with probably a literal ton of evidence. To help ward off the anxiety I'm doing the same thing with naturalization!

 

Not a combo interview, they waived me at ROC. Good call on the DL, I usually have mine in my wallet but I think I will move it into my folder to have it for quick access.

If it's not a combo interview then you're more than prepared with all the evidence you're bringing. Good luck keep us updated on how it goes for you 

[Rearviewmirror 397]

6 hours ago, leilabird said:

I’m very confused. Not sure what 3 year you’re referring to. I’ve been a permanent resident since 2015. Nearly 9 years

 

Almost everybody else in this thread is filing under the 3 or 5 year rule, and given that you haven't filled out your timeline I assumed you were in the same boat. You said your GC anniversary was August, which would have meant your interview was before it had been 3/5 years since receiving your original greencard. This doesn't apply to you given you've already been a greencard holder for more than 5 years.

[samdog 56]

On 2/28/2024 at 12:09 PM, jackiegringa said:

Hey St Louis FO here too. Seems like our office is not as fast as others!

Yeah it seems like they are slower than some of the others. USCIS says that estimated completion time is 5 months, so hopefully July/August timeframe? No idea why bigger/busier offices (DC area, California, NY, Chicago etc.) are faster than STL. I know a friend who had their naturalization done in under 4 months in 2021 so it looks like our office has potentially gotten slower since then.

[leilabird 18]

12 hours ago, Rearviewmirror said:

 

Almost everybody else in this thread is filing under the 3 or 5 year rule, and given that you haven't filled out your timeline I assumed you were in the same boat. You said your GC anniversary was August, which would have meant your interview was before it had been 3/5 years since receiving your original greencard. This doesn't apply to you given you've already been a greencard holder for more than 5 years.

What’s a 3 or 5 year rule? And what timeline. Sorry I’m super oblivious to this whole thing

[leilabird 18]

12 hours ago, Rearviewmirror said:

 

Almost everybody else in this thread is filing under the 3 or 5 year rule, and given that you haven't filled out your timeline I assumed you were in the same boat. You said your GC anniversary was August, which would have meant your interview was before it had been 3/5 years since receiving your original greencard. This doesn't apply to you given you've already been a greencard holder for more than 5 years.

Was I not supposed to apply for US citizenship since I passed the 3 year mark? Since I already applied, is it going to be denied? I’m using the same lawyer that I did when I applied for a green card. My lawyer hasn’t said anything. I’m emailing him right now. I’m now getting worried. I had no intention to apply for US citizenship as I was completely happy with my green card and my own country passport is way stronger than the US passport and I don’t travel lol. Only reason I applied for US citizenship was due to losing my green card. Green card replacement application was taking too long, 2 plus years. The I kept hearing people saying the US citizenship applications taking only 4-6 months, so I applied. Now I got a notification saying my green card is produced. If my n400 gets denied I feel so sad for wasting money. Please people enlighten me. Super worried

[leilabird 18]

2 minutes ago, PVR Bound said:

https://hackinglawpractice.com/difference-between-3-year-and-5-year-citizenship/
 

outlines pretty nicely here what the difference is 

Oh okay thanks. My attorney just emailed me back and said “stay away from forums” lol

[jackiegringa 419]

Self delete

 

Edited March 1, 2024 by jackiegringa

[Rearviewmirror 397]

11 hours ago, leilabird said:

Oh okay thanks. My attorney just emailed me back and said “stay away from forums” lol

 

Broadly there are three "types" of folks going through the immigration process - 1) folks who learn the process inside out, do most/all of their filing themselves, 2) folks who don't know much about the process and trust their lawyer to do everything for them, 3) folks who don't inform themselves and try to go it alone.

 

2) works absolutely fine if you have a good lawyer, and can afford it, 1) is the route most folks on this forum take. Given how zero-sum the US immigration is - success vs banished forever (deliberate hyperbole there...) - I would far rather know all the ins and outs of the process.

 

If you have a good lawyer, they'll keep you on rails and will guide you through the process and you'll be fine. But I've also read stories of folks with bad lawyers on here.

 

My post was motivated by the fact that a LOT of people on this forum are in bucket 3) who do things like file for a replacement green card instead of applying to remove conditions, or apply for citizenship before they are eligible.

 

I'm still not entirely sure how long you've held your green card (see the 3 vs 5 year article posted above), but if you're married to a USC and have held a GC for 3 years minus 90 days, or you're not married and have held it for 5 years minus 90 days (including no long absences from the US during that time) then you're eligible to file for citizenship.

You can fill out your VJ timeline here - it lets other users see filing statistics, and get a better idea of when their case might be approved. More importantly it gives context to other folks when they are answering your questions/replying to your post.

[Crazy Cat 46,177]

1 hour ago, Rearviewmirror said:

Broadly there are three "types" of folks going through the immigration process

I guess I am a hybrid.  I started out as a #2...then the attorney failed to send some documents, causing us a 3 month delay......so I then fired him, and I decided to become a #1...No hiccups after that..LOL.

Edited March 1, 2024 by Crazy Cat

[minivatreni 193]

2 hours ago, Rearviewmirror said:

 

Broadly there are three "types" of folks going through the immigration process - 1) folks who learn the process inside out, do most/all of their filing themselves, 2) folks who don't know much about the process and trust their lawyer to do everything for them, 3) folks who don't inform themselves and try to go it alone.

 

2) works absolutely fine if you have a good lawyer, and can afford it, 1) is the route most folks on this forum take. Given how zero-sum the US immigration is - success vs banished forever (deliberate hyperbole there...) - I would far rather know all the ins and outs of the process.

 

If you have a good lawyer, they'll keep you on rails and will guide you through the process and you'll be fine. But I've also read stories of folks with bad lawyers on here.

 

My post was motivated by the fact that a LOT of people on this forum are in bucket 3) who do things like file for a replacement green card instead of applying to remove conditions, or apply for citizenship before they are eligible.

 

I'm still not entirely sure how long you've held your green card (see the 3 vs 5 year article posted above), but if you're married to a USC and have held a GC for 3 years minus 90 days, or you're not married and have held it for 5 years minus 90 days (including no long absences from the US during that time) then you're eligible to file for citizenship.

You can fill out your VJ timeline here - it lets other users see filing statistics, and get a better idea of when their case might be approved. More importantly it gives context to other folks when they are answering your questions/replying to your post.

I think that person had their green card 9 years, not sure why they’re stressing