N-400 interview in Irving TX (More tense than expected)

[smrose20 4]

My wife's visa Journey is nearing the finish line. The timelines are in a previous post 

So the updates:

• February 8, 2023: We went in for the N-400 interview but were told on the spot that the i-751 Interview would also be done, which threw us off. It was our fault for not doing more research and bringing a hard copy of what we sent. Thankfully, we were approved for the i-751 removal of conditions. However, the N-400 was canceled pending rescheduling.
• July 18, 2024: Received notice: "We are actively reviewing your Form N-400, Application for Naturalization. Our records show nothing outstanding at this time."
• August 26, 2024: Received notice: "We scheduled an interview for your Form N-400, Application for Naturalization. (September 30, 2024 Irving)"
• September 30, 2024:
  • 8 am: Complete interview
  • 9:30 am received notice: "We recommended that your Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, be approved. Your case was submitted for quality review."
  • 12 pm: Receive notice: "Your Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, was placed in line for oath ceremony scheduling."
  • 1:30 pm receive notice: "Oath Ceremony Notice Was Mailed (October 19, October 2, 12 pm Irving, TX)."
  •  

We got there at about 7:45 am. They only let her in, and I stayed in the car.

According to her, she went through security and had to wait 10-15 min for them to call her. The officer interviewing was pleasant and spoke good english. She starts with an oath where she stands, raises her right hand, and swears to tell the truth. No small talk at all. The first thing was to read and confirm her full name. Then the officer asked my wife to read out loud one sentence. Then the officer said, "California has the most people," and my wife had to write it on a tablet.

Civics Test:

-Name of national anthem
-Where is the Statue of Liberty?
-Who makes laws
-Who signs bills to become laws?
-I forgot the last one.

From there, it was an N-400 walkthrough. The first minor hiccup was how long we've lived at our current address. We have lived in the same building address for 4+ years but moved apartments, so technically, our current apartment has been there for only two years, but the building has had the same address for 4. My wife had to point that out to the officer.

Things got really tense once it came to how long she'd been out of the country. The officer said, "You've been out of the country longer than you're supposed to, which is more than six months in a year."

My wife had only been out of the country 2-3 weeks a year for the past five years, so this was very confusing. The officer showed my wife the screen, and it showed a bunch of dates that we did not submit on our N-400 or I-751. As it turns out, the system added the 1+ year she needed to wait outside of the country for her CR-1 to be approved and lawfully enter the US. We are really grateful the officer showed the screen and a willingness to listen because it allowed my wife to walk through with the officer that it's counting time before she was a lawful resident and we lived in Colombia right after getting married because our understanding was to change her Visa from visitor to spousal, we HAD to leave the USA until the CR1 was approved, a new visa was added to her passport and mailed back to her. 

The officer said that made sense and let my wife know that if she hadn't clarified that, she would have denied her and was actually wondering why my wife came to the interview if we knew she was going to be denied based on being out of the country for so long. 

After that tense back-and-forth, the officer made all the updates in the system and said my wife was recommended for approval.

We were shaken at the fact an error happened that was no fault of our own, and that error was pointing us to being denied. But we are SUPER grateful the officer was willing to let us explain our side and not just try to push us through to get to the next person. Overall, it was like a 45-minute interview, and the happiness kicked in with them being so quick to schedule our oath ceremony (October 19).

Edited September 30 by Crazy Cat

[Crazy Cat 41,978]

***One comment edited by VJ Moderation to remove outside link***

[Crazy Cat 41,978]

7 minutes ago, smrose20 said:

and the happiness kicked in with them being so quick to schedule our oath ceremony (October 19).

Congratulations!!!!  

[smrose20 4]

Thank you!!!

[smrose20 4]

TL;DR - What the agent says doesn't align with what's on the USCIS case tracker, and ALWAYS bring all your printed, up-to-date proof of marriage docs (IE financials six months to date, current least, insurance, etc.) to all interviews. Don’t count on them looking at anything you mailed in and bring literally everything.

 

We made a very rookie mistake that I'm sure many on here know better, and I wanted to share it to help anyone avoid any pitfalls. So for a rough timeline (and some might be off)

• January 16, 2019: I-130 received

• April 6, 2019: I-130 Petition approved

• May 26, 2019: send in i-864 and DS-260

• August 12, 2019: Received word we are scheduled for an interview at the US Embassy in Bogota, Colombia. Both of us went.

• September 10, 2019: 7am Interview and approved on the spot. (Interesting experience... It was just like you see in movie prison scenes where you and the agent are separated by bulletproof glass, you talk on a phone, and there are armed guards behind us). I got a letter that says we can enter the US by X date. This letter is critical to hold onto, as it will also state the passport stamp she receives, although it shows as expired, will act as her active greencard. This gave us trouble when we were trying to put her name on anything, and we had to show this document to multiple managers like apartment complexes, cell, jobs she applied to, etc., to prove she was legal despite not having a greencard and an expired visa stamp in her passport.

• May or June 2020: Received her two-year greencard in the mail.

• November 26, 2021: USCIS confirms they received i-751 Conditions of removal (IE application for 10 yr greencard)

• December 4, 2021: We get an "i-797 notice of action," basically saying even though your greencard shows it's expired, this paper will extend it another 24 months because we are backlogged. She traveled multiple times out of the country with an expired greencard, showed this i-797 to the TSA people, and had no issues.

• November 6, 2022: We decided to send in our n-400 despite not hearing back about her i-751. We got confirmation n-400 was received, and they plan to schedule an interview.

• January 10, 2023: We received notice in the mail to come in for n-400 Interview and it states what documents to bring. Nothing is mentioned about the i-751.

• February 7, 2023: Interview, but we find out on the spot it's a combo interview. So per the agent, we do not pass, and he's issuing an RFE. So we never get to the n-400 interview.

• February 8, 2023: USCIS i-751 case tracker says, "We ordered your new card."

• February 9, 2023: USCIS i-751 case tracker says "Case was approved."

• February 9, 2023: USCIS n-400 case tracker says, "appointment de-scheduled / canceled."

Okay, now for the story...I will give extra unnecessary details to help others who enter the process understand what to expect. We have an 8am appointment and walk in 10 min early. I wore a suit and tie, and she wore professional attire and heels. I'm happy we did this, as every US agent we saw also was in a suit and tie. Getting in the building feels very similar to going through TSA at an airport, from the equipment to the demeanor of the guards. We get to the door, and the security people don't let me in since my name isn't on the paper. So I go to my car to wait; my wife calls me and says they need me to come after all, and an agent motions to the armed guards to let me through. I go through the metal detectors, take off my shoes, belt, watch etc, run them through the scanner, and once cleared we wait in a big room with other people like you'd see at a DMV.

We get called into our appointment after about 10 minutes. It's a windowless office with a big covid-era plastic divider in the middle of the desk that separates you and the agent. This is relevant because our agent was a bit soft-spoken and had a pretty thick accent, so it was difficult to understand their words from behind the divider, even for me as a born and raised native speaker. They explained that we would do both the i-751 (removal of conditions) Interview first and then the n-400 (naturalization to be a citizen), but we need to pass the i-751 to go to the n-400 Interview. (Had I done my homework, I would have known this would be a combo interview and should have brought a lot more supporting docs than what they specified to bring for the n-400 notice.) He asks about previous addresses, the desk layout at our house, who cooks, who does laundry, my relationship with my father-in-law, what my mother-in-law's address is in Colombia (I had no idea), and then asks us for our recent bank statements. My colossal mistake is I sent ~300 pages of up-to-date financials, pics, loans, bills, and other proofs when I sent in the n-400 in Nov 2022 and ~600 pages when we sent the original i-751 in Nov 2021. I falsely assumed we could use what I had sent in already. I told him I mailed them but didn't have them printed on hand, only on my phone. To the agent's credit, they were very professional but mentioned that he needed to see printed bank and lease statements from within the last six months that we brought in, would issue us an RFE in the mail, and if we don't respond in 30 days, my wifes i-751 will be denied. That was a tough pill to swallow since we thought she might be a citizen that day (many are doing same-day oaths), then walked out not only without citizenship but with the possibility of her visa being denied within 30 days.

So we are still waiting for the RFE to be mailed to us and tell us where to send this still to, but what is weird is the USCIS case tracker site show on the i-751 update on February 7 (the same day as our Interview) that our card is being generated and February 8 that we were approved. So it's an exact contradiction of what the agent in our case said. So I try calling the USCIS number to get clarity, but it's a bot that only tells me the status online over and over and hangs up. Additionally, the n-400 case tracker shows the meeting was canceled, and they will send out more information for the next steps.

 

 

Update here

[smrose20 4]

The timeline and i-751 interview experience (also a doozy) here: 

 

[powerpuff 6,725]

*** Thread moved from US Citizenship Process to case Progress Reports section ***