FilAmRouge

Thanks. I wasn't sure if there was a law that required we update the certificate.

We  were going to change the name during the naturalization process, but after our interview, after months of waiting, we made an infopass appointment to see what was taking so long. They told us since there was a name change, they were sending our file to our local courts in Baton Rouge instead of the courts in New Orleans, which was our field office. They said the local courts only do naturalization ceremonies twice a year, so could be a 6 month wait. We did not have the time for that, so they allowed us to naturalize without the name change. 

My spouse completed the naturalization process in late 2017. She subsequently has changed her name. As I understand it, she can file a form to have her naturalization certificate updated to her new name, for around $500. My question is, is she required to change her name on her naturalization certificate? It is a lot of money and if it's not required, we may just keep a copy of her name change court order with her naturalization paperwork. 

We've been in-line for oath since Oct. 10 for a New Orleans judicial ceremony with name change. I've seen that several who applied after us have already had their regular oath ceremony. Does anyone know how often they have judicial ceremonies in NOLA and how long it usually takes once in-line? I've called USCIS national customer service and they were no help. I called the court and they said to call the local USCIS office b/c they are the ones who handle the schedule. I've called the local USCIS field office multiple times. One number goes straight to voicemail where I've left two messages and gotten no return call. The other number just rings and rings and rings.

2 minutes ago, jxn said:

Good to know. We also followed the instructions literally (applying based on the three-year rule), so I was surprised to see most people on VisaJourney say we needed to include them in the initial mailing. I assume you didn't get an RFE at any point then?

 

Did you leave the evidence at the interview for them to review? Did they state that they couldn't approve you on the spot because they needed to review it? I'm considering proactively sending in photocopies of the tax return transcript and other relationship evidence just in the off-case it can cut down any additional waiting time.

We did not get an RFE. We did bring quite a bit of evidence with us to the interview and the lady looked through it and took what she needed. They gave us a document that said they couldn't make a decision at that time, but we were placed in line for Oath about 3 weeks later. I'm not sure, but it might have been quicker if we sent the evidence in advance. Might have saved us that 3 weeks. Now it has been over 2 months and we still haven't gotten notification that our oath was scheduled. We are doing a name change, so have to do the judicial ceremony, which is only done once per month in New Orleans, which is our field office. Hope that helps.

We didn't include the tax transcripts and relationship evidence with the packet we mailed in b/c the instructions said to only send a copy of the green card and marriage certificate, even though the checklist says to send everything. We did bring the tax transcripts and relationship evidence to the interview. Spouse was approved a couple of months ago and we're in line for Oath.

All we sent was a copy of the green card and of the marriage cert. as evidence. We had our biometrics. No RFE. I'm thinking that we just bring all the other stuff to the interview.

Congrats!

Thanks for the responses. We decided to try and get them to change the gender during the N-400 application process. We got a letter from the doctor that went by the guidelines in the link provided. I also included the request in the cover letter and put the new gender on the N-400. We will see what they say. I'm hoping that if they don't approve it during the process, that it won't hold things up. I'll update this thread once I find out. We just sent the form in today.

I'm seeking some advice. My spouse is transitioning male to female and we're about to apply for naturalization. I called the hotline for USCIS and they couldn't tell me how this works. I know we can change my spouse's name during the naturalization process, on the form. But how do we go about changing gender? Do we just put the new gender on the N-400? Or do we need to wait till citizenship is granted and do something after that? We have our doctor's note already, which I think is all that's needed for the federal government. Our state documents will require a bit more effort, but shouldn't affect the federal level documents. Anyone gone through this before??

Yay! Just got our text and checked online and saw "On May 10, 2016, we ordered your new card for Receipt Number WAC..."

We received our biometrics notice with an appointment date of 12/30/15. We sent the form in to reschedule and just received our new date of 01/13/16. Could someone please update the list with our info? Thanks.

If you're sending to the PO Box, you can't use UPS and have to use the USPS. We just sent it priority mail with tracking and it was fine.

We just received our NOA today. The date on the letter is 11/30/2015. Could someone please update us on the list? Thanks!

Could someone add us to the list? We mailed our application today, 11/25/15. Thank you.

California Service Center

Thanks for the input. I sincerely appreciate it. This really is quite a bit of info and I was unsure if I had missed anything. While I am using the philisophy of throwing everything at them but the kitchen sink, I don't want to annoy them with items that really don't matter, especially since it's a pretty big stack. So, I may remove some of the items you mentioned. We aren't including affidavits since we already have so much stuff. We certainly would look to include those if we get an RFE. As far as how I'm going to put all of this together, I'm not quite as organized as Tittysprinkles. I am using paper clips to hold together each of the bullet points I listed and I have a giant sticky note on each section to say what it is. Then I'll have one cover letter to kind of summarize everything.

My concern with the joint account is that I want to make sure it shows we are both paying the bills. I wasn't sure if just having both our names on the account was good enough, or if they wanted me to show that both I and my spouse were depositing money into this account. I'm leaning towards just sending the monthly statements and not addressing deposits so as not to make it overly complicated.

I'm guessing it won't be cheap to mail. But I'm so excited to get this process started.

Hi everyone and good luck to all those in process. I'm so thankful for this forum and all the info you all have supplied. I'd have never known what a tax transcript was without y'all. I’m the US citizen in our marriage. We are about to submit our I-751 with supporting evidence and would like some opinions on our submission plan. Here is what we plan to submit:

- I-751 app

- Copy of front/back of green card, drivers’ licenses for us both, passport for us both, marriage license

- 2 years of statements from our joint checking account with copies of all checks written

- copies of 2013 and 2014 tax transcripts plus w-2's

- 2 years worth of pay stubs for each of us (shows address)

- 2 years worth of retirement statements for each of us, plus 2 years of statements from my deferred compensation plan (like a 401k but for public employees) (shows address and beneficiary info)

- one greeting card for marriage congrats and two each for Christmas 2013 and 2014 addressed to us both

- copies of all electric bills for 2 years with both our names(shows address)

- copy of wills for both of us including interment instructions notarized

- copy of car registrations (shows address)

- copies of Costco cards and bill with both names

- copies of 2013 and 2014 homestead exemption mailings with both names

- copies of each of our credit cards from a department store with same account number each with our name (no statement b/c we haven’t used it)

- screen prints of my spouse's benefit selection from this year where we applied for life insurance effective Jan 2016

- copy of a Facebook conversation I had with my spouse's mom about welcoming me to the family

- copy of travel health insurance which covered us both

- screen prints of our travel confirmations for 4 different trips since 2013 (shows both names)

- screen prints and bill for our car insurance that covers both our cars

- AT&T bill with both our names and cell phones

- email from BBB and letter from Social Security with spouse's name and address noted

- copy of document where I donated half the house to my spouse

- various pictures since 2013 including travel photos and some with family

Questions: How does this look so far?

We each have our own separate checking accounts and then one joint account. Our mortgage and a couple of other bills are paid from our joint account. The other bills are paid using my personal account. My spouse transfers his portion of the bills to our joint account. I plan on explaining this in a separate letter I’ll send with the other evidence. Should I include statements from my spouse’s account showing his deposits to our joint account or should it be enough to include only one statement with his account number noted? The joint account only shows a portion of his account number on the lines where the transfer occurs. Thank you for any advice you can give me.

We plan on filing later this month and I have a question. Are screen prints usually ok for things like beneficiary, emergency contact and authorized user proof or should we try to get some kind of official letter?

We plan on filing later this month and I have a question. Are screen prints usually ok for things like beneficiary, emergency contact and authorized user proof or should we try to get some kind of official letter?

Can someone give me some advice please? My spouse got his temporary green card issued a couple of months ago. Now he wants to change jobs and is looking in different states. I can't move because I am about 75% of the way toward my retirement. Is it absolutely required that we be living together in order to get the conditions removed from his green card in about two years? Our lawyer's assistant tells us it shouldn't be a problem if we can prove bonafide marriage in other ways, but I'm not so sure. Does anyone have experience like this? I know it would be better for my spouse to wait the two years before moving to a different state, but he doesn't think it will be an issue for his green card. I'm not as optimistic. Thanks for any advice.

My spouse had to leave the country quickly after we filed our AOS documents. We filed for emergency advance parole. The form doesn't look very official. It's a typed up form with a passport picture glued to the bottom. I'm sure a normal advance parole document will look much more official. My spouse did have issues with the airlines when trying to return home. He was held for a short while in the airline office while they checked with the TSA. My only advice would be to schedule your flights with plenty of layover time between connections. That will give you time if they need to verify things like they did with my spouse.

I want to give an update on how this turned out for us. We decided to have our lawyer file our AOS and I-130 for us, but we would file our I-131 ourselves at the local office asking for emergency advance parole. We went to the local office in NOLA before the lawyer sent our forms to the Chicago lockbox. The officer told us they could do nothing without proof that we filed for AOS. She said the other option was to contact the Vermont center, who handle emergency advance parole for T Visa holders. We decided to wait for a receipt for our AOS docs instead of dealing with Vermont. Our lawyer sent our docs on Oct. 31 and unfortunately my spouses mom died the following Monday night. The next morning I spent hours on the phone with USCIS and they told me our forms were now in the system. We decided to visit the NOLA office again even though we didn't have a paper receipt. It took two days and lots of pleading, but they finally gave us the emergency advance parole. They required that we do the biometrics for the AOS prior to approval. If we hadn't encountered such nice folks at that office, who knows how long this would have taken. As a citizen I'm embarrassed how immigrants are treated. My spouse should have been able to see his mom before she died. Now he's there, in the Philippines, landing in Manila the same day as the super typhoon Haiyan. He's safe, but the whole ordeal has shown me that the system needs fixing. I will write my one good senator and ask for reform.

Thanks for the responses. I've also read that you need to bring a copy of your airline ticket to the AP interview. Is this true? Seems odd since we don't even know if we're approved yet. I guess we could get a refundable ticket. But I don't want to do that if it's not necessary.

I'm asking this question for my spouse who is in the US on a T-Visa (human trafficking). We got married over the summer and finally got our paperwork together to file for Adjustment of Status. Our lawyer is ready to send the documents. Now we've received word that my spouse's mom is very ill and may have only a few months left to live. He wants to get home right away. Our lawyer is advising us that she will file an expedited advance parole I-131 document with our AOS documents. She says we should then receive a receipt at which time we can request an Info-pass appointment to request emergency advance parole. Does anyone know how long that process would take? Is this the best course of action for a speedy AP approval? Would it be better to file the form ourselves at the local office in New Orleans with an emergency Info-pass appointment? Does it matter that we would be filing the emergency AP while the AOS documents are in the mail on the way to the servicing center? Thanks for any advice.