Mark_Shalini

Hi fellow Visajourney voyagers,
 
I had my interview on October 31 in Newark and was contemplating about putting on a Statute of liberty costume for Halloween ))) Good, I didn't wear any costume. The atmosphere was formal and uptight in their Newark office. And getting to Newark from the Upper Manhattan was excruciating. I got there on donkeys, camels and my feet. I was scheduled for a 7:45 am appointment that is why I left my home at 5 am. Google map directed me to Penn Station to take a train from there. When I got to Newark I bought round trip ticket ($3.20) for the local bus at the cashier window inside the terminal station. The bus came in 6 minutes and I ended up getting to the place at 7.10am. I can hardly call my experience with the security guys there as pleasant. They behaved a bit rude with an older guy with a cane who was in front of me in the line. They decided to be super diligent in their inspection of his personal belongings. The older guy was calm and you have no other choice but let them do their job and keep your cool although they were very loud and some of their comments were a bit inflammatory or I might have been a bit sensitive because of the long travel in pouring rain, thick fog and dark early morning.
 
After I was in the building I took an elevator to the 15th floor. There was another security guy checking our IDs and letters and inviting us to proceed to the window in the waiting room. The officer behind the window checked my green card and letter and invited me to sit down.  I was called for my interview at 7.45am. They were precise with their timing.
 
The officer invited me to come to the window and asked me to show my green card, my passport and my NYC ID. She asked me about my old passport because she wanted to check my travels. I told her my old passport was taken away when I got my new passport. Her next question was how I made sure that all my travels in the application were correct. I used my flight booking information that I have in my email. She was satisfied with that answer and asked me to follow her to the door number 1 behind which was a very long corridor with glass doors along it. You could see interviews were happening almost in every room. 
 
Once we were in her room, the officer introduced herself and asked me to stand for the Oath to be truthful in my interview. She was nice and a little distant in a professional way. She was mainly looking at her two screens and a brown folder with all my information. In that folder she had all the documents that I submitted 7 years ago when I was applying for my green card. She asked me about my name and if I wanted to keep it or change it. Then she went through all those security questions that you are supposed to respond negatively. "No, I'm not a communist nor a prostitute." That long list of security questions transitioned into the next set of questions about your loyalty to the USA and you start answering "yes". After we were done with that part she started going through my application and asked me about my family, travels (if there were any travels after I submitted my application, what was the longest travel), work, and taxes. English test was next with a very simple sentence that I was offered to write on a tablet and read from the same tablet. Then I answered 6 civics question. The whole interview lasted for about 25min. In the end she had me review the info and if everything was correct so she could print a letter that recommends me for the US citizenship. She told me that I'd get my Oath ceremony scheduled in the NYC office. 
 
I left the office. It was still raining. The bus brought me to a terminal station where I got on a PATH that finally brought me to the World Trade station. I was glad to be back in Manhattan. 
 
In the evening, the status of my application changed online in myUSCIS portal to "we approved your application - your final step to becoming a citizen is to attend the naturalization ceremony. My estimated wait time is three months." 
 
I hope it will be sooner than three months. 
 
Also I was wondering if I could apply for a passport right after I have my Oath ceremony and what is the wait time to obtain the passport. 
 
Thank you!
 
To be continued...

Hello All,
 
I had my citizenship interview at 26 Federal Plaza on Oct 28th. The process for me was not too long, got to the waiting place (7th Gl-unit 700) between 1230-1245, registered my name, got a number and called in by 1pm as per the time provided in the letter. 
 
The interviewer was was very friendly, asked me about where I lived and what I did and if I travelled anywhere out of US. Got me to read a  sentence first (who is Washington?) followed by writing a sentence (Washington was the first president). Then we pursued with the 6 questions (as long as you get the first 6 right, you are good to move on!). He then got me to sign few verifications, also answer some required questions and I was done! Told me, he will send my information for citizenship approval also provided the date and time for my oath, which will be on Nov 15th at 11am. Sent me to another waiting room, in which we waited longer just to find out that their printer doesn’t work and gave me a preliminary document till I get the official one in my mail. In fact I got the text and email update as well as the copy online on Oct 29th.
 
Hope this information helps. Good luck to everyone. 
 
 

Hi all,
 
I had my interview today at 26 Federal Plaza. Interview went well. Here is a quick summary of the morning.
 
I was scheduled for a 9am appointment so I showed up at 8.30am (you're not allowed to go in more than 30mn before your appointment time). Security was easy, finding the waiting room as well. I checked in with the officers and got a ticket number. I was waiting for my turn at 8.40am. I was called for the interview at 9.45am.
 
The officer was very nice if a little distant, but not in a negative way. I guess this is something these guys do so often they are so used to the routine of it. He put me under oath, asked for my ID, green card and current passport, and off we went. 6 civics question, the reading and writing test, and then he went through the whole list of questions in my N400 application. I had to amend a couple (one for a mistake I did, and another one because I travelled outside of the country between the N400 submission and the interview). That didn't seem to be a big deal, the officer modified the answers on the spot. This lasted about 15mn. 
 
At the end, the officer had me review my info for the oath ceremony, including the full text of the oath that I was going to have to read. I had him remove the "so help me God" portion of it, which we can opt out of saying, then signed the form.
 
At the end, I was given the sheet that said I was recommended for approval, and went on my way (I was hoping I would get the date for my oath right then, I witnessed some people coming out after their interview and talking to officers behind the desks in the waiting room about an oath ceremony on October 24, but I wasn't so lucky).
 
A couple of hours later, the status of my application changed online in myUSCIS portal to "we approved your application - your final step to becoming a citizen is to attend the naturalization ceremony". Very happy!
Will report back once I know the date.
 
cheers
A

I think there is but i dont mind. LOL!

I can vouch for this base on my experience. I'm from Westchester and it took 6 months~ from submission of application to interview date. 

Tappan, Rockland is not Manhattan but under NYC Manhattan jurisdictions when it comes to processing the N-400. I was told by the IO during my interview that, the interview notice is based on county, because I asked her how come some people are still not getting interview prior than my application and that's how she explained to me. No wonder that @dhavalkumar got the interview right away because I think there are only few people filed the N-400 under his county. I was told as well that interview notice is being generated automatically, no human intervention.

Joined!

Some other members who have filed in the Manhattan field office in the past 12 months, most of whom are awaiting interviews (from what I have observed in other threads) are:
 
@nyj215 (July 2018)
@Dbkrantz (July 2018)
@Luisfmp86 (August 2018)
@GrowingPlants (August 2018)
@Claudio Romero (October 2018)
@Polis (January 2019)
@dhavalkumar (January 2019) - has an interview in June 2019
@prianca (February 2019)
@Dhope (February 2019)
@POM (April 2019)
@Tsewang (May 2019)
@Mark_Shalini (May 2019)
@h2o15 (May 2019)

I am hoping it's okay with the admins but I wanted to start a thread that specifically relates to the Manhattan field office. The situation with this office is different from that in the Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island field offices which are part of the other "New York" thread.
 
The Manhattan field office services residents of Manhattan, the Bronx, and various counties to the north of the city: Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Sullivan, Orange, Ulster. 
(See here: https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-uscis-office/field-offices/new-york-new-york-field-office)
 
This field office has >30,000 pending cases. The published "processing time" is 13 months (50% of cases decided by this point) to 22.5 months (93% of cases decided by this point).
 
I am hoping more people with pending cases with this field office can start participating in the discussion!
 
By the way, I filed in April 2019. As of today, my estimated case completion time is April 2020. 

Hello everyone!
 
To begin with thank you guys for all the advice and guides on my process. 
 
So so I did a walk in today at the Bronx, NY ASC, they took me in, asked reason for coming in early, gave them the reason and they processed me within 15 mins. Went smoothly, gave me a civics test book and was done!
 
Now it’s a wait game for the next step. Based on the website my office would be the NY office. Current timeline on my online case has reduced form 13 months to 12 months. Meanwhile processing time on USCIS mentions 13-22.5months!
 
All the best! 
 

Hello. It's a draw really depending on your service center. I think the only one I've heard of having a problem was Indianapolis but there could be others. I've seen many people do early walk-ins and be successful and they don't even ask why. I've heard the afternoon is the best time to go. The only thing I don't know about is the printing part. I really hope so because that's what I have to do. We will leave for vacation this weekend and won't be back until after the appt but I don't think we will get the letter in the mail until Friday. Friday we already have a dentist appt to put on a crown so we have to go Thursday. According to my estimation we should get the biometrics appt letter Friday but you are one day ahead of us so maybe you will get it Thursday. If your mail comes by noon I would wait to see if you get it that day and then go in the afternoon as long as the center isn't too far away from you.