US Immigration from Zambia

* The point of this post is to provide encouragement for someone in the future who may feel like this whole convoluted process is convoluted. It is! But it's okay. Hang in there.

Background: Our case was received at the embassy and marked READY March 28th; upon email inquiry, the embassy told us to wait to submit the DS-160 until my fianc e receives a welcome email (presumably packet 3)

It has been 47 days now and she has not received a welcome email. I spent all weekend souring the USCIS/NVC/embassy website documentation and could not find a step-by-step guide that included "submit the DS-160 before/after the embassy contacts you". I have searched Facebook groups and this website and have read reports of people filing before being contacted, and getting the interview scheduled as soon as they submitted, whereas others have been reprimanded by the embassy for submitting. Some comments indicate "if you get packet 3" and indicating that many embassies don't send it, and others send packet 3 and packet 4 together after the interview is scheduled. The CEAC status gives instructions that direct me to a site explaining the interview process, but the same workflow has a place to submit the DS-260, but not the DS-160.

Needless to say, it's all overwhelming and confusing.

No worries, just check and see what other timelines look like for applicants from our embassy. Great! Somehow I don't think the last three cases from this embassy (who had interviews in 2018, 2014, and 2014 respectively) bear too much resemblance to the current situation.

So today I placed an international call, waded through the various touchtone response menus and finally spoke with a person. I was told to be patient and continue waiting.

That's it. The clear answer of when to file the DS-160 is, IT ALL DEPENDS. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

So as we close out Day 47, we continue waiting.

** I will update this thread as things progress because EESH! It's a mess.

Hey everyone,

got a question, im filling out the I130 for my father now that i have naturalized. However when i looked at my birth certificate i noticed something i never noticed before. He is a pastor and for some reason on his name the wrote

PASTOR JOHN DOE

VILLAGE OF BIRTH

PASTOR

NATIONALITY

His name however on his brith certificate is JOHN MIDDLENAME DOE

(obviously john doe isn't his real name.

is this going to be a problem when i submit my birth certificate or do i need to fix this on mine which in itself will be quite the undertaking but still doable.

Had my joint i751 + N400 interview back on Dec 5th. I was told I passed n400 and would receive an oath ceremony pending i751(divorce waiver) on January 3rd n400 status changed to recommended for naturalization submitted for quality review. And then changed same day to the oath ceremony will be scheduled. Jan 4th i751 changed to case was approved. Now I've been waiting for an oath ceremony for over a month with no details from USCIS on when that'll be. Detroit FO. My ADIT stamp expires in April and I'm planning to leave the country in April for about two months, so I fear not getting a passport in time if I have to wait much longer.

My questions are is it still too early to involve a congressman to get my oath ceremony scheduled?

Is this much of a wait time normal?

Is there any other option to get scheduled?

Edit: Ive come across a few people that interviewed a month after me this February in the same situation, that already have their oath ceremony dates for this month. And i find it odd that i have not yet gotten mine.

I'll try to be as detailed as I can I'm totally freaking out over here .

Case History,
All at DET center

In a relationship with USC spouse for 4 years prior to marriage. (I was on DACA)

Married in April 2016
Filed for AOS the next month.
Interviewed and approved on the spot in September 2016 for AOS and received Conditional green card a few weeks later

Marriage got rocky mid 2017 ultimately filed for divorce end of 2017, divorce finalized may 2018

Filed I751 August 2018 and then the long wait

Met my current spouse in 2018 and was remarried at the end of 2018 (still married)

Filed N400 this year in May after the 5years had elapsed

Received first interview appointment for last October. After waiting in the lobby of the agent came out to let me know that they couldn't find my paperwork from my i-751 and that they couldn't proceed with the interview that day and they would reschedule it after they found my paperwork.

Got a notice on October 31st of new interview date of December 5th and just had my interview yesterday.

It was a combo interview i751 and N400 as the i751 had still been pending.

The agent I had was a bit more stern than I had anticipated, however I tried to keep my cool and stick to what I knew.

Issues I ran into:
A page of my judgement of divorce was missing from my original file. Luckily I had read on here to make sure to have extra certified copies and I gave them one copy.

Second issue and this would be the most pivotal. Midway through which you told me that he could not approve my i751. He still has a lot of questions to which I instantly told him I have even more proof of our relationship being bonafide. I brought a album of photos which showed our relationship from the very beginning when we were just dating. Much younger through marriage that show trips with family with each other, etc.

He also asked if we owned any property. I told him we didn't. I did have extra copies of our lease agreements bills in both of our names, utilities, credit cards. She was listed as the primary beneficiary on my 401k. My life insurance we shared medical insurance as well through my workplace. I had records of all the trips we took together. Also had copies of letters from the state or address changes etc. Affidavits from some of our friends. In my paperwork and at the interview I did mention how we started clashing on religious beliefs. We both share the same religion but she chose to not actively practice and it caused clashes on how we planned to raise the kids we were trying to have and it led to other arguments etc. I assume this wasn't a good enough reason for the agent. Because after I showed him the photo album did state. Are you sure that it wasn't because you guys were too young and didn't understand how serious marriage was. To which I did mention we were very young. We got married. Not super young but early 20s and because of this we didn't understand a lot of things that I know now in life after therapy etc. Of our relationships change and how we can't expect them to be the same and then as I was getting ready to pull out more information, he said that's all right. Let's move forward with the n400.

We went through the entire n400 at the end he told me that I have passed the n400 and he would be recommending me for naturalization pending the i751. On the paperwork that they gave me he did select that I was recommended for naturalization and not the section that says a decision can't be made at this moment. I don't know if this has any weight. I'm just confused because my 751 is of course still pending and I don't know if I gave him enough proof. I offered to leave it any extra documents that I have with him and he told me that he didn't need them and that the next steps after they make their decision would be the scheduling me for my oath ceremony. He went into detail about how I wouldn't receive a green card as what I would receive instead would be a notice of my schedule of ceremony.

So I don't really know how it went. Hopefully somebody has some advice am I overthinking? It really caught me off guard when he told me that he wasn't going to approve my i751 during the interview. And I don't know if they normally continue the interview for the n400 if they can't prove the i751. Let alone give me the paper at the end recommending my naturalization. Has anyone been through something similar?

Hey everyone so I have a bit of a tough situation to figure out and I'm hoping someone on here can help.

Here is my brief timeline

Dated for over 7 years,

Applied for and was approved for Cr1 GC in 2016.

Marriage ended in early 2018 a few months before the 2 year mark.

Filed for I751 with divorce waiver in august 2018

Received notice of action

Never received biometrics appointment

Case status still states, Finger print fee received

I've had infopass appointments, received the i551 stamp in my passport twice now, but case is still pending with no action taken only moved from CA to NE late 2019.

This august i will have held my status for 5 years since it was granted in 2016.

So my question is, with my pending i751 am i eligible to file N-400 even though I'm still technically only on a CR1? But i will have had that status for 5 years due to the massive delay on my case.

I'm hoping that filing the n-400 will give my case the shove it needs to move along.

I'm not worried about proving the was entered into in good faith. As stated we were together for 7 years prior to marriage, and i submitted ALOT of proof of our legitimate married life, it just didn't work out as we had hoped.