sam75

I am completing my N400 as my three years less 90 days as an LPR is tomorrow!! Wow... those days of 129f seem so long ago.

I am on Part 7 (Time Outside the US) and am a little confused. If I am eligible to apply based on three years of marriage to a USC, how do I complete the questions about time outside of the US during the past FIVE years? Do I add in the time before I moved to the US and enter a very large number?

Likewise in question 7B, do I include trips that I took in the two year period before emigrating to the US? Question 7C specifically says "since becoming a lawful permanent resident" but questions A & B do not have this caveat.

Any advice appreciated!

Thanks!

List your trips outside the United States after you became a lawfull permanent resident. For marriage based Green-card holders, they list trips taken in last three years - I did the same. Nothing to complicate here.

Hope that helps

you have to provide a copy of your marriage certificate when you file it - otherwise you will get delayed unncessarily. We also sent more than they asked - bank statements, j-tax returns, bills, credit card statements etc..

Got my passport yesterday - amazingly fast - 5 working days, still haven't recieved the citizenship certification. Passport is the new type with security chip and good for 10 years - better than the Canadian Passport which was issued only for 5 years.

Since you are mentioning new feature from the passport, I'm wondering whether I should order passport cover to block RFID random reading from my new passport chip or not.

Anybody ordered one already ?

Not me, didn't know they were available. My thoughts were if you lost your passport or it was stolen at the airport or something they could locate it. But I guess someone could steal your name and address etc or whatever else is on that tag. Anybody know whats on the tag?

This is a big risk to confidentiality of information if they allow anyone to randomly scan it. Based on my research, only few international airports in USA have this equipped today which has a special line for new passport holders where they can just zip through when they return to USA.

Cmartyn, I guess it has all the information about the passport holder that is filled in the form (at minimum).

Do you guys think that Govt. (department of state) will allow anyone to read this, I highly doubt it otherwise they can run into big trouble.

My wife took the oath today. Finally, we are really done with USCIS forever. Good luck to everyone.

Congrates!

You will not be only denied a re-entry but you may invite trouble also if you use a non-US passport.

Got my passport yesterday - amazingly fast - 5 working days, still haven't recieved the citizenship certification. Passport is the new type with security chip and good for 10 years - better than the Canadian Passport which was issued only for 5 years.

Hey, we got ourrs back in 5 working days non-expedited. Mailed it on Saturday and got it the following saturday. The cert was in the envelope with the passport and only slightly bent not creased :-)

Congrates cmartyn and others in getting your passport and cert back quickly. I am in waiting pattern but hoping to get it soon.

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone of you has sent a letter to your field office and actually got a response from them? Since driving for more than 2 hours with babies at the backseat for an infopass is not really a good idea for me, I am thinking maybe sending an inquiry letter to my field office will help me get an answer as to why my application is not moving.

Does anyone have an experience to share? Thanks a lot.

I would advice you to take some effort to go through infopass. A friend had the samething (~1.5 hour drive) and mine was about 2.5 hour drive but I was unable to find a day to spare for this and I waited patiencely. Friend saw an immigration officer through infopass but didn't get much info - just scripted message. But he got a status update that his citizenship file was approved and next steps is the release of oath letter. So, if you need to get the status update, infopass will be the way to go.

Thanks All ! Still one more wait for getting the passport but that's not with USCIS which is a good thing

Congratulations!

I got my passport book/card, and the certificate of naturalization a couple of weeks ago, but Dept of State website still shows my passport application not in the system.

I wish Sam's club have some gift or discount for membership for new US citizen, who becomes Uncle Sam's club.

Moonhunt,

You can always join our Sam's club for free exclusive for all VJ'ers

How much time did it take to get the passport after applying? The USPS associate (where we have to apply from) stated 3 weeks and I should be fine but wanted to have the passport in hand way before we head out for our vacation in december.

Thanks All ! Still one more wait for getting the passport but that's not with USCIS which is a good thing

Finally we are done with my long immigration journey. Attended the oath ceremony on friday which was quite interesting and took about 2 hours. Finally got the certificate in hand and applied for passport right after. I would like to thank all who have been really helpful and wish you all good luck in your remaining journey with USCIS.

This site has provided a good platform for information sharing and in some cases I have found VJ'ers have more accurate information compared to immigration lawyers. That is a unique achievement of this open forum.

thanks all for responding. I am going to take a filled out the SS-5 form with me but won't give it to them unless they ask. that way we can confirm if a form is indeed required.

Thanks again for the quick responses.

have upcoming Oath ceremony and as everyone does, planning to stop by at the SS office on my way back. I know once becoming citizen, we have to notify the office, is there any particular form that we have to fill out? or just hand the certificate and SS card to be endorsed?

Congrates!

We are to follow you soon.

hello guys, hope you'll doing great today.

my naturalization interview is december 9, 2008. after the interview what if the Oath ceremony took me days or months? but by december 15 we are moving to texas. 6 days after interview. can i attend Oath Ceremony in texas? i mean after our moving? can i relocated my Oath Ceremony? i just don't know, and i can't change our moving date. that's all im worried about. uhm... or i should ask this to my intervier huh? just wanna know what's your opinion on this. thanks!

You need to notify USCIS about your change of address. The local field office will decide and process the request and forward the case to the closest field office where you are moving. I am not sure if this may cause any delay in the process, but if I were you I would notify them about change of address - they will change the location of oath for you.

lucyrich,

Thanks for the response. Yes, I have to out of US for 3-4 days max. So I think it should be fine. I just wanted to ask one more thing if you were asked so many questions about your 10 day visit to mexico which you took between the interview and oath ceremony?.

thnx

No questions. They just noted the answer on the back of the form, and noted that it didn't cause an ineligibility under the rules.

cool - thanks for confirming.

lucyrich,

Thanks for the response. Yes, I have to out of US for 3-4 days max. So I think it should be fine. I just wanted to ask one more thing if you were asked so many questions about your 10 day visit to mexico which you took between the interview and oath ceremony?.

thnx

Hi,

I recieved my oath invitation letter and it has a form with brief questions for things that may have changed between the interview and oath. One question is re: travel outside the country. I have an urgent out of country visit coming up a week before the oath. I will be back in USA so I don't need to reschedule or anything. My question is if it's ok to travel out of country while awaiting for the oath? Are there any gotcha's that I have to be concerned about?

thanks

Finally reaching the last step of this long journey. Just got my oath letter, updating the timelines.

UserName........Sent.........NOA1.......Biometrics.....Interview......Oath

completely.......03/07/08.....04/15/08.....--/--/08.....06/10/08.....--/--/--....TSC

klanecky.........04/02/08.....04/10/08.....04/10/08.....07/11/08.....07/11/08....VSC - Washington DC

saby.............04/05/08.....04/??/08.....04/29/08.....07/29/08.....--/--/--....VSC - Newark

licianne.........04/07/08.....04/15/08.....04/29/08.....--/--/--.....--/--/--....TSC

lumpy115.........04/09/08.....04/16/08.....05/05/08.....--/--/--.....--/--/--....NSC

gatorlink........04/10/08.....04/21/08.....05/06/08.....09/24/08.....--/--/--....TSC - Tampa

Pascal07.........04/12/08.....04/29/08.....05/14/08.....07/31/08.....--/--/--....CSC - San Jose

pry2008..........04/14/08.....04/26/08.....05/07/08.....07/14/08.....--/--/--....NSC

sam75............04/21/08.....04/28/08.....05/13/08.....08/18/08.....11/21/08....TSC - Memphis

stef and kel.....04/22/08.....05/06/08.....05/22/08.....--/--/--.....--/--/--....VSC - Buffalo

zyggy............04/26/08.....05/05/08.....05/30/08.....08/12/08.....09/17/08....CSC - Phoenix

lespoir fait.....04/26/08.....05/02/08.....05/28/08.....08/06/08.....--/--/--....NSC - Chicago

followmydreams...04/27/08.....05/08/08.....--/--/--.....--/--/--.....--/--/--....VSC

Laxmi............04/28/08.....05/09/08.....05/12/08.....??/??/08.....--/--/--....

F1Belle..........04/28/08.....05/15/08.....05/30/08.....06/21/08.....--/--/--....NSC - Atlanta

nfytoknow........04/29/08.....05/06/08.....05/29/08.....07/17/08.....09/26/08....NSC - Cincinnati

MGM..............04/29/08.....05/16/08.....05/29/08.....09/09/08.....--/--/--....NSC

jsouthwick.......04/30/08.....--/--/--.....07/15/08.....08/22/08.....--/--/--....TSC

Tong Yan.........04/30/08.....05/16/08.....05/29/08.....--/--/--.....--/--/--....TSC

Kkate2000,

Congratulations on getting the oath letter. Its unfortunate that Memphis office took so long to schedule one. I am still awaiting the letter, hopefully soon.

Just a quick check if anyone from April fillers have recieved oath letters? It's been more than 1.5 months now and am getting little anxious.

I was also told by the interviewer that she will recommend me to the supervisor (during interview). I was supposed to be receiving the oath letter in a 2-4 week timeframe after the interview date. In some cases it may take upto six weeks to get the oath scheduled. This is the fifth week and going into sixth week but no oath letter yet.

I think they suddenly slowed down this process for no real reason (or may be a real political reason). There are rumors that the new citizens tend to vote for democrats more, and to keep them from becoming new voters, the oath processes is kind of held back. I am not sure how much validity to this but it sounds very unethical if true. Waiting to the nth degree of your patience is something we all learned during the visa process so this will be the end of getting victimized by this bureaucracy.

anyone from april list got their oath letters? its' been a month now but haven't recieved ours. I am sensing the oath letters have slowed down. This is election season and it should be fast in my opinion?

Sam,

I got my second oath letter on Thursday. I did not go for the first one as I already had made vacation plans which I did not want to change. My oath is on Sep 26th in Cincinnati. I got my first letter after about 5 weeks. I am sure you will receive yours soon. Good luck.

Luckly you - congratulations in getting your oath and soon to be becoming a US citizen.

anyone from april list got their oath letters? its' been a month now but haven't recieved ours. I am sensing the oath letters have slowed down. This is election season and it should be fast in my opinion?

We haven't got my oath letter yet so can't tell for sure, but during interview I asked the same question. The Local office where the interview was held will co-ordinate dates/time with the local district court and will notify me via mail.

I also called up the district court and they are not dealing with scheduling but just run the oath ceremonies for the local office.