JandMA

11 hours ago, Ann2935 said:

Has anyone's wait time increased? I logged in today, and it's a month longer than before, 4 instead of 3 months. I filed in August, and completion time is estimated to be october

At least they are being more realistic. If you extrapolate the (updated) chart below, you'll see that someone who filed in 8/17 might expect to wait roughly 465 days for his/her interview. 

Hope yours is shorter than that...

.

4 hours ago, Ashanu said:

Heres the summary of my citizenship interview held at 630 Sansome st, SF.

 

Took the Bart and got off at Embarcadero station. 10 min walk to the office.

 

Went up to the second floor and registered myself in. Got a packet with information about applying for a passport! Yes, before the interview was conducted. Haha! Did not open the packet for fear of counting my chickens.......

 

The interview started 15 min late. Not sure why.

 

The english test took 1 minute. I had to read one sentence and write one sentence that the interviewer read out.

 

The civics test took 2-3 minutes. I got asked the following 6 civics questions.

Who is in charge of the executive branch?

What movement tried to end racial discrimination?

What ocean is on the east coast of America?

Why does the flag have 50 stars?

What territory did the US buy from France in 1803?

Name 3 o the 13 original states? I started off by giving 3, then the interviewer went silent, so I began recited another few and the interviewer smiled and said I had passed the civics test.

 

The remaining 20 minutes or so were based on the application itself. I was specifically probed on the following

Proof of still being married as my application was based on marriage to a US citizen. I took that for granted and did not bring any current proof as I thought the info submitted at time of application was sufficient(bought a house with spouse and had 2 joint bank accounts). Anyway I managed to download the last bank statement from our joint account and he seemed satisfied with that.

Time away from US - I make frequent short visits and had them all written out. He had all trips on record and just verified the dates and purpose but did not inspect my passport.

I made one mistake on my form (question 22). I said 'yes' instead of 'no' and had to explain that and spent a few minutes discussing the error because I misunderstood the question.

 

At the end he said I had been approved for citizenship and that the oath ceremony will be in 2-3 months.

 

I got 2 emails from USCIS with the following messages.

 

We approved your application - Your final step to becoming a citizen is to attend your naturalization ceremony

We will mail you a letter when we schedule your naturalization ceremony. Estimated wait time 4 months! Estimated case completion 3 months (August 2019).

 

Not sure why the oath ceremony has been delayed for so long.

Don't worry - I got that too, and 2 days later the actual letter was in my folder saying the next month. 

JandMA...........|03/16/15|03/17/18|03/22/18|03/22/18|04/09/18|--/--/--|03/12/19|04/19/19|05/15/19|San Francisco, CA

So the oath ceremony came and went and now the next phase of my life as a US citizen begins... As others have reported, the ceremony was very rewarding (apart from a totally cringe-worthy video clip from you-know-who..) I skipped the passport line at the end, which looked like it might take a long time, and will pop into the local USPS office tomorrow. 

Many thanks to all the contributors to this thread for advice and encouragement. I just wish that more of the 1,500 people who took the oath today in Oakland had joined it.

To those of you still waiting, your turn will come, even though the delays are getting longer and longer. (By the way, the head guy at SF USCIS actually apologized about this during his speech.)

Meanwhile, this is JandMA signing off...

JandMA...........|03/16/15|03/17/18|03/22/18|03/22/18|04/09/18|--/--/--|03/12/19|04/19/19|05/15/19|San Francisco, CA 

Just got an alert that the letter giving the date for my oath ceremony was sent with a copy in my documents folder - it's on May 15 !

My status went from 'We have approved your application and will be sending you a letter...estimated wait time 3 months (! a bit worrying!) on Monday, to

'We have sent your letter but it may take several days to appear in your folder' (yesterday), to getting this alert this morning.

Anyway that's good news and I can now get on with the rest of my life..

1 hour ago, thedarkelf said:

Congrats @JandMA. That sounds like a breeze! I am guessing you will either be scheduled May 15 or June 12 for the Oath?

Yeah, I'm hoping for May 15 so I can get my passport and go on a planned trip to Europe... we'll see, all these delays make it hard to plan anything...

22 minutes ago, Layla88 said:

Thanks for sharing. Did she want exact days of each of your trips? Because I honestly left many times for school and I am nowhere close to remembering exact dates. Just roughly estimated for my application. 

Yes, I'm afraid so. But I think the main reason was to make sure i hadn't spent too long outside the US, in particular no trips longer than 6 months (for which you have to get some special form from the IRS). The problem was that she went through my passport and found a stamp from coming into the US for a trip I hadn't recorded, probably to Canada. Maybe you can reconstruct your dates from your passport stamps or maybe airline receipts? Otherwise I would suggest being totally honest and saying that you don't recall. 

So I just had my interview. I must have been the last one on a Friday afternoon as the waiting room was pretty empty. I had to wait about 15 mins beyond the appointment time. The interviewer was a little intimidating and very correct, but eventually I got her to smile. After she put me on oath we did the reading writing and civics tests, which went pretty quickly. No tricky questions like how many amendments, etc, all very straightforward. Then we went through all the trips I'd taken outside the US since I got my green card, of which there were quite a few as I travel professionally. It turned that I'd forgotten one and she spent a while trying to sort that one out as I honestly didn't remember it and since I was under oath I couldn't just make up where I'd gone. Somehow that got resolved and then she asked a bunch of questions about my marriage (I'm applying as spouse of a US citizen). Then she rattled through all the questions on the application form. I assume she would have gone more slowly with someone whose first language is not English. In the end she handed me a piece of paper saying that my application has been recommended for approval, but warned me that the final approval would come in a letter, also the date of the oath ceremony. So, the main hurdles seem to be over. Good luck, all you April 2018 filers!

On 4/12/2019 at 2:48 PM, littleitaly said:

@JandMA is it a combo 751/400 interview assuming you also have 751 pending?

 

No, my GC was unconditional, I guess the missus and me had been married for long enough. My interview's this Friday 4/19 so fingers crossed. Hope yours gets scheduled soon...

:

Hi Folks, Being statistically minded I did an analysis of interview waiting times (in days) vs filing dates through the SF Office, based solely on data available on VisaJourney (bear in mind this is a limited sample - there are THOUSANDS of applicants who never enter their timelines.) I also excluded some anomalously long times, assuming these people experienced some kind of problem.This shows that the typical waiting time for someone who applied in 3/18 is double that of someone who applied in 1/17. 

The growth is roughly linear, so if you apply now you might expect to wait roughly 2 years (!!). 

12 hours ago, zedkyuu said:

So the ceremony came and went, and I'm now a US citizen! I didn't stick around to submit a passport app afterward, though, so I'm going to have to drop by the post office sometime.

Hey zedkyuu and Calberry congratulations and thanks for all the info! Register to vote! And thanks zedkyuu for posting the updated list along with instructions... 

9 hours ago, Solid_Possibility said:

That's awesome news! My countdown went to zero on Saturday, so I guess I still have 24 more days go, which puts me at around April 6th... 

JandMA......... |03/16/15|03/17|03/22|03/22|04/09/18|--/--/--|03/12/19|04/19/19|--/--/--|San Francisco, CA|

Just got the notice that my interview has been scheduled, but the letter giving the actual date of the interview has not yet appeared in my documents folder. My guess is third week of April.

For those of you still waiting, the notice came 361 days after I filed and 28 days after my counter went to zero. 

Interestingly the email was sent at 3.10 am PST, so I doubt that it was sent by a real person.

22 hours ago, Solid_Possibility said:

Congrats! 

If I use your timeline to approximate mine, in 10 days (coincidentally my 'estimated wait time') I should hear about my interview date! (lol)

Well, if I use your argument, I should have got mine already (which unfortunately I haven't). I think things are just getting more and more delayed...

But it would be useful to others if more readers of this thread filled out their own timeline on Visa Journey! This is then visible if you go to

https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/citlist.php?cfl=0&op1=3&op2=&op3=&op4=1&op5=5,10,11&op6=All&op7=San Francisco CA

1 hour ago, Solid_Possibility said:

@JandMA - have you heard about your interview yet? 

Nope - my countdown went to zero on Feb 12, and now I just get the message "We are taking longer than expected to process your case. You do not need to do anything at this time". I'll post it whenever I do hear.

By the way, for those of you who've already passed the interview and are waiting for a date for the ceremony, here's the schedule at the Paramount in Oakland from their website:

Congratulations!

The question about the State governor was a bit of trick one given that he was only recently sworn in. But maybe it's been updated on the 100 list.

I'm surprised at the length of the estimated delay for the oath ceremony!

Can you please add me to the list? Not sure how to do this but am glad things are finally moving forwards. My countdown now says 20 days!

JandMA | 03/16/15|03/17|03/22|03/22|04/09/18|- -/- -/- -|- -/- -/- -|- -/- -/- -|- -/- -/- -|San Francisco, CA|??

I have no idea what NBC/IOE means.

Thanks!! Hope your interview goes well. 

London policy on visa validity is covered on their website http://london.usembassy.gov/visa_processing.html

And here http://london.usembassy.gov/faq-imm-proc.html#iv062

It changed in London in 2012 and has to do with expiration of TB screening I believe. Prior to that it was six months from visa issue date.

Thanks, NIck-NIck - I originally saw only the second link, which is not very clear. I then received some remarkably confusing e-mails from the embassy about this.

In any case, as you say, it is perfectly clear on http://london.usembassy.gov/visa_processing.html

I was told at the interview that both the chest X-ray and the blood test would have to be redone if the medical has expired.

Since there seems to have been some confusion in these forums about for how long

a Visa is valid for entry to the US, I should record my own recent experience at the London embassy

(it may be different at other consulates.)

The visa is valid for up to 6 months from the date of the medical or the date of the interview,

whichever is sooner. However, since the medical has to be taken before the interview is even scheduled,

this essentially means from the date of the medical.

I received contradictory information from the embassy about this earlier, but was told quite firmly at the interview that

the above is the rule. This means that effectively you have about 5 months from the interview, not 6, to enter the US.

For most people this is not a problem, but if you have a house to sell, give notice on a job, etc. it can be.

Moreover, you cannot retake the medical until after it expires! That is, if you are for some reason delayed and think that you can simply update the medical

and not have another interview, think again! By the time the new medical results have reached the Embassy, and they have updated all your details, the

original 6-month visa stamp will likely also have expired and you'll need to go back to square one.

Hi:

Here's my recent timeline:

Sept 8: submitted applicant readiness form

Sept 18: medical

Oct 4: rec'd interview appointment letter

Oct 17: interview

Hi
We have approved I-130, filled in DS-260 and got police certificate. Medical appt is on Tuesday. We'll be sending in the application for readiness hopefully within the coming weeks/month to state we're ready for an interview appt at London embassy.

I'm trying to get a rough idea of the wait time from sending the application for readiness so I can get an idea if it's 1 week or 1 month or 1 quarter or however long the wait might be for the visa (spousal) at the embassy. Anyone have fairly recent experience of this?

Thanks

Thanks, anapectu, that's very useful info.

Here's my timeline (to be updated)

- Applicant's readiness form submitted: 8 Sept 2014

- Medical: 18 Sept 2014

Although the I-130 petition was approved back in June, I deliberately delayed taking the medical so as to try to get an interview in October.

The reason being that the visa is valid for only 6 months and we'd don't plan to move to the US until March, but we want as much time as possible after (if!) the visa is approved

in order to put our UK house on the market. Anybody else had to do this? Most other people on this forum seem to want to get the visa asap.

My complete timeline!!!

- Applicant's Readiness Form Submission date: 23 July 2014

- Medical date: 31 July 2014

- Appointment letter date (the date when it was sent by the embassy and the date you received it at home): sent 12 August 2014, received at home 15 August 2014

- Interview date: 21 August 2014 - Visa approved!!!

- CEAC Status changed to Administrative Processing: 22 August 2014

- CEAC Status changed to Issued: 26 August 2014 (23-25 August 2014 = long weekend, summer bank holiday)

- CSC email received - visa released to courier: 28 August 2014

- Visa pick up from DXS North London: 29 August 2014

- US Entry - LAX: 31 August 2014