Ruffie

You don't need the Fuehrungszeugnis until the actual visa interview - approximately three to four months after you file the I-130 petition. At this interview she has to sign a bunch of paperwork, provide the Fuehrungszeugnis, your last three tax returns and your signed Affidavit of Support among a few other things. And she'll have to pay $230.

Make sure she reads up on the vaccinations that are required - here My link Make sure she can prove TWO MMR shots, one will not do. Also she needs a TDaP boost and a varicella vaccination. If she had varicella as a kid, a simple blood test will show and she can bring it to the medical.

You bring the DS-230 in at your initial interview (don't forget the others, too... I-130, G325a...), but DO NOT SIGN Part II!!!!!! This won't happen until she has her visa interview.

Congrats to everybody who's had their interview/oath in the meantime :thumbs: And keeping fingers crossed for those who are still waiting

My passport was ready for pick-up, just about three weeks after I applied. Not bad for an overseas procedure once again Now I have to update my SSN records and send my stuff to the Federal Benefitus Unit at Frankfurt Consulate. I'm trying to get away with sending copies of my passport and naturalization certificate, I know they'd rather see originals... maybe I'm lucky and they'll let me off the hook easy. If not, I'll have to take another day and drive there and do it personally. I'm not sending my certificate off again. Much less with the German mail system.

I'm pretty sure there is no I-400, only a N-400 which would be the application for naturalization. I'm also pretty sure that an illegal alien can't just apply for naturalization.

However I do know that an illegal alien can adjust status as an immediate relative of a citizen so I suggest you start the AOS (adjustment of status) process - I-485 and I-130.

It's all so complicated! I don't think we'd have time to plan any sort of wedding before he goes and it all seems so unromantic, although I think this whole thing has taken any romance out of it!

Who says you have to have a wedding? Just get married You can always have a big weddingt later

Why don't you just abandon the K-1 idea, get married before he leaves, visit him once or so while he's still stateside and then after he deploys, get started on the CR-1 visa process?? Less hassle, if you ask me.

Congrats Blessed !!! Your visa journey is now complete

I have a question about my visa intv coming up on 15th - when we are asked a question which have multiple answers as per the study materials, are we supposed to give all the answers? example - Q.37: What does the judicial branch do?

There are 4 answers to this -

reviews laws

explains laws

resolves disputes (disagreements)

decides if a law goes against the Constitution

Am I supposed to rememeber all 4 at the time of interview?

No, unless specifically stated IN the question, you only have to give one answer.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but I thought if you were a dual citizen you would use... let's say... your US passport to depart and enter the US and in my case (if I had my dual citizenship and had in my possession 2 passports, which I don't) I would use my Australian passport to enter and leave Australia. Isn't that how it works?

Yes.

When you check in at the airport in your country, you have to show the US passport, otherwise you'll be denied boarding being that you don't have a visa/ESTA in/with your other passport. At the border patrol (if there is one) when leaving your country, you show your country's passport. If they check passports at the gate during boarding, you show the US Passport (again because of the whole visa "problem"). You enter and leave the US with the US passport. And enter your country with your other passport. Sounds complicated but when you think about all the different steps from check in to arrival (and the reason why you have to show a passport), it's actually rather logical :-)

So yes...I'm a US Citizen! Took 3 months and 12 days so it was a pretty quick process. The oath ceremony was kinda cheesy for me especially when they played "Proud to be an American" at the end. I thought the pre-recorded message from Obama was a nice touch even though I don't like him. I happened to be in the 3rd row from where they started handing out Naturalization Certificates so I got out of there pretty quickly. The judge came around 12:30 and I was out by 1PM so my ceremony was pretty short.

I am the first in my immediate family to get naturalized so it was a little weird for me to be honest. I don't feel any different but I'm glad that I'll be able to vote in this upcoming election.

Anyways, thanks to all you guys for your support and help throughout my journey. Now I need to help the rest of my family go down this process if they want to =)

Oh one question...do you have to sign the naturalization certificate? There is a section for my signature on the N-550.

They didn't ask you to sign it?? I had to sign mine at the interview

Questions for those who already had your interviews??

Were you asked to show your original Tax Return Transcripts?? I went over all the documents I'm bringing to my interview tomorrow... and I cant find the tax return transcript for 2009.... I send the copies or maybe the originals.. I cant remember.... sigh... I requested a copy of the 2008 tax a year ago and IRS never ever sent me another copy.. ;( I'm just crossing my fingers the IO doesnt ask for it...

No, I wasn't asked to show anything. I only brought our original marriage certificate and our daughter's birth certificate with me but nobody wanted to see anything. They didn't even look at my passport

Where on earth did you get that from? The new fiancee is a German K1. It reads like the USC lives in the US due to the references to CPS in a couple of posts and also "if my fiance gets stationed in another state". It's likely the German fiancee is visiting the US at the moment or is talk about the future "living with us" but I certainly don't get "Germany" from any post. No.. think you're WAY off base here.

I guess I didn't read the opening post thoroughly enough because my mind somehow added "in Europe" to the "the kids live with my fiance and me"

I'm going to assume you're living in Germany, the ex is German and the whole custody stuff is going through the Jugendamt. If your fiance doesn't have sole custody, he cannot PCS out of Germany WITH the kids unless the mother gives up on her custodial rights. And honestly, I don't think I don't think a U. S. visa forum is the right place to figure out custody arrangements in a country that has a completely different legal system than the U. S. Talk to a lawyer who knows what they're doing.

ROFLMAO!!! Well... I'll just save myself the headache and do the same day passport. We have that option in Dallas (thank God!) for those traveling in less than 2 weeks internationally.

ya I definitely would've done that, too, had I had that opportunity. But military people overseas can't get their passports through the Consulate anymore and we have to go through the passport office on the Army installation So now I'm sitting here waiting for the call that my stuff is ready for pick up so I can sleep again at night, lol

And then I still have to update my SSN... let's hope they accept a copy

Thanks Ruffie! Long time no talk! Hope you are enjoying the "benefits" of being a USC!

If that involves losing sleep over the fact that I had to give up my original naturalization certificate when I applied for the US passport and am worried sick that something might happen to it and the ONLY copy I made is nowhere to be found.... then sure

Good to see we're finally getting somewhere with appointments and "red font color" Congratulations everybody that got their interview/oath letter or passed everything already!

im a army wife.. we've been in overseas for 5 years now,, was 2 years in korea and 3 years here in Japan.. But i never been in Us..

but i know being in overseas as long that you are cmnd sponsored and your name is in your hubby's orders, he can take u..

u just have to get reentry permit to the immigration in Korea/Germany (when u get there, they will give u time) to enter and exit the country..

i dont know about the states if u can leave w/o Gc.

Just to avoid any confusion - I'm assuming you mean that military dependants require a SOFA card that allows them to enter/leave the country they're sponsor is stationed in without a visa. You don't actually need a re-entry permit when you're on military (or DoD) orders.

It's rather simple... any immigration related medical examination will NOT be covered by Tricare, period.

Congrats, everybody!

So as I was clicking post on the previous entry, I got called in for my interview and I just finished!!! APPROVED!! The IO was very friendly and nice. She asked me to name a war fought in the 1900's, how many voting members of the house, how many years we elect representatives for, who the supreme justice is, when do we vote for the president, and who the father of our country was. Then she went through the application and I decided to do a minor change in my name. Painless! I was out at 11am which was my original scheduled interview time. I'm now waiting for my oath ceremony letter which she told me would be April 19th. Thanks to all of you who have been on this journey with me, helping me along the way. I will post when I officially get my oath ceremony letter.

Those were the EXACT questions I was asked! In that order, too. I guess they just have a bunch of pre-sorted question sheets that they print out to ask, huh, lol

She just went through the application pretty much line by line. All she asked me for was my passport, green card, and proof of selective service registration. I signed a few forms, read/wrote a sentence in english, and that was pretty much it. Honestly, it was very chill and fast.

You know nobody bothered to look for my passport for some reason? I was so surprised

Yay! Congrats, Ruffie! Now you are officially done with the USCIS forever! :dance:

And that is THE best part of it all!!!

Yeah we called the consulate and they told her to bring the documents in and they could process her ssc from there. So hopefully its taken care of now. Next would be her BBG and her N400 but we will wait till we pcs for that.

If your home station is still in Germany, she can do that from here, too, and get sworn in in Frankfurt. I just went throught the whole overseas naturalization process and was done in two months.

More often than not the "automatic" thing doesn't work. Matter of fact, Deb+Steve is the first person I meet where it actually did work, lol.

So I take it, our wife didn't go to the to SSO and apply for one after a while She could try going through the next military post and applying for her SSN there, it might just work for her. That's just a guess on my part, but I figure if you can apply for your newborn's SSN after the birth abroad, she might be able to apply for hers, too. Worth a try. Did you deploy from Germany?

By the way, my case status on USCIS.gov STILL reads "initial review"

Last update from my side

It was quite the experience... only THREE people total and we all thought, awesome, we'll be out of here in no time. But never underestimate the slowliness of DHS... They managed to drag things fromm 0830 to almost 1300

Since there are NO electronics allowed to be brought into the consulate, they took pictures for us and will email them in the next few days.

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N-400: January 2012 Applicants

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USCIS Dallas/Lewisville, Texas Lockbox

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UserName...........|Sent.....|ChkCashd.|NOA......|Fprints..|Int Ltr..|Intview..|Oath.....|FieldOffice.........|

Miguel123..........|12/27/11.|01/03/12.|01/03/12.|01/20/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Houston, Tx.........|EB: 01/12/12

DeathStrike_1......|12/28/11.|01/02/12.|01/04/12.|02/02/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Orlando, FL.........|

Sib................|12/30/11.|01/05/12.|01/03/12.|Waived...|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Jacksonville, FL....|

zebra212...........|12/31/11.|01/07/12.|01/06/12.|02/12/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Fairfax, VA.........|EB: 01/27/12

DeathStrike........|01/04/12.|01/10/12.|01/13/12.|01/25/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Jacksonville, FL....|

Pinktulips2012.....|01/04/12.|01/11/12.|01/10/12.|02/07/12.|03/02/12.|04/02/12.|--/--/--.|Memphis, TN.........|

Notscenenough......|01/06/12.|01/11/12.|01/09/12.|01/26/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|New York City, NY...|EB: 01/18/12

Pandawars..........|01/06/12.|01/12/12.|01/09/12.|02/02/12.|02/11/12.|03/19/12.|--/--/--.|Boston, MA..........|EB: 01/27/12

Waithatter.........|01/09/12.|01/13/12.|01/12/12.|Waived...|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Dallas, TX..........|

Derpina............|01/10/12.|01/18/12.|01/13/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Atlanta, GA.........|

Ree................|01/10/12.|--/--/--.|01/13/12.|02/01/12.|02/21/12.|03/21/12.|--/--/--.|Buffalo, NY.........|EB: 01/31/12

Nelly228...........|01/13/12.|01/20/12.|01/19/12.|02/07/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|New Orleans, LA.....|

Blessed N Favored..|01/15/12.|01/23/12.|01/20/12.|02/17/12.|03/09/12.|04/10/12.|--/--/--.|Dallas, TX..........|

Fuzzymiss..........|01/17/12.|01/25/12.|01/23/12.|02/15/12.|03/08/12.|04/12/12.|--/--/--.|Boston, MA..........|

Corishman..........|01/17/12.|01/26/12.|01/23/12.|03/08/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Philadelphia, PA....|

New2009............|01/17/12.|01/26/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Fairfax, VA.........|

USA82..............|01/18/12.|01/26/12.|01/20/12.|Waived...|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Hartford, CT........|

Jade_arm...........|01/26/12.|02/01/12.|01/30/12.|Waived...|03/12/12.|04/16/12.|--/--/--.|Dallas, TX..........|

SiteDirector.......|01/30/12.|--/--/--.|02/10/12.|02/29/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Raleigh, NC.........|

Rylee..............|01/30/12.|02/03/12.|02/03/12.|03/05/12.|03/12/12.|04/16/12.|--/--/--.|Memphis, TN.........|

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USCIS Phoenix, Arizona Lockbox

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UserName...........|Sent.....|ChkCashd.|NOA......|Fprints..|Int Ltr..|Intview..|Oath.....|FieldOffice.........|

Rodgieslove........|01/02/12.|01/??/12.|01/??/12.|02/08/12.|02/??/12.|03/19/12.|--/--/--.|Seattle, WA.........|

DAndy127...........|01/05/12.|01/12/12.|01/11/12.|Waived...|03/12/12.|04/17/12.|--/--/--.|Chicago, IL.........|

HuffyTheSlayer.....|01/05/12.|01/13/12.|01/12/12.|02/02/12.|02/10/12.|03/19/12.|--/--/--.|San Bernardino, CA..|

Raul y Karla.......|01/14/12.|01/20/12.|01/17/12.|02/07/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Los Angeles, CA.....|

Last Stand.........|01/14/12.|01/24/12.|01/23/12.|02/09/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Los Angeles, CA.....|

Mary'n'Ev..........|01/16/12.|01/23/12.|01/23/12.|02/08/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Kansas City, KS.....|

Pepper.............|01/17/12.|01/25/12.|01/24/12.|Waived...|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Denver, CO..........|

Rosie74............|01/20/12.|01/26/12.|01/23/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|San Diego, CA.......|

Manias.............|01/22/12.|02/02/12.|01/30/12.|Waived...|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Honolulu, HI........|

JK0926.............|01/23/12.|01/27/12.|01/30/12.|02/13/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Omaha, NE...........|

SerenityNOW........|01/24/12.|01/31/12.|01/26/12.|02/22/12.|03/06/12.|04/12/12.|--/--/--.|San Francisco, CA...|

Wackodacko.........|01/24/12.|01/31/12.|01/28/12.|02/22/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|San Francisco, CA...|EB: 02/14/12

Calibound..........|01/24/12.|01/25/12.|01/27/12.|02/21/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Los Angeles, CA.....|EB: 02/15/12

Cwaf...............|01/26/12.|02/02/12.|02/03/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Indianapolis, IN....|

KathrynP...........|01/27/12.|02/02/12.|02/01/12.|Waived...|02/29/12.|04/04/12.|--/--/--.|Portland, OR........|

Bayojona3131.......|01/28/12.|02/03/12.|02/08/12.|02/28/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Los Angeles, CA.....|

TiJay..............|01/30/12.|02/03/12.|02/06/12.|02/24/12.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Los Angeles, CA.....|EB: 02/17/12

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USCIS Lincoln, Nebraska Lockbox (Filing Under 319b, 328, or 329 of the INA)

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UserName...........|Sent.....|ChkCashd.|NOA......|Fprints..|Int Ltr..|Intview..|Oath.....|FieldOffice.........|

Ruffie.............|01/06/12.|01/20/12.|01/12/12.|01/03/12.|03/08/12.|03/15/12.|03/15/12.|Frankfurt, Germany..|

Nanitao............|12/28/11.|01/11/12.|01/21/12.|Waived...|03/08/12.|03/21/12.|03/21/12.|Newark, NJ..........|

oops, what happened to the formatting?

I've heard from people getting re-imbursed ever since I started getting involved in the whole visa matter about five years ago

We didn't get anything (didn't even try, to be honest) because I wasn't on the hubs' orders so we paid for the move, visa and medical out of pocket. But when the spouse is on the orders to PCS from overseas to stateside, you can claim the expenses. And most people I've talked to, did indeed get re-imbursed from the gaining duty station. People that ETSed from overseas to stateside have claimed it from their old duty station and got re-imbursed, too.

My invitation says I can bring family members and one non-family member guest