8 minutes ago, Thomianguy said:

I did not read through this entire thread, but my wife and I are traveling to her home country of Guyana in a little under 2 months. She too received that extension letter,  believe last August or September. She recently received another letter telling her that her paperwork was transferred from VT to TX. Based on the couple of posts I perused, it appears she is ok to travel to and back with no issues as long as she has that letter?

I see some folks saying you can take a photo of it with a phone and that is accepted also?

Just about an hour ago, before she went to sleep, she was worried about this which prompted me to come to VJ to make sure the coast is clear with just that letter.

EDIT TO ADD: I just went back to the first page to look at the posted link only to find it has been removed and that the post was from TWO years ago just as we ended Bizarro World. So, are the same rules still in place? Any changes? Any worries?

She’s fine to travel with combo of the letter and expired GC (letter alone isn’t sufficient). It must be the originally, watermarked letter — photocopies or images on a phone will not be accepted.

54 minutes ago, mskidw said:

Hi, thank you for the detailed explanation! 

 

At the end of what you said, you meant, I will be traveling with either expired GC+letter or the stamp. So the stamp would serve as expired GC+letter. 

 

Would infopass also take away the letter along with the expired GC?

 

Thank you!

Typically you just keep the letter for your records, but it’s useless for travel on its own once you’ve surrendered the expired GC. Also, as with everything else, USCIS is incredibly inconsistent from office to office and even from officer to officer within the same office as to whether they’ll keep take your GC from you when you get the stamp. Some do, some don’t, assume that they will but they might not. Regardless, once you have the stamp you don’t need to carry anything else but your passport with the stamp to enter back into the country.

1 hour ago, mskidw said:

My conditional green card expired in September 2018 and I received my 18-month extension letter after I filed I-751 application. I am planning on traveling aboard for two weeks in September 2019.

 

I plan on bringing my expired conditional green card, 18-month extension letter, unexpired passport, and marriage certificate. 

 

1. Will these documents be sufficient enough to come back to US without issues?  

2. A lot of information on the Internet saying to get a stamp on the passport even though having an extension letter. But my local USCIS, Detroit, is one of the testing local office that eliminated online Infopass appointment and one can only schedule Infopass appointment by calling customer service. I called customer service several times before and they all told me that I could only schedule an appointment for the stamp one month prior to the expiration of the extension letter. So I do NOT think the stamp on my passport is a must to come back to US in my case. Am I understanding this correctly?

 

Thank you!

The stamp’s only given when your extension letter is nearing expiration, like you said, within 30 days of the expiration date of the letter. If you made an InfoPass appointment to get a stamp with 6 months left on your extension letter (assuming that your letter expires in Feb or March 2020 as you filed in Sept 2018) they wouldn’t give you the stamp, because the expired GC plus extension letter serve the exact same purpose as the stamp does. When your extension letter is nearing expiration, if you haven’t received your new green card by that point, you’d take your expired 2-year GC and your nearly-expired extension letter to your InfoPass appointment and they’d actually keep your expired GC in exchange for giving you the stamp (or they’re supposed to, anyway, though some people have managed to Lee their cards). But you’ll only ever travel on one or the other — expired GC + letter, or else the stamp — but not both.

5 hours ago, kazero17 said:

My GC will expire on may2019, can i travel on August2019 out of USA using this extension letter?

thanks for replaying to my post.

You’ll get the extension letter shortly after you submit the I-751, so yes, you’d have it within plenty of time for August.

54 minutes ago, matuiza94 said:

Is anyone having this issue or should we not worry about it...for my wife

N400 filed 6/23/2018

I-751 filed 4/24/2017 now at NBC since 12/20/2018

When we call the automated phone system and key in the case number, we get "a wrong code message and cannot be found".

We called the USCIS and talked to a tier 1 officer, I believe who said its all normal but couldn't explain why its not available on the phone automated system.

Is this normal??? Thanks friends.

Did you include the first 3 letters when keying it in (WAC/EAC)? I know that probably sounds like a dumb question, I only ask because the first time I called to inquire about it the phone instructions didn’t specifically state to enter the letters as well as the digits so it threw me off at first. Also, did you try with the I-751 receipt number or the N-400?

Had my oath ceremony on 02/20 in Sacramento, along with 600 others. Ceremony was pretty jumbled (everything seemed disorganized and unprofessional) but hey, got the certificate which is all that matters! They had voter registration booths and even better a social security table set up afterwards where you could update your info so it saves a separate trip to the SSA. I went straight from the ceremony to the local post office to apply for my passport but even though they accept walk-ins from 10:30am-6:30pm each day, when I arrived at 2pm they turned me away, saying they were done taking applications for the day. Will have to take another day off work and try again later. Came home and weeded through 1300 pages of paperwork from the last 5 years, kept about 25 pages of documents like approval notices and put the rest in a bag to take with us when we go camping as we’re going to do a bonfire to burn it all! Best of luck to everybody who’s still riding this out. One day it’ll all be over!

1 hour ago, ukrainian said:

So I usually check case status, but today i checked my account with uscis, where it says that last action taken on I-751 - moved to local office on feb 26th,2018. and it states it is current as of today. on case status last action reported- on dec 21 2018 my case was moved and new office has jurisdiction. It is so misleading. Is it just a glitch? Anyone had it?

My account (on the DHS site) still says my I-751 was moved to local office last February, and that’s current as of today. Meanwhile, my case status on USCIS is fully up-to-date with my GC having been delivered last week, even though according to my DHS account, nothing’s happened in a year. I’d trust the USCIS update from December more than the DHS statis from last February.

33 minutes ago, Ask Away said:

congrats... by the way did you have any criminal record on your application and did they ask you about those crimes ?

I don’t have any record. They did go through those questions line by line again in the interview (ie. Have you ever been arrested, ever been detained, ever been cited or ticketed, etc.) and asked again for a verbal yes or no even though you filled it out on the application itself already.

The IO had told me they wouldn’t bother to send me my 10-year GC but it arrived today...so after being without a valid GC for a year and a half, I get to enjoy it for all of a week before I hand it right back at the oath ceremony. 

3 hours ago, AlfNel23 said:

Thank you, I hope that's the case for us too. Was your case transferred to Lee Summit Office?

3 hours ago, AlfNel23 said:

Thank you, I hope that's the case for us too. Was your case transferred to Lee Summit Office?

Yes, I hadn’t heard anything until

December 21st 2018, when I got the update that my I-751 was transferred to Lee Summit. Then in January I got a letter that my N-400 had been scheduled for an interview (nothing about the I-751). When I went for my interview they had both cases ready to adjudicate and today I got the official letter of approval that my conditional status has been removed and new GC is on its way. Just in time to give it back next week at my oath ceremony lol. All that to say...there’s no rhyme or reason to their method (if you can call it that) or madness.

6 hours ago, fcorona85 said:

Same story for me here. CSC filler July 19th. I got sent to Lee summit and it went quiet. I called last week the USCIS phone number and asked what is going on. They explained that my case is not in Lee Summit, it is in my local office here in Orlando, the reason that it says Lee Summit according to the USCIS lady is because it went to Lee Summit before sending it to Orlando, but she confirmed in the computer that the case has been received here. As far as processing, she said that it will be processed with the N400 which is in freaking October at the moment according to the N400 timeline. So.... no much hope for me other than somehow things get expedited 

I wouldn’t put too much stock in the estimated processing times. Mine had said 14 months since I applied, putting me at a finish of August 2019. My combo interview was last week and after it was over, later that day, my estimate online changed to “4 months” still to go before my oath ceremony would be scheduled. The next day, my ceremony was scheduled for next week. It seems based on others’ experiences here that cases that have both an I-751 and N-400 pending and are “transferred to Lee Summit” more often than not are actually being transferred to the local office in preparation for interview. Hang in there!! 

Not too long after all! Got text update yesterday that my oath ceremony letter had been mailed. Appeared this morning on my Documents tab. Ceremony scheduled for February 20, 2019. So a two-week turnaround from interview to oath!

1 hour ago, dburnt said:

You can search for upcoming ceremonies https://www.cacd.uscourts.gov/clerk-services/naturalization-ceremony-locations-and-schedule.  I don't think that it is a lack of ceremonies, but quite likely that they can only accommodate so many and they are full.  Congratulations!

@dburnt Thank you! Unfortunately Sacramento doesn’t have an equivalent calendar like the Central District of CA does...I wish! I know Sacramento just had one about two weeks ago with over 1000 people taking the oath, so I could be waiting a while...

On 2/5/2019 at 4:31 PM, theanswerisdance said:

Had my interview today, it was a combo interview for my I-751 and N-400. Combined it took roughly 20 minutes for everything including reading, writing, and civics tests...super chill and almost anti-climactic haha. She approved the I-751 first and then recommended me for approval for the N-400, now just have to wait for the oath letter. If someone could please update my timeline I would be very grateful!

Interview was yesterday, just received the following update to my case status. Can anybody who’s already had their oath ceremony scheduled speak to whether this “estimated wait time” is accurate for this particular stage of the process? I’m in  Sacramento and I can’t believe California’s capital city wouldn’t have enough people naturalizing to warrant doing a ceremony more than once every 4 months...

February 6, 2019

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.

Had my interview today. CSC filer, also filed N-400 in June 2018. I brought my husband with me in case they did a combo interview, though my interview letter was only for N-400. Fortunately when I got there the officer had both cases on her desk, so she brought my husband in with us to start. She asked how we met, when and where our first date was, and our wedding date, and that was it. She congratulated us and said the I-751 was approved, sent my husband back out to the waiting room, and then we moved on to the naturalization interview. Nothing about our I-751 evidence, no request for more evidence, nothing. Naturalization interview was also recommended for approval, so now just waiting for final approval and oath ceremony date.

20 minutes ago, InsanelyOne said:

My husband and I travelled last September (his GC had been expired for 2 months at that point) and upon returning he presented the GC and the I-797 showing the extension for 18 months.  The immigration agent was very nice and didn't give us any trouble however he stated that we should have travelled with another document in addition to the I-797.  Unfortunately, I can't remember which document he was referring to (he said we should have received something in addition to the I-797 after we filed the I-751). 

 

We are traveling again next week and I've scoured my files and all we have is the I-797 extension letter.  Actually we have the 12-month extension, the 18-month extension, and also an I-797 for when we moved and updated our address.

 

Anyone have any idea what document he could be referring to?

 

Did you show him both the original 12-month extension letter and the 18-month extension to the extension? The only thing that sounds plausible is that for some reason he wanted to see your 12-month letter since that’s referenced in the 18-month letter. No, it isn’t required, and all you need is the expired GC and the 18-month letter, but I always carry the 12-month letter as well just in case. I flew back in this past week on the 18-month letter which expires end of February and the officer counted 18 months off on his fingers three times and lost his place each time...before realizing he could just count 6 months from the previous August since that’s when the first extension expired. 🤦‍♀️ 

3 hours ago, annzthirtheen said:

I had my interview today and I passed. Yay! The long journey is finally over.

Waiting for my oath ceremony notice and hoping it won't take too long.

Good luck to everyone !

Congrats!!

On 1/1/2019 at 1:00 PM, theanswerisdance said:

I received the text that they were transferring my I-751 to NBC on 12/24. I had also filed N-400 online in June 2018. 12/31 I received a second text that they’ve scheduled my N-400 interview, so now to wait for that letter to find out my interview date. Assuming it will be a combo interview.

Received my interview date today for Feb. 5th. 

I received the text that they were transferring my I-751 to NBC on 12/24. I had also filed N-400 online in June 2018. 12/31 I received a second text that they’ve scheduled my N-400 interview, so now to wait for that letter to find out my interview date. Assuming it will be a combo interview.

Filed N-400 on 06/03/18, receipt notice was 06/04/18. Also have a pending I-751 from July 2017. Just got a text that my interview has been scheduled, now waiting for the letter with the date to appear either in the mail or online. 

13 hours ago, Trenz said:

That is astonishing, really. I cannot believe that in one instance (and on their primary database) your address is correct, but somehow some communications got sent to an old address!

 

My one any only guess on why this happened - did you file from that old address when you first filed your I-751 and other processes? I am guessing yes, as you said you haven't been there in almost a year. My assumption would be that, for whatever reason, all communications get hard coded in such a way that it defaults back to whatever initial address you filed with? Either way, bizarre that the extension letter is sent to the correct address but not the one piece of mail you truly needed.

 

Here's hoping this all gets sorted out in a timely manner for you!

I was kind of wondering the same thing, if it defaults to the original filing address for that application, which seems crazy and ridiculously inefficient but wouldn’t surprise me from USCIS. When I filed the N-400 we were already living here at our new, current address, so fingers crossed any interview notice for that comes here since the old address was never part of my citizenship application. Still, nothing like adding another layer of stress on top of an already stressful waiting game! Thanks for the good wishes!!

Received a text on 12/21 that my case was being transferred and they were sending me a letter about it (transferred to Lee Summit so I’m guessing it’s to issue the 10 year GC). After a week I had a hunch something was wrong as I still hadn’t received the letter, so called USCIS today. They sent it to an address where we haven’t lived in almost a year, even though they could see on their end today that I had filed address change as soon as we moved last spring AND my 18-month extension letter came to our current, correct address with no issues in August of this year. I got to speak with a Tier II officer today who was sincerely apologetic and said it was totally an error on their end and he’s put in the service request for them to correct the error and issue a replacement letter, but now all I can think is that I’m going to miss an interview date for this or for N-400 (or a combo) or that my new GC will go to the wrong address. I just can’t figure out why there was no problem with my 18-month extension letter coming here, yet now, almost 5 months later, this week’s mail is going to our old address. 🤔

First update for me in a long while, like many of you in the past couple of days I got the following message this morning. I-751 filed 07/10/2017 and N-400 filed 06/04/2018. Will be interesting to see if an interview gets scheduled soon. Murphy’s Law, I’ve avoided scheduling international travel for almost a year in case an interview comes up and I have to cancel...2 days ago I booked my flights to travel out of the country at the end of January and then this shows up. 😂