Scandi

Exactly, so don't let anything get in the way of getting that citizenship and passport, even if it means staying put in the US until the ordeal is over. Don't reschedule due to travel or anything else that isn't important at this moment.

Agree, there seems to be many ways of doing it. I too didn't have a judicial oath ceremony, didn't see a judge at any point and had a normal oath at USCIS with all others. I had my oath 4 business days after my interview and got the name change document in hand at my oath, so the judge must've signed it quickly. Lucky us. Others wait for months because their field office requires a judicial ceremony and it's up to the court what day there's time for it. I imagine they try to gather as many applicants as possible and have a big oath for all of them at the same time.

Whether you get a same-day Oath Ceremony or not depends on your particular field office and it can even be a "day by day" thing too. Some field offices do same-day Oaths all the time, others (like mine in Los Angeles) did not do it when I had my oath during the pandemic. However, L.A. had oath ceremonies every Tuesday, so if you had your interview early enough on a Tuesday, there was time for them to get your certificate ready and you could attend your oath ceremony that same Tuesday, later in the day. So again, it differs a lot, even within the same field office. If you have a name change, some field offices require you to take your oath in front of a judge, which can take months as courts don't have time doing this all the time. My field office in L.A. did not have a judge present and we did our oath outside the USCIS building. So not all field offices require a "judicial ceremony" when you change your name. You just get your name change document (signed by a judge) in hand together with your certificate at the end, when you hand in your greencard. You are a greencard holder until you take the oath. That means you are still a greencard holder even after you pass the interview, so you can keep traveling with your greencard even after the interview, until you take the oath. If you cannot get a US passport in time for your travel, you can let the IO know at the interview which date you will be back in the US and they won't schedule your oath until then. Many have been successful with this, however, it's still USCIS and anything can happen. Personally I would not let anything get in the way of me becoming a citizen and get my US passport, especially not something as unimportant as "travel". Once the citizenship and passport part is done, you're DONE with USCIS and can do whatever you like, including travel without restrictions.

Probably because they are considered to have strong ties to the US, since in the US they have a kid and grandchild, they may want to stay. Maybe they weren't able to provide enough evidence of their ties to Colombia that would also help showing non-immigrant intent to the US.

In the end, when you choose the K-1 visa instead of the CR-1 visa, the wedding ceremony is not important. It really isn't. You can't put yourself in a potentially devastating situation with the immigrations just because you want to get married on a certain date or just because its' "inconvenient" to travel within the country to be with family. Those are very, very minor issues in the grand scheme of things.

There are very, very few situations where a K-1 is the better choice. I came to the US on a K-1 but would choose CR-1 every day of the week if I had to do it all over again.

You had immigration intent when you entered the US in July, since you filed a i-129f in March. In today's political climate, I wouldn't take the chance. It's up to you to decide what you want to do, it's not entirely black and white. It's still not illegal to enter without intent and then change your mind and stay. But in your case you did have immigration intent since you had already filed long before you entered the US. USCIS are likely stricter now than last year, so while intent can be determined by CBP, USCIS may very well be able to re-examine it when they notice your i-129f petition.

No, not an issue. My greencards also only had First name, middle initial and last name on the front. On the back they had first name, surname, one full middle name and only half of my second middle name. Never an issue. In Sweden it's normal to have two middle names (often counted as first names, so I guess technically you have three first names and one last name), and the US isn't made for that many characters, lol. So every US document I had (from SSA, DMV etc), my second middle name was always only half, instead of "Therese" it was "The". 😆 So the first thing I did when filling out my N-400 form was to remove one of my middle names in the "do you want to change your name" field, so I would only have one middle name. It has made things sooooo much easier!

Yeah I don't think I have ever gotten a water marked invitation letter from USCIS at any point in my immigration journey (ie interviews, oaths, biometrics etc). Only certain approval notices (possibly?) and extension type letters used to prove my status.

They don't need one to get a passport, they just use their naturalized parent's naturalization certificate. That said, it is highly recommended to get your kid a certificate of their own so they have proof of when they became a citizen. When they grow up and you're no longer around, they may not even find your certificate, it may have been lost, their passport may have expired etc, meaning they have no proof of their citizenship. Having the certificate of citizenship is for an immigrant pretty much the same as having a birth certificate for someone born in the US.

What did the embassy say when you reached out to them to ask for an extension on the i-129f approval? Not all embassies do this automatically, you need to ask to have it done.

I don't see an issue either. I would, however, plan on getting married ASAP after him entering the US so he can send in his AOS to USCIS immediately after receiving the marriage certificate. No reason to drag it out, get him his NOA1 for authorized stay even if there's still a lot of time left on his i-94. Even back in the day when I went through this process I had my AOS 90% filled out and ready with almost all supporting documents before we even got married, I like to plan ahead and less stress this way too.

You switch out your greencard for the naturalization certificate. That happens at the oath ceremony, not the interview.

OP isn't asking about a Real ID though, but about an EDL. I have a Real ID but don't think California offers EDLs, otherwise I'd get one of those instead.

I'd do SSA first since it's so quick and easy, most offices offer drop-ins. Just show them your docs and they will update your info. Then you can send your certificate with the passport application afterwards. But to each their own, there's no exact rules on how to do it.

Oh wow, the price went up more than the double since 2016 (and that doesn't even include the x-rays nowadays? Wow, just wow). I guess that's what happens when there's only one clinic in each country, people don't have much of a choice, they will pay whatever amount to get it done and the clinics know it. Those are all crazy numbers, especially Gbg. Imagine what the cost will be another 10 years from now.

Do you mind me asking how much the medical is these days? Good to hear the clinic in Goteborg is still doing visa exams, I was under the impression it was only Sthlm left these days. I remember choosing between the two back in 2016 and Gbg was 2800:- (for everything including the x-rays) and Sthlm wanted 3500:- (for the medical only, I think you paid extra for the x-rays). It was quite a big difference, and Gbg was a lot closer to Skane as well. Congratulations! Hold on to it for dear life! 😆

Nobody can answer this. Usually the timeline has nothing to do with the visa, but all about how many planes are landing at the same time, ie how long the lines are. The actual "CBP processing" takes 5 minutes tops. They ask like 2-3 questions, takes your photo/fingerprints and stamp your passport.

Opposite for me. The actual test is only verbal - no text. So it was much easier for me to hear the questions asked out loud by someone, verbally, just like the actual test. So Youtube was by far superior to any flashcards or questions on paper. I got the leaflet with all the questions when I went for my biometrics and it didn't help much. The pace of the youtube videos is super great, because there are videos in all paces, so pick and choose one that fits you. I started out with slower ones where they repeated the question twice, then moved on to faster ones. At the end, I managed to answer all the questions with the video that was called something like "100 questions in 1 minute", where they only ask questions and don't give the answers. It was super fast.

Youtube is the best, tons of different videos, different speeds etc. Start with a slow one. Most of the Youtube videos is how the interview actually is - ie someone asks you a questions and you answer - you don't see anything in writing, it's all just verbal, and you don't get multiple choice answers.

That's great news! What a relief it must be.

Doesn't sound like a loss to me. Time to move on. Also, you cannot get a K-1 visa when you're already married, so that was probably why your visa was denied.

Yes I always get so nervous waiting too. Nervous over everything really. But you have plenty of time, it should be fine. The negative thing with Sweden (maybe Scandinavia in general?) is summer vacation time during all of July every single year, it's the worst month to try to get anything done because everything is closed. I hope that's not the case for the embassy. Now that I've lived in the US for many years I hate going to Sweden in summer because nothing's open, lol. It used to be so normal to me, now it's just a nuisance. 😂

Oh I listened alright, it was super interesting. 😆 I knew which date the embassy received my medical because I received my own copy of the entire medical the same day, and the date on CEAC updated too (and went from AP to Ready). That happened on a Thursday and my visa was issued the following Tuesday. So pretty quick. I know it's different for Norway but I got my passport back in the mail the day after it was issued, so they ship them out very quickly too. Weird how it took the clinic that long to send your medical, but at least you know it's on the way now and you don't need to do anything else. Just a short waiting period before the status changes to issued.

I remember what a relief it was to be done with the medical and interview, I got a refusal for my medical as well. Glad that everything went great, the officers handling the immigrants visas really are professional and quite friendly at the embassy in Sthlm. I have to say though, one officer was very harsh and rude to a family next to me, and as you said, you can hear EVERYTHING that's being said at the windows next to you. They were flat out denied tourist visas and the officer was not nice about it, lol. And yes, you go in the immigrant line when you're there for a K-1 visa, there's usually just 2 or 3 people in that line. Not a huge deal I bet, but they have signs showing which line to go in (one for K-1, CR/IR-1, citizens etc - and another line for all temporary visas like J/F/O etc, the latter is normally super long but since the embassies aren't processing J or F visas now, it was probably a lot shorter than normal).