Starkilla09

The main advantages are the right to vote, have extended stay out of U.S. as long as you wish, serve in a jury, run for public office, work for the federal government, protection from deportation, ability to petition for your parents, siblings and married adult children, carry U.S. passport and enjoy visa free travel to 184 countries.
 
The main disadvantage is reporting requirement on your worldwide income even outside the U.S. (same reporting requirement also applies to lawful permanent residents though) and the second is loss of former citizenship if your country doesn’t recognize dual citizenship like Japan and India.
 
I lost my Cameroonian citizenship once I got naturalized as a U.S. citizen because my country doesn’t support dual nationality. I made the choice though for all the aforementioned reasons especially the visa free convenience. I do a lot of vacation abroad and was sick of spending money on visa application fees with my former weak passport.
 
I now apply for visas to visit home and can only stay temporarily but well I can live with that anyway. Besides I no longer feel left out from my American spouse and kid. Now as for your eligibility you can apply as early as 90 days prior to your 3rd anniversary of being a lawful permanent resident. 
 
 
 

There’s not really an active N 400 thread for Seattle filers though there’re some random sporadic ones in the past from a few filers. Either way Seattle is dangerously backlogged taking on average 1 year now to process N 400. When did you file? I filed in December so still have some months ahead. Estimated completion date just shifted to Jan 2019.

Your best option in this case will be to apply for a K-1 fiancé/fiancée visa. A K-1 visa requires both parties to have met at-least once in person within the last 2 years prior to applying, be legally free to marry and also be unmarried as well. If you guys marry you will not be eligible for a K-1 visa anymore and will have to do a spousal visa instead which will take roughly 12 to 14 months to complete.
 
You’ll need to wait overseas until you get your K-1 visa before moving to the U.S. Just so you also know USCIS is dangerously backlogged now nationwide with all immigration petitions experiencing delays, so you’ll also need a big dose of patience. Immigrating to the U.S. has never been a quick process so you’ll need to bear that in mind.
 
Again you can’t use a visit visa to come get married in the U.S. that’s why there’s a K-1 visa which will allow you to come get married and adjust your status here to lawful permanent residency. No consular officer will issue you a visa for that reason. You can also immigrate with your daughter as a K-2 dependent.

You can apply for an expedited passport that you can get within 24hrs to 7 days depending on when you plan to travel internationally by paying a $60 expedite fee. You must have some proof of travel out of the country within 2 weeks to use this expedite service at a passport agency. A flight or hotel reservation will work just fine in this case. I used the Seattle passport agency for mine since I had to travel to Canada 9 days after oath ceremony. My passport was ready to be picked up in 4 days after application. If you have no travel plans and proof of such travel, you can't use a passport agency though you can still pay your $60 expedite fee and you'll get your passport in about a week to 2 weeks.

EL79, I remember you had your interview few days before me. 
Use the infopass card. I went to the infopass session against my lawyer's recommendations, and here I am 1 week later got my application approved.
The one thing, I noticed during the session, when the officer was checking my case, he started shuffling some business cards from his drawer, which gave me the indication that he was looking up my officer. So they actually might send them notes to remind them that someone is following up on their case. 
Get an appointment and try it out. 
Best of luck
My online portal is updated. You were right Starkilla09.
Its showing now we have approved your application. I am super thrilled. 

Unfortunately Seattle is very backlogged with one of the worse processing times in the nation. N-400 applications currently take 13 to 14 months on average to be scheduled for an interview. The good news is it does 2 same day oaths, joint I-751/N400 interviews and also schedules oath ceremonies fast within 2 weeks. 
 
I’m a joint I-751/N-400 Seattle combo who just recently got scheduled for oath ceremony in 2 weeks and it took forever to get scheduled. I applied for my I-751 in December 19th 2016 and N-400 December 7th 2017 while I-751 was still pending. I-751 got transferred from CSC on May 3rd 2018 to be adjudicated with together N-400. It stayed pending until I had a joint I-751/N-400 Interview in Seattle on February 27th 2019 after more than 3 years!
 
The wait didn’t end as bad luck will follow suit. Officer had to go through recertification process as system kept preventing him from approving my stuff the same day. That too added extra months and both petitions just got approved last week May 15th finally ending the wait. 
 
You’re going to be in for an eternal wait and will have no choice but use I-551 stamps until your interview several months down the road. I’m currently on my 4th and final stamp as we speak! Below is an active thread for N-400 Seattle filers that’s been going on since. I suggest you and @JFH should join our exiting thread here.
 

Once your 18th month extension letter is about to expire (preferably 30 days prior to) schedule an info pass appointment with USCIS at the local field office in Seattle to have your passport stamped with a temporary I-551 stamp which will now serve as evidence of your lawful permanent residency status for both employment and travel. You'll get stamped in about 6 months intervals until you have your I-751/N-400 combo interview together. I'm currently on my 3rd and final stamp before I swear in on June 12th. During your first info pass appointment chances are they'll confiscate the expired 2 year conditional green card by then prior to issuing you the stamp on your passport.

It doesn’t matter how you originally acquired your lawful permanent residency status. To qualify under the 3 year rule you must be a lawful permanent resident for at-least 3 years, been married to a U.S. citizen for at-least 3 years and your spouse must’ve been a U.S. citizen as well for at-least 3 years. 

Yay Congratulations! My status also changed as well within the last 15 mins. It now says ''Oath Ceremony will be scheduled" as well. I can't believe it's almost over. What a relief!

Hi guys, 
So I went to an infopass this morning with the hope to find out when will they schedule my N400 since I passed my i751. They scheduled it for tomorrow and asked if I am ready. I said Hell yeah, so my interview is tomorrow at 12:00pm. Chance for a same day oath ceremony? 

Thank you! Hopefully you hear something about yours as well soon enough.
Thank you!

I just got a notice this morning that my I-751 has been finally approved. What a relief to finally get this out of the way after 878 days since 12/19/2016 when it was filed. Hopefully my N-400 should be taken care of now with this done, as it was recommended for approval during my joint I-751/N-400 Interview in 02/27/2019. @Ck207 any news about your N-400 being rescheduled? Heaven knows how much I’ve suffered and been drained emotionally on the hands of these people. I can’t wait to be done and forget about this nightmare agency.

Based on your circumstances and since you plan to have this child in the UK for financial reasons, your best bet is to leave the U.S. as soon as possible so you don’t clock 180 days of unlawful presence triggering a 3 year bar to re-entry.
That will complicate your whole immigration process requiring you to have an approved I-601A waiver before your immigrant visa can be issued overseas. Leave as soon as you can and have your husband file the I-130 ASAP to jump start the process. Your overstay won’t be an ineligibility in your immigrant visa provided it’s under 180 days.
This I’m assuming you have no other ineligibilities such as criminal records or drug offenses etc that will make you otherwise ineligible for an immigrant visa. One thing you must know is your ESTA privileges are gone with your overstay and you will need to wait in the UK until you get your immigrant visa which will take roughly 12 to 14 months.

Schedule an info pass appointment at USCIS.gov and visit your USCIS local field office with your passport so they can stamp it with a temporary I-551 stamp. This stamp will serve as evidence of your lawful permanent resident status for all intents and purposes such as travel and employment while USCIS processes your I-90. Make sure you carry proof of having filed an I-90 though for a replacement of your green card.

Schedule an info pass appointment at USCIS.gov and visit your USCIS local field office with your passport so they can stamp it with a temporary I-551 stamp. This stamp will serve as evidence of your lawful permanent resident status for all intents and purposes such as travel and employment while USCIS processes your I-90. Make sure you carry proof of having filed an I-90 though for a replacement of your green card.

That’s USCIS for you! By now it’s officially the worse federal agency in this country. Had it not been you did this info pass your I-751 would’ve been denied for a no show interview jeopardizing your immigration status in its very core. Someone there thought it was a brilliant idea to send your interview notice to your old address on file. Dealing with this agency is like walking on a sword edge, Hypnos was right when he said they’re run by trained chimps. My advice is take your spouse with you to your interview. If a combo interview happens it’s all good it’s easy anyway just basic relationship stuff with your spouse. Good luck!

Can't believe you haven't still been rescheduled yet, they normally do so a few weeks after the initial date was cancelled. Again we're dealing with one of the worse federal agencies in this country with their uncertainties so nothing is set on stone with them. Try sending a message through the portal in your account to see if an officer can relay a message about your case or you can equally try calling as well. It's been 5 weeks post interview at my end and my cases are still moot with radio silence. I've done all the best I could to nudge them with info pass, congressional inquiry and 2 online case status inquiries. The only thing left is sending a personal letter to the officer who did my interview, which I'll do on the 17th when I go to request another I-551 since I'll be traveling to the UK again next month and my current stamp expires May 17th. I have decided to start my visa application as I can't confidently rely on them again. At this point I've given up since by law they have up to 120 days post interview to make their final decision so my hands are basically tied as of now. Once that elapses on June 27th and still no update I'll be visiting them to see a supervisor to serve him/her my preliminary writ of mandamus lawsuit against USCIS to get my case out of their hands to be adjudicated in district court as required by law. This is the part they fear the most like a ghost and will jump to adjudicate your case like there's no tomorrow to avoid it.

Yes you have to send in your original naturalization certificate when applying for a U.S. passport or passport card so they can verify your citizenship status. They will mail it back to you separately and it will arrive shortly in it's own package after your passport/passport card arrives as well.

I just did a Congressional inquiry with Congresswoman Jayapal. I'm ready to take this issue head on with USCIS and will keep mounting the pressure until they finish this stuff so I can move on with my life. I just figured out an October 2018 filer had same identical predicament as mine. After putting some heat he was finally scheduled after 3 weeks post interview. Your rescheduling should happen in a few weeks, it's one of those things they can be a little consistent with for the most part.

I just did a Congressional inquiry with Congresswoman Jayapal. I'm ready to take this issue head on with USCIS and will keep mounting the pressure until they finish this stuff so I can move on with my life. I just figured out an October 2018 filer had same identical predicament as mine. After putting some heat he was finally scheduled after 3 weeks post interview. Your rescheduling should happen in a few weeks, it's one of those things they can be a little consistent with for the most part.

Sorry about your unfortunate predicament hopefully they schedule you soon enough. Dealing with USCIS especially in this current environment with nationwide backlogs has shown how inept and messy this agency is indeed. Just when you think you've made one step forward they throw you 3 steps backwards. I had my joint I-751/N-400 interview late February with tons of evidence and was even there with my wife and our son. Officer recommended approval for N-400 told me I already submitted so much and didn't need any new paperwork and promised to approve I-751 next morning. I was ecstatic and left thinking I was finally done with these guys then nope silence up till now. Went for an info pass appointment last week and was told petitions are still under review so essentially no oath since they have to adjudicate my I-751 first. Info pass officer promised to send an email to the officer who interviewed me to about my case. Mind you my I-751 is now pending for 27 months! I filed in December 2016 for crying out loud and I should at least have my 10 year green card now, so I can even live my life and not happen to take my kid out of school and go there to get stamps every couple of months. I have an international trip coming up in May and I have to go there again to get my 5th I-551 stamp so I can travel! I'll also need to apply for visas just to be safe in case my oath ceremony isn't scheduled by then.

Seattle office does 2 same day oaths at 10am and 2:30pm respectively. Your chances of getting one will depend when your interview is scheduled and if you’re recommended for approval at the spot. If you have an early morning interview before 10am and are recommended for approval, chances are you’ll get a same day oath otherwise you’ll have to be scheduled for an oath later.  

Your 8:30pm oath is probably a typo but, anyway you wanna schedule an info pass appointment to straighten this out. Your best time to book an appointment is between midnight till early morning around 4 am because that’s when it resets. They’re spaced weeks apart though so you wanna try to do it ASAP today if you can. I scheduled around early this month and the earliest date I could find was the 19th. If you can’t get a close date I suggest you call a tier 2 officer to sort it out to get a correct date.

I have to say it, even though I am SURE there will be backlash about it but whatever. I won't reply to it.
 
I think sometimes we forget that when we are talking about people's situations especially illegals, we are talking about other HUMANS. Family members. People that are very meaningful to others. We are all here on visajourney because somewhere along the way, we were separated from our loved ones so if anything, we should be understanding. It isn't easy. Do people make mistakes or poor decisions? Yes. Are they aware this was not a smart idea? Yes. But the OP's mother-in-law is still a person---a human being. And as far as we know, she isn't a murderer or did any type of dangerous criminal activity that hurts someone. Sometimes I feel like people act like those who crossed/overstayed did the WORST possible thing imaginable. 
 
We know immigration is a hot topic and there are millions of illegal immigrants who have crossed/overstayed  in the US. But each one is a person with a story, family, etc.  But when these people want to try to fix it and do the right thing, there are literally ZERO options. If this country created some type of path to citizenship, these people could come out of the woodwork and  also become taxpayers. We could reunite families the right way. 
 
For those of us who did it legally, that is great. We have nothing at all to worry about. I can sleep at night knowing my husband is not at risk for deportation and that is great. I'm glad we went the route we did and we were guided well. My husband was not in any type of oppressed situation and never once felt like he had to leave due to bad circumstances in his country. My husband's immigration status is not effected by anyone else. But it just drives me crazy when people who gained status through marrying in or whatever all of a sudden act like they are better and more deserving than anyone else. No, they were just lucky they met the right person. It is situational. 
 
OP, I do not know enough about the system to advise you on how to fix your mother-in-law's situation. But I just want to say that I feel for you and your family and wish you the best of luck! 

Yes! Thanks for remembering. I attended my ceremony yesterday and with that I am happy to share that my immigration journey is officially done now! Such a long journey, with lot of ups and downs.
 
Just came back from post office submitting my passport application and looking forward to receiving it. Wish all the people who are still waiting best of luck!