doodle

I haven't posted on here in ages (my bad) but was part of the original thread that started about 4 years ago. I just wanted to share that there is hope that the visa journey can eventually come to an end.

This past Friday, 4 years and 4 days since my husband arrived in the US on his K-1 Visa, he was naturalized as a US Citizen. We are very excited and are happy to put the "journey" behind us. God bless everyone of you and your families and as always, let me know if you have any questions, I am always happy to help in any way that I can.

Take Care,

Doodle

congrats!! there is actually an oath ceremony?

There is an actual ceremony. There were about 75 other people getting naturalized. There are speeches, a few videos (one from Obama welcoming the new citizens) and then everyone is presented with their certificate. It was really quite nice and meaningful.

I haven't posted on here in ages (my bad) but was part of the original thread that started about 4 years ago. I just wanted to share that there is hope that the visa journey can eventually come to an end.

This past Friday, 4 years and 4 days since my husband arrived in the US on his K-1 Visa, he was naturalized as a US Citizen. We are very excited and are happy to put the "journey" behind us. God bless everyone of you and your families and as always, let me know if you have any questions, I am always happy to help in any way that I can.

Take Care,

Doodle

At last, the final steps are completed.

On Saturday I got my updated Soc. Sec. Card with restrictions removed.

Today my passport card arrived.

Now I look forward to traveling somewhere I can use my passport.

P

Question: Did you have to give them your naturalization certificate (the original) to send off with your passport application?! That scares me! Also, can you tell me how you went about changing the restricions on your SS card?! That would be so appreciated.

Update:

My husband took his oath last Friday - June 12th at the Durham, NC Field Office. Everything was smooth. They naturalized about 75 people and the room was packed. I thought the ceremony was quite touching and it brought several tears to my eyes. All that was needed from us was the letter they sent to come to the oath and his greencard. It was easy and truly not a hassle.

Now I just have to figure out how to deal with passports and social security card...! Yuck!

Good Morning VJ'ers. So, our oath ceremony date is this coming Friday - we are so excited. They sent us the form N-445 Notice of Naturalization Oath Ceremony in the mail. Yippee!

I just have a few questions.

The form states

You must bring the following with you: (and these boxes are checked)

This letter

Reentry Permit or Refugee Travel Document

Any Immigration Documents you may have

Bring your child if applicable

Other

The only box that isn't checked is the Permanent Resident Card box - that's weird! If anyone can please respond to the two items I have bolded above and what you think those may entail or if you've gotten the same letter, that would be awesome! One last hurdle!!!

Thanks in advance

Hi Doodle

Congrats.. Will you be taking Oath in the Durham office? Looking at few other posts, I was under the impression that the oath letter in Durham was normally handed out on the day of interview itself.. Is this not the case? Was your case any different?

Thanks

We will be in Durham. Normally I think the oath letter is given at the interview but my husband's fingerprints hadn't cleared so they told him to expect something in the mail. He got a letter at the interview stating he had passed the test, but that his case could not be approved at this time...it didn't take long for the oath letter though and the immigration person was very reassuring that things would be fine. Good luck to you when your day comes!

"Reentry Permit or Refugee Travel Document

Any Immigration Documents you may have"

Since I developed a bad case of paranoia after dealing with the USCIS for five years, I did bring my entire USCIS files in my big brief case along with us, but my wife just walked in with her oath letter and her green card that isn't green by the way. We had the N-445 filled out and thankfully, my wife didn't get any traffic tickets and had resorted to prostitution since her interview, it was my job to stay alive. But didn't sign it until she was in in front of an officer. They didn't really question her on her answers.

She didn't try to overthrow the government either, but we had a short discussion on how we could, we can't even get around our tax assessor or the building inspector let alone the US government armed with tons of nuclear laser guided weapons, but we do have access to some dried up sticks and stones.

We thought about bringing her child with us, but was informed she had turned 18, too bad, another couple of years wait and another 700 or so bucks. Wife really didn't want to surrender her green card, that cost us a small fortune and a lot of trips, and she only had it for seven weeks, asked if they could punch a hole in it or something and carrying a green card even to the bathroom became part of her life. But she got over that.

Ha, asked her yesterday if she had her green card to a short trip to the grocery store, but that was only because the day before, we were invited to a party with four other couples just starting the process, they wanted us there to share experiences, food was good. As typical, the immigrant wives were humble, but the USC husbands were pissed off, what is it with us USC husbands? Some of us had to fight for our freedom, those were the most pissed off. I rarely use that word, but here, it applies.

Had the same question about a reentry permit or a refugee document, what in the hell is that? We ain't got none, so screw it, see what happens. Brief case stayed in the car, green card and oath letter is all they wanted, I just had my camera but had to wait in a different line, they didn't ask anything of me, didn't even have to take my pants off, but had to drop my car keys in a basket along with my camera. But was told to keep my camera turned off until I got in the oath ceremony, just replied, Yes Sir, but wondered what if I took my 35 mm that doesn't even have an off switch on it. Missed out on some wonderful shots of the hallway and the men's restroom, ha, after drinking coffee and a four and a half hour trip, was just glad they had one.

nice! thanks for the humor

Good Morning VJ'ers. So, our oath ceremony date is this coming Friday - we are so excited. They sent us the form N-445 Notice of Naturalization Oath Ceremony in the mail. Yippee!

I just have a few questions.

The form states

You must bring the following with you: (and these boxes are checked)

This letter

Reentry Permit or Refugee Travel Document

Any Immigration Documents you may have

Bring your child if applicable

Other

The only box that isn't checked is the Permanent Resident Card box - that's weird! If anyone can please respond to the two items I have bolded above and what you think those may entail or if you've gotten the same letter, that would be awesome! One last hurdle!!!

Thanks in advance

Sorry for the very late response. I'll give you a brief synopsis on our interview experience in Durham, NC on Wednesday the 8th.

We arrived at 8am for an 8:20 appointment. My husband was called in around 8:45. He was out of the interview at approximately 9:20. Everything was smooth - they took copies of my new passport, birth certificate and my husband's passport. They looked at the tax information. They jumped right into the test and my husband can only remember the following questions (I guess that's what nerves do to you):

How many U.S. Senators are there?

▪ one hundred (100)

Who does a U.S. Senator represent?

▪ all people of the state

Who is the Commander in Chief of the military?

▪ the President

Before he was President, Eisenhower was a general. What war was he in?

▪ World War II

What ocean is on the West Coast of the United States?

▪ Pacific (Ocean)

He was asked to write the sentence:

We have one hundred United States Senators.

After he passed the test and answered all of the questions on the application - the interviewer told him that he had passed. However, apparently the fingerprints that were done in January have not been sent back to the office yet (backed up), so they could not give him an oath date and technically the application is still not approved. They gave him a form that stated he passed the exam but that the application was still pending. The interviewer continuously assured him that everything looked perfect and that they were just waiting on the fingerprints and he would be mailed an oath letter. They had a friendly chat and on his way out the interviewer asked if I was there and he pointed to me in the waiting room. That was it. So, we continue to wait but are happy that the hard part is out of the way. Looking forward to the ceremony whenever it happens.

Husband's interview on Wednesday, getting nervous and excited for him. I hate that I can't be there in the interview with him, but that is just the control freak in me. I have gathered all of the following information:

His g.c./passports/ss card/drivers license

My passports/birth certificate/ss card

the appointment notice

2 passport pictures

marriage license

bills

mortgage

auto loans

bank account statements

Please let me know if you think anything is missing and most importantly if you have any advice - please give it!

Thank you and I'll update on Wednesday.

recieved NOA 2, interview April 8th

Just a report on Biometrics in Durham, NC yesterday. Got there at 1:45 for a 2pm appointment. Waited for about 45 minutes and then proceeded smoothly. They had quite a few people waiting the machines were very slow. We were out of there by about 3pm. Now the next wait begins. No change in online status. Hopefully more to come soon.

We just recieved our fingerprint notice - January 6th, Durham, NC!!

We recieved NOA1 yesterday. It was more like a "receipt" than the ones we've gotten in the past. Also, our Application Receipt Number was strange. It had the 3 letters, an asterik, 6 zeros and then 3 more numbers. I thought that was strange and it obviously wasn't searchable on the uscis website. Am I right in remembering that you don't get the real number until biometrics?

Hello. I just wanted to add myself to the list. We mailed the paperwork in on the 24th of November, they recieved it on the 28th. Our check was cashed on the 4th of December.

OK so this is both of our first marriages. So basically we are saying that there has been one marriage and then when it asks for the previous spouse info. we simply put N/A becuase there is no prior spouse, just the current one.

Thank you!

I'm probably going to sound like an idiot right now - but this is important so i have to ask.

I am the US citizen and my husband is my first husband and he is the applicant. If he answers "1" to the question of:

G. How many times has your current spouse been married (including annulled marriages)?

The remaining questions would all be about him (the applicant). And the tone of the following questions assumes that we are no longer married as it speaks of the marriage as a "prior" one. We were intending to leave that blank because it doesn't seem applicable.

Section G:[/b]

"How many times has your current spouse been married (including annulled marriages)?" Is this a trick question? I'm assuming we leave everything blank since this is our only marriage, but please enlighten me. Is a trick question in the sense you have to list the citizenship of all previous spouses, and they may get suspicious if you married say 100 aliens. But they really want to know the total number of marriages your spouse had including your present marriage.

You would think by now they would have corrected this form.

Hello! I appreciate any feedback as we are preparing to mail our N-400 package in the next week. Please excuse any repeat questions.

1. Part 7

Section A:

If my husband is filing based on the 3 years married criteria, how should we respond to the question

"How many total days did you spend outside of the United States during the past five years?"

I'm assuming we answer it as though it has only been 3 years, but please provide any input. Otherwise he's been out of the country for 2 years worth of days...

Section B:

"How many trips of 24 hours or more have you taken outside of the United States during the past five years?" Same question applies.

2. Part 8

Section G:

"How many times has your current spouse been married (including annulled marriages)?" Is this a trick question? I'm assuming we leave everything blank since this is our only marriage, but please enlighten me.

I thank you all for your insight and knowledge.

Regards, D

I had a feeling you would be right behind us. We have very similar timelines.

Definitely celebrate! It is a good feeling.

Are you filing for naturalization? Maybe I'll see you there...in October

Yeah!!!!!! You give me hope, Doodle.

Mindy sends theirs to TSC in about a week. I send ours in August.

Thanks for updating.

JG -- if you know, how long after you get the 10-yeard GC can you apply for naturalization?

As long as you have been married and living with the same US citizen for 3 years you are eligible to file for Naturalization after 2 years and 275 days of being a permenant resident. In other words you can apply 90 days before your 3 years of being a permanent resident and being married and living with the same US Citizen.

Just an update to let you know it has arrived in the mail yesterday. Good luck to everyone and if I can be of any help to anyone let me know. See you on the naturalization thread.

I always appreciated it when people announced updates or changes in their case as it gave me hope for mine or gave me something to compare to even if I knew that they couldn't be compared. Remember this is a "family immigration community". If your family member received some good news would you congratulate them?

For the record - my intentions in announcing my updates is only so that other people can see where we are at in our journeys. I don't think anyone has the patience to review everyone's timeline or signature to discover new developments in their case.

Thank you.

Come on now people - this is supposed to be a place where we update folks on the statuses of our cases and ask questions about things we don't understand. Don't hate because ours got approved - we can't predict why or how these things happen. I feel the frustration for all of those who have been waiting - we all know that pain. Please make this a place where everyone can share their joys, frustrations and anything else that comes to their mind.

I don't come on here too often but just an update for all the people "removing conditions" soon. We were approved today via email and online case status. Super excited. This October we apply for naturalization. Please send me a PM if you have any questions. I will also post in the next day or so a copy of my cover letter that we used for the I-751 packet. Blessings to all.

Oh, p.s. Gregory Isaacs tonight!!!! Raleigh! What a way to celebrate!

Congrats on your approval, Darla. Will Gregory be at the RBC center tonight? That sounds really exciting. Enjoy!!!

No, he's actually playing at The Lincoln Theatre downtown Raleigh. Its a nice little club - Luciano will be there in May and we've seen Beres there too. You can get real up close and personal...Lincoln Theatre

I don't come on here too often but just an update for all the people "removing conditions" soon. We were approved today via email and online case status. Super excited. This October we apply for naturalization. Please send me a PM if you have any questions. I will also post in the next day or so a copy of my cover letter that we used for the I-751 packet. Blessings to all.

TSC must be a lot quicker than NSC because we sent ours in June '07 and we're STILL waiting! So, you don't have to have an interview or anything?

We did not have an interview - and from what I see on the "Removing of Conditions" board, not many people do. I don't think there is any rhyme or reason for some of the things they do at USCIS.

I don't come on here too often but just an update for all the people "removing conditions" soon. We were approved today via email and online case status. Super excited. This October we apply for naturalization. Please send me a PM if you have any questions. I will also post in the next day or so a copy of my cover letter that we used for the I-751 packet. Blessings to all.

Oh, p.s. Gregory Isaacs tonight!!!! Raleigh! What a way to celebrate!

Application Type: CRI89, PETITION TO REMOVE CONDITIONS OF PERMANENT RESIDENT STATUS RECEIVED

Current Status: Card production ordered.

On March 19, 2008, we ordered production of your new card. Please allow 30 days for your card to be mailed to you. If we need something from you we will contact you. If you move before you receive the card, call customer service. You can also receive automatic e-mail updates as we process your case. Just follow the link below to register.

I am really really happy. Please see timeline below and if you have any questions, fire away! I will report when the card actually arrives.