US Immigration from Canada

Hi folks. I thought it would be helpful if I shared my recent experience. Please forgive me not updating my timeline as a lot of the info you're asking for apart from this most recent filing is well over a decade old in my case.

QUICK TIMELINE

ARRIVAL IN US ON K-1 - 2007

REMOVAL OF CONDITIONS - 2011

APPLICATION FOR CITIZENSHIP - SEPTEMBER 20TH 2020

INTERVIEW SCHEDULED FOR CITIZENSHIP - APRIL 25TH 2022

INTERVIEW FOR CITIZENSHIP/APPROVAL - JUNE 13TH 2022

Some background: I immigrated to the US from Canada in 2007 on a K1-Visa. My husband is a US citizen. We were married in October of 2007, and we're still married now. Neither of us has been married before, we have no children, I have not been outside the US since I've come here, and we've lived in the same house (which we own) for almost fifteen years.

My Green Card was due to expire December 2021, and after a lot of thought, instead of renewing it as we had originally planned for me to do my husband and I decided I would file for citizenship. This was September 20th, 2020. Notably, I was also including a request to have my name changed to reflect my married name.

I filed online, filling out the forms myself, and received a notice of receipt that same week. I opted to upload:

My 1099s from the previous three years

My W-2 from my current job for that year

The next update I received was January 10th, 2021, for a Notice of Biometric Re-Use.

I didn't hear anything after that for over a year. In June of 2021, I sent a message through USCIS' online portal asking for an update and expressing concern regarding my expiring Green Card. I received a reply July 2021 informing me I was still within their expected timeline, and advising me to file for a I-90 replacement of my Green Card, which I did on July 20th, 2021 - this still displays as being "actively reviewed", which is the only update on the case, and was applied the same day it was received.

While applying for the renewal automatically extended my Green Card for another year, I was still concerned about the slow processing times. Based on their projection (15-17 months) they insisted I was still within their processing time until February 17th, 2022. I also opted to upload my W-2 for 2021.

I contacted them again on the above date, and received a message March 10th, 2022 indicating that I was still within their expected time frame, BUT using the date I filed my I-90, NOT my N-400. Meaning, the person who had sent this response from me was looking at the incorrect case file.

I waited a bit, then responded April 11th, 2022, clarifying their mistake and asking for an update. Later that same month, however, on April 25th, 2022 I received a notification that my interview had been scheduled for June 13th, 2022, at our Tampa office, at 8:10AM. (USCIS online did not reply to my April 11th query until April 28th, haha)

Arriving about a half hour early, there was already a line forming at the door. Masks were required. They took my appointment letter, verified it against a list, and sent me inside. After passing through a metal detector, I checked in at the front desk and was given a number that would be called and told to wait in a large waiting room nearby. I brought with me a folder containing the following:

THINGS THEY ASKED FOR:

• My appointment notice
• My expired passport from my original entry 15 years ago
• My ID (driver's license)
• My (currently) expired green card

THINGS MY ANXIETY TOLD ME TO BRING BECAUSE WHO KNOWS:

• Six years of tax transcripts
• A copy of my birth certificate
• A copy of my husband's birth certificate
• Tax forms from my current job for the last three years
• A printout of my job, pay, and duties from our payment system
• Two character references from my manager and our CEO
• Several photos of my husband and I together
• Bank statements from several years
• The title for my car with my address
• Proof of car insurance with my name and address
• Proof of health insurance with my name and my address (and my husband as he's covered on my insurance)
• Miscellaneous documents that also included my name and address to establish residence (vet bills, pet adoption papers, etc)

I was called in for my interview around 9:15AM. (I heard other people also talking and this seemed like it was a standard wait time for that day.) They had me remain standing and pledge to tell the truth, and then sat down. I handed over my ID, my passport, and my green card. The interviewer verified my information in the system, and took my photo using a web cam. Then he had me read a sentence from an electronic display, and then write a sentence he dictated on my device. Then he asked me the first six questions from the citizenship test - I got all six right, and he opted to stop there.

Next we briefly chatted about my life and work - how long I'd lived in my current place, what my job was and what it's like (I'm a director for a video game publishing company). He had a HUGE (h u g e) file in front of him that contained all of my case so far. He said I had been extremely meticulous in all of my communication, and all of my filing and uploads. He told me he was recommending me for approval, and then said that because I was opting for a name change, the oath ceremony would be at a later date with an official on hand to take care of the name change as well.

He asked me if there was anything in my folder of many many many extra documents I wanted him to look at, and I said not really if he felt good about his decision - I was embarrassed to have brought so much but said I'd rather bring it and not need it, than need it and not have it, which he agreed with. He escorted me to the waiting room, congratulated me, and said I'd receive a notice when the oath had been scheduled. The entire interview was probably less than 20 minutes.

By the time I got home an hour later, my USCIS account had updated me from Recommended for Approval to Oath Ceremony Will be Scheduled. And that's where I'm currently at, waiting for that notice!

I'll provide another update when that has been scheduled and gone through. I hope this was useful for some folks - I just wanted to share with some details and context because I know everything has been weird and delayed everywhere it seems with COVID, and I thought it might be helpful. Good luck!

Interview is coming up soon and I had a quick question. If we're using 3 different types of assets (bank account balances, real estate properties, and certificate of deposits), but let's say 1 of the 3 assets ends up being more than enough to qualify us, what happens to the other 2 assets? In our case, we believe that the real estate properties will be more than enough to qualify us. At the interview, can the CO "remove" the other 2 assets from our I-864A, or will they still need to be considered? I'm asking because there is a lot of paperwork for all 3 assets, so using just one asset would minimize a lot of paperwork and time for the CO.

Hi all,

I had my interview in Montreal on May 4 and my visa was refused because of the background check (The visa clerk said it would have been approved if I had the fingerprint background check)

I had the name/DOB police background check not the RCMP fingerprint.

The visa clerk told me 1-2 weeks when they receive it I should have my visa issued and sent out however I am now in week 4, going into week 5

I was able to get the fingerprint background check completed and back within a week and the consulate mailroom received my documents on May 19.

In anyones recent experience, how long did it take for you to receive your visa after they received the correct paperwork?
Do you remember what day the tracking number was emailed to you? I thought I read somewhere that visas are generally issued on Wednesdays and shipped Fridays. Any insight would be really appreciated

TIA

My wife and I recently filed her AOS package, and today we received an RFE for the I-864s we submitted. Can anyone have a look at it and let us know what they think we may have been missing?

We submitted two I-864s, one from me (the USC spouse/primary sponsor), and one from my aunt (the joint sponsor). I have been disabled since childhood, have no income (before getting married I received SSDI; I am no longer qualified for SSDI since marrying), and have never filed tax returns as I have never earned enough taxable income to be required to. My aunt is retired and makes well over the 125% federal poverty guideline (in pension, etc.) to be a sponsor. For my I-864, I submitted the form, my US birth certificate, a letter explaining why I am not required to file taxes, and the SSA-1099s from 2019, 2020, and 2021 showing my SSDI income. For my aunt, she submitted the form, her US birth certificate, and her 2021 tax return transcript.

Some ideas we have about what the problems might be:

1. My wife and I reviewed the scanned documents that USCIS have in her My USCIS account, and although we carefully assembled the packet with cover letters for each form and duplicates of the documents required for each of the I-485, I-864, I-765, and I-131, we see that USCIS have some documents uploaded under the wrong form: among them are my birth certificate and my aunt's, which are uploaded instead as employment authorization evidence. Is it possible they need those sent again?
2. Do they need my aunt's full form tax return? We thought the tax return transcript would be acceptable/preferred. Should we send the last three years too? Should we include assets as well (they shouldn't be needed to reach the $ guideline; her income should be enough) or some other evidence?
3. I have no idea what else I can send for my evidence as I obviously have never qualified financially as a sponsor, which is the point of having my aunt as the joint sponsor. On my I-864, I listed my "current individual annual income" as the amount I received from SSDI from January this year until marrying and losing SSDI. Should I have put the figure for 2021 instead?
4. I'm aware household size is a common mistake; however we did not miscalculate and count my wife twice as some people have done. My aunt and I each sent an I-864 with a household size of two (my aunt and my wife; me and my wife). Does USCIS instead want a household size of three (my aunt, my wife, and me)? My aunt does not live with us but does live in a different apartment in the same apartment building, so I'm unsure if USCIS thinks we are a single household, or if we should be considering ourselves a single household for this form.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. We have until September 8 to respond, but we want to make sure we do this right.

I had my interview on October 29, 2021. I ve received 221G after interview. To date, my case is still under administrative processing. It had many few updates, -the last one in this month. My case is stagnant and I was wondering if this has happened to others. Any recommendations please. My wife and I are separated and financially drained by the process. We are about to lose our home in the states due to financial problems and travel cost are too much to bear. How could the greatest country in the world have such a poor 221G administrative processing? It s about five years since we started the immigration process. I understand the COVID problems but 221G needs overhaul.