N-400 Dallas, TX Filers (Merged Threads)

[Nkrish83 65]

10 hours ago, Dongbei said:

Can you just ask at the interview and then decide if there’s a big backlog?

 

Our marriage certificate is in Chinese (though translated in an official notarized copy from the government in China) and I see it being a huge hassle to get agencies to change her name based on that. 

If your question is around backlog size, most officers wont know that firsthand. They will say a couple of weeks to months as a general timeline. 

 

The easier part is to be able to change the initial response at the interview. If you said you want to change your name and change your mind, just let the officer at the start of the interview that you want to change the response and they will be mostly happy to accomodate. 

[Dongbei 22]

9 minutes ago, Nkrish83 said:

If your question is around backlog size, most officers wont know that firsthand. They will say a couple of weeks to months as a general timeline. 

 

The easier part is to be able to change the initial response at the interview. If you said you want to change your name and change your mind, just let the officer at the start of the interview that you want to change the response and they will be mostly happy to accomodate. 

So I just talked to a lady at the USCIS Application Support Center and she's saying it's actually super simple. We're just changing my wife's last name to be the same as mine. She said they'll just write it on the naturalization certificate info form and then it'll be official once she swears the oath. All of them are done before a federal judge in our area and they do them 2-4 times a month. 

 

She said we don't even really need to change it legally since we have a marriage certificate, but I'm concerned that would be a hassle for DL, Passport, etc. etc.

[Nkrish83 65]

1 hour ago, Dongbei said:

So I just talked to a lady at the USCIS Application Support Center and she's saying it's actually super simple. We're just changing my wife's last name to be the same as mine. She said they'll just write it on the naturalization certificate info form and then it'll be official once she swears the oath. All of them are done before a federal judge in our area and they do them 2-4 times a month. 

 

She said we don't even really need to change it legally since we have a marriage certificate, but I'm concerned that would be a hassle for DL, Passport, etc. etc.

Interesting perspective and i'm going to let the folks who actually did a name change comment on the above. My understanding was that you'd get a Nat Cert + Name change court approval doc which would then ease the process of changing name at SSA/DL/DoS etc. Not sure how it would work when you just show a Nat Cert that reflects a different name than the one listed currently. 

[LivFavor 17]

2 hours ago, Dongbei said:

So I just talked to a lady at the USCIS Application Support Center and she's saying it's actually super simple. We're just changing my wife's last name to be the same as mine. She said they'll just write it on the naturalization certificate info form and then it'll be official once she swears the oath. All of them are done before a federal judge in our area and they do them 2-4 times a month. 

 

She said we don't even really need to change it legally since we have a marriage certificate, but I'm concerned that would be a hassle for DL, Passport, etc. etc.

I've seen comments from people here who said they experienced delay when they requested name change during the interview. But if you still want to go ahead and request a name change, that's perfectly fine. No extra documentation will be requested of you. However, expect a slight delay in getting your certificate....my opinion. I might be wrong.

 

And the lady is right, changing your last name is very easy. You don't even need USCIS to do it for you. Your marriage certificate has already done it! And if you want your driver's license and SSN to reflect your desired last name, just communicate with DMV and SSA directly, the only document they will request for is your marriage certificate.

[Dongbei 22]

9 minutes ago, LivFavor said:

I've seen comments from people here who said they experienced delay when they requested name change during the interview. But if you still want to go ahead and request a name change, that's perfectly fine. No extra documentation will be requested of you. However, expect a slight delay in getting your certificate....my opinion. I might be wrong.

 

And the lady is right, changing your last name is very easy. You don't even need USCIS to do it for you. Your marriage certificate has already done it! And if you want your driver's license and SSN to reflect your desired last name, just communicate with DMV and SSA directly, the only document they will request for is your marriage certificate.

What about using a foreign marriage certificate? That's my major concern. 

[Lil bear 3,842]

16 minutes ago, Dongbei said:

What about using a foreign marriage certificate? That's my major concern. 

Immigrants use them all the time. Not an issue. 

[Dongbei 22]

2 hours ago, LivFavor said:

I've seen comments from people here who said they experienced delay when they requested name change during the interview. But if you still want to go ahead and request a name change, that's perfectly fine. No extra documentation will be requested of you. However, expect a slight delay in getting your certificate....my opinion. I might be wrong.

 

And the lady is right, changing your last name is very easy. You don't even need USCIS to do it for you. Your marriage certificate has already done it! And if you want your driver's license and SSN to reflect your desired last name, just communicate with DMV and SSA directly, the only document they will request for is your marriage certificate.

Should I just have my wife ask the officer then? She'll want the certificate to have our last name on it so it'll make getting a passport easier. It seems like both the courts and USCIS are kinda clueless on this though. They both say it is the other party that handles it. 

[LivFavor 17]

9 hours ago, Dongbei said:

Should I just have my wife ask the officer then? She'll want the certificate to have our last name on it so it'll make getting a passport easier. It seems like both the courts and USCIS are kinda clueless on this though. They both say it is the other party that handles it. 

If I were the one, I wouldn't request a name change during the interview. However once I get the naturalization certificate, I will request they use my hubby lastname when applying for passport, they will need my marriage certificate (also translated in English). However, that's me. Your wife can choose a different route, and that's perfectly fine.

[NatalieP136 21]

Anybody a March 2022 filer and still waiting? It feels like this is taking forever 

[NatalieP136 21]

My interview was scheduled yesterday! Interview notice not available in documents tab yet 

[M@K12 112]

Interview is scheduled as of yesterday. But I Can not open PDF link on account.

[M@K12 112]

2 hours ago, M@K12 said:

Interview is scheduled as of yesterday. But I Can not open PDF link on account.

I just called USCIS and My interview is on Dec 12 at 10.30 am. 

[NatalieP136 21]

2 hours ago, M@K12 said:

I just called USCIS and My interview is on Dec 12 at 10.30 am. 

My interview is Dec 12 9:45am 😊

[Crazy Cat 39,597]

I just checked my wife's USCIS account.  Her N-400 interview is scheduled for Dec 14TH!!!!    WooHoo!!!

Edited November 10, 2022 by Crazy Cat

[C-Sweden 11]

I feel like my process happened very quickly. Since I was a bit bored I logged into my account t to see if there were any updates on my I-751 since I filed it over a year ago and nothing has happened except for doing biometrics which I assumed happened due to filing N-400. I applied for my N-400 2 months ago and got an interview 12/15. Unfortunately I had to call right away to request to reschedule so I’m hoping that will not cause any problems. We have a trip to Sweden 12/11 and the airline wanted $2680 to reschedule to a later date so I had to call USCIS. I was so sure nothing would happen with my case until this coming spring or so…! 
 

Im still curious on what will happen with the I-751 application and if they will do a combined interview, separate or no interview at all…