Ashanu

June 12th Oath Ceremony

I took the BART to Oakland and got off at 19th St. The Bart was convenient, not busy as it was off peak timing and was possibly cheaper than parking. The BART station is literally one minute walk from the Paramount Theatre.

Although there were over 800 new citizens, the queues for entry into and out of the ceremony hall were moving very quickly and it was quite well organized. I had a name change (different name on green card and N445 ) but NO proof of name change was requested. I travelled for 3 weeks between my interview and the oath ceremony and again NO proof of travel was requested.

The Keynote speaker was clearly pro-democrat and anti-Trump. When the POTUS video started there was loud booing from the back. I keep forgetting that this truly is a free country. Even the USCIS officers were smiling and unaffected by the booing. Wow! They really do mean it when they say you have freedom of speech. In many self-professing 'free' countries, true free speech is often a privilege. 

The geriatric choir that sang a few patriotic songs was hilariously out of tune and out of sync. But the beautiful solo rendition of the Star Spangled Banner made up for the choir and will remain in my mind forever.

Thank you to all at VJ for your posts that kept me informed and helped me plan my life over the last 5 years. Good luck to everyone in the queue. Your turn will surely come. That's me signing off.

2 minutes ago, Solid_Possibility said:

Has anyone in this thread taken a trip outside of the US between Interview and Oath? I noticed that they ask a question about taking trips on the form for the Oath you have to fill. I wanted to take a trip in late June and they have decided to wait until July for my oath. Any experiences? 

Yep, I have. Been away for 3 weeks and will be returning tomorrow in time for oath ceremony on wednesday. I had to do it for work reasons but have travelled well below the maximum time allowed per year.  There is nothing to say you can't travel...Will update if my oath ceremony gets denied.

On 5/16/2019 at 12:23 PM, Ashanu said:

This morning at 7.10 am I got an email saying 'we have taken action on your case.' Logged into USCIS account and there was a message saying oath ceremony was scheduled and that a letter would follow. Logged in later today and the letter has been uploaded. My oath ceremony has been scheduled for 12th June 2019.

No i751 pending.

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.

21 hours ago, DandelionSF said:

@Ashanu When were your fingerprints?

05/28/2018

Just now, thedarkelf said:

Nope. I even got the automatic two week notification yesterday saying that they are still reviewing my case. 😕

Don't worry about that. I got that email the day before i got the email saying they have taken action on my case.

Received appointment for interview.

Date of application 04/02/2018

Date of appointment letter 04/04/2019

Date of interview 05/15/2019

2 hours ago, lemongreentea said:

Ashanu,

 

Can you share the questions that you were asked during the interview? That would be really helpful to us.

 

Thank you

1- Firstly asked verifying questions like name, date of birth, addresses, etc

2- Addresses where we stayed in the last 3 years (it was again verifying everything on the application)

3- Husbands job location

4- Copies of tax returns for both of us (we did not take husbands as I did not realise that was needed) - he had it on his laptop but they did not want to see it. He was asked what his tax refund was and this was recorded in their notes

5- Originals of both old and new passports (I did not take old ones as I did not know it was needed)

6- Duration of each journey outside the country - I did not have any dates or duration though I did not breach any rules. I did not come prepared for this question as it was not asked in the application

7- They did not want to see the the documents that were asked for like bank statements, bills, lease document, joint property ownership or insurance cover for both of us through his employer, but I did give all these documents to them

8- Asked for husbands mobile phone provider - then asked if he was on a family plan - he said no. But no further questions asked.

Many questions led from one to the next based on your response. I thought I had insufficient information for about 50% of the questions. At the end I asked if I should send all the missing information / documents and I was told they will write and let us know if that was the case. 

With hindsight I’d say they just did the interview because they had to but not because they needed to. Take as many documents as you can. It may or may not be needed and the information and documents they ask for are not just limited to those you have submitted with your application or asked for in the letter.

The immigration process is very frustrating for everyone who uses it. Some countries kept changing the rules and applied new rules are retrospectively (e.g UK). In all situations some people win and others lose.

It took my aunt 30 years to get citizenship in South Africa! She was a legal immigrant as she came in with a work permit which got extended every year as the employer wanted to keep her. The application was never rejected - it just took 30 years to process!!

As for me, I love the USA with all its warts and thorns and the freedom of speech that allows all these polar points of view from both POTUS and new immigrants alike.

It will take 13 months for my N400 to be processed (or so it says on the website) and I will wait. No, its not desirable and yes, it will mess up a few things in my life. But that's the immigration game we all have to play. 

On 6/22/2018 at 8:06 AM, Ashanu said:

Just thought I would give an update on my recent experience.

 

I am an April 2017 I-751 filer with CSC. USCIS website states that they are processing Nov 2016 filers at present (confirmed when I called USCIS). Yet, I got called for an interview in April 2018. I was unable to attend the original date but managed to get a date for 20th June 2018. I got worried thinking there was problem with the application as I was expecting to be called in about 6 months time.

 

Interview officer told me that all applicants are being interviewed now ( in the past only those that needed some form of verification were called for an interview). After the interview, I was told it would take 4-6 weeks for a decision. But 2 days later I received an email stating my green card would be posted within 120 days.

 

The interview itself was straight forward and the officer was friendly but we were not fully prepared. I did not bring all the documents the officer wanted to see and could not remember all the dates I was asked for and spouse was uncertain about some facts relating to tax. After the interview we were worried there may be an RFE but that was not the case. I guess the documentation we had was robust enough.

Received my 10 year green card by USPS priority mail today, exactly 1 week after the ‘new card is being produced’ email.

On 6/2/2018 at 2:48 PM, littleitaly said:

no, it's scheduled on June 12th. Although I have an info pass appointment on June 8th for get a stamp on my passport as my I751 is still pending, I will ask the officers to see if I can get my fingerprints right there.

 

Do you know anything about legal name change processed in SF office?

I was told at my i-751 interview in San francisco that they do not perform name changes as the do not do judicial oath ceremonies any more. You have to go to the courts to get it done.

1 hour ago, florist said:

Thank you Ashanu, our field office is Santa Ana. Did you have the interview together or did they separate you?

We were together. I was asked questions about my tax returns and trips abroad and my husband was asked about his job and his tax returns and we were also asked questions either  of us could answer. 

On 6/18/2018 at 10:36 AM, florist said:

Hi Dalida, 

 

I am in a similar situation except we didn't receive any RFE. The local office received my case on March 2018 and now I have gotten an interview notice only for I751 in July. I applied for N400 on April 2018. It is disappointing that they are bringing us in only for I751 interview, we sent a lot of documents and I don't even know what they are going to ask us about... We have been married for four years.

Hi Florist

Which field office is your application processed by? I had an interview for I-751 last week. The interview was about 45 min and it took that long because the IO spent a lot of time telling us about citizenship, name change rules (as I applied for that with my N400) and asked about a product my husbands company works on! I was really scared at the start because I thought I had something missing and was waiting for bad news. I didn’t even answer some questions properly and forgot to take some documents. But the IO did not seem bothered by this and later apologetically informed us that all applicants are being called for interviews now (it seems its a new rule so you might be in the same situation as me). This was in San Francisco. So, probably you need not worry if all your paperwork is in order.

Just thought I would give an update on my recent experience.

I am an April 2017 I-751 filer with CSC. USCIS website states that they are processing Nov 2016 filers at present (confirmed when I called USCIS). Yet, I got called for an interview in April 2018. I was unable to attend the original date but managed to get a date for 20th June 2018. I got worried thinking there was problem with the application as I was expecting to be called in about 6 months time.

Interview officer told me that all applicants are being interviewed now ( in the past only those that needed some form of verification were called for an interview). After the interview, I was told it would take 4-6 weeks for a decision. But 2 days later I received an email stating my green card would be posted within 120 days.

The interview itself was straight forward and the officer was friendly but we were not fully prepared. I did not bring all the documents the officer wanted to see and could not remember all the dates I was asked for and spouse was uncertain about some facts relating to tax. After the interview we were worried there may be an RFE but that was not the case. I guess the documentation we had was robust enough.

I had my I-751 interview in San Francisco 2 days ago. This was for removal of conditions on green card. Today, I had an update on my account that stated that my green card would be posted within 120 days. I am assuming that means my green card was approved! 

I want to know from people who received permanent green card recently about how long the current processing times are for green card to be posted?

Interview in London 22 June

Email from consulate 29 June

Text from Courier 29th June - ready for collection 30th June

Collected 30th June

Flying out 1st July!

Good Luck everyone.

Interest in this too! Had my interview yesterday. It looked like there were no non-immigrant interviews while I was there which should mean they don't have a massive backlog and have spare people to work on visa issuing. I'm assuming all this week the non immigrant interviews were rescheduled

Great news! All visas are printing and they're in normal work mode. Backlog will hopefully be cleared within a month.

Email and text yesterday saying ready for collection today. Visa in hand flying out tomorrow!

Great news! What day was your interview?

Interview on 22nd June. Will post when I hear from courier.

You guys may want to jump into this thread about here http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/542752-progress-thread-for-tsc-filers-now-between-nvc-and-interview-stage/?p=7690706 where many people are discussing the same thing all day long. Frequent updates are posted by those waiting.

She told me three - four weeks til I actually receive my

Visa but on the same day London came back online which shud mean visas are now being printed and sent. Let's hope they clear the backlog asap

My status on CEAC says 'issued.' Yesterday it was 'ready.' So, I guess London is catching up fast....not sure if couriers are overworked though. Has anyone received visa yet?

Interest in this too! Had my interview yesterday. It looked like there were no non-immigrant interviews while I was there which should mean they don't have a massive backlog and have spare people to work on visa issuing. I'm assuming all this week the non immigrant interviews were rescheduled

Non-immigrant visa interviews are scheduled for the morning while immigrant visa interviews are scheduled for 13.00hrs.

Did you ask how long it would take?

At my interview I was told there was a 3-4 week delay.....that was on monday 22nd. But she was vague and non-commuted, adding that the problem was still not fixed. So, I gather that was in addition to the normal 2-3 week wait.

As of yesterday, it seems London is connected.Has anyone received their passport yet?

There are processing delays as you may have seen on the US Embassy website.

3-4 week delay. No visas issued since 8th June.

I wished I knew. Planning anything right now is a pain in the ###. You are not supposed to arrange anything in advance but booking a flight on short notice is so bloody expensive. I'm very much inclined to book it anyway for

7-10 days max after the interview. The thought of having to wait for what three or four weeks after getting the visa is not something I'm planning to do.

I tried booking flights right now and it is really expensive as it is peak season - My POE is SFO and flights are in the region of £1100. I don't think booking in advance is going to help for me.

Is 7-10 days your guess? Have you seen any posts about recent experiences? I have looked here and elsewhere but could not get that info.

So I got my p4. Interview on the 23rd June. Still pissed off though. How the hell can people with CC's almost four weeks after me have interviews two weeks before me? How can this sh*t be fair? I am so sick of how all of this keeps turning out.

Congratulations fellow UKer!

We got ours tonight! The same day as the interview was scheduled! Unbelievable!

Congratulations!

I read somewhere that priority dates are factored into scheduling. Someone with an earlier date may have started the process months before you. I don't know if that is accurate, but it does seem to explain some of the mystery.

Congratulations and good luck in your interview. You're almost finished; stay positive.

Just called the NVC, long shot style. Our interview date is scheduled for 06/19!! YAAAAAAASSSS!!!

The other UK nutcases here might be interested in:

CC date 04/21, confirmation email 04/28, no interview letter yet. She operator said it'll be with us within a week though.

At this point I would like to add that I never had a nasty operator on, they were always helpful and polite.

Can you pease update the sheet.

Question to all UKers. Any idea how long it takes for the passport and packet to be returned? Website says 10-15 working days. Is this a disclaimer or does it really take as long as 3 weeks? Any knowledge of recent experiences would be appreciated.