ElliePro

I'm done! Brooklyn, NY. Dec 28, 2019 filed, 4/1 interview (approved), 4/30 oath!
Now I can't find any passport appointments in NYC but that's a different story

Maybe a silly question but I have anxiety around it

NYC, if relevant

I had my interview during which I signed the name change thing (just to drop my middle name which is my Russian patronimic). I got approved and last week I got a letter about the oath ceremony being scheduled. In that letter, I still do have my middle name that I asked to drop. Is that because the name change I signed won't be enacted until after the oath? Or was something not recorded right after the interview and I should call them and ask?

Also Brooklyn filer, filed 12/28/2019. Interview scheduled for 4/1 (hope it's not a joke)

Did my biometrics yesterday in Brooklyn (almost had a heart attack when I couldn't find my biometrics letter at 7am with appointment at 8am but I was able to find a place to print it at 7am and still make it hehe). Estimated time went down from 12 to 11 months (Dec 2020). Long wait ahead!

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@Ka&J 12 months, it says

Joining this thread. Filed online on 12/27, under 3-year marriage rule, NYC. Hope for this to go better/faster than my ROC.

Status changed to approved today! Phew and yay! EAC, 13 months and a couple of days since filing. 

I got the same update and a bunch of people in the October thread as well (various service centers). At first I got excited but now it seems like it’s just a batch update that doesn’t mean anything - like they just changed their standard text for the fingerprints review step to be this new phrase. The date of this new update for me is the same as the previous one was (I e in August even though technically it happened yesterday). Is there anyone left whose status still says ‘fingerprint review completed’?

@ochocam just out of curiosity - are you EAC as well? 

6 minutes ago, ochocam said:

Interesting.  The status on my wife's case was updated today.

 

It changed from "fingerprint review was completed" to "case was updated to show fingerprints were taken."

 

Anyone else seen that happen before?  It still said "review was completed" this morning so it happened sometime throughout the day today.

I had the same update a minute ago! Also not sure what it means but hopefully we are close!

1 hour ago, rooji said:

Not sure what question I asked but I asked about case status and emma gave me option after several tries to speak to representative. I know I said the answers that emma provided were not helpful. 

 

I will be honest I dont remember the whole conversation word by word or even the whole sequence of it. I just know that it took me few tries before I could chat with a live agent. 

6 hours ago, pcke2000 said:

I must confess that I am really stupid. For some reason, when I tried 'Ask Emma', after I typed in 'InfoPass' and then chose 'Make an infopass appointment, I was always shown a list of links. There was no live agent answering. When I typed in 'chat with a representative', Ask Emma showed the system did not understand what I meant. I am extremely curious how other people here were able to get connected to a real human representative.

 

Thank you very much!

Iirc when I clicked on make an info pass appt it asked for a reason and I wrote something too generic for it to reply with links (which it will if you write ‘case status’). I think I just write one word ‘expired’ and it worked. But I also had to try a few times. I’m also not sure if they have live agents 24/7 so I tried during business hours.

1 hour ago, rooji said:

Who knows what it was. All I can say is that even today I checked people before and after me there is hardly any approval. I narrow the search to just ROC filers. When did you have your bio? Ours was in dec of last year. 

December 17th! 

7 minutes ago, rooji said:

So sorry to hear that. Again my theory is just that a theory. Not sure if it is confirmed. I just saw someone else do the same or similar to that and maybe it was my luck yesterday but the change almost instantaneous. I checked people before me and after me according to our case number and no one else was approved. I check statuses daily and lately for Vermont they were in 18100 in the last 5 digits the last I checked. 

 

Just to give an idea my case had the last 5 digits in 21000 numbers. 

Got it, mine is in 27000 range  It was most likely a coincidence or maybe your case was already adjudicated but they forgot to change status so it was an easy fix? I was doing the lookups of random numbers before mine  (within a couple hundreds) and a ton of them were actually not for ROC - some of them for EAD/AP, some for ROC for non-family stuff so I couldn't get a good gauge of the speed but it seemed like most ROCs are also in the 'fingerprint review completed'.

i did the chat thing but so far (2 hrs) no changes to the status

3 hours ago, BPS288 said:

Got text and email that my case got updated last night. The update says that my case was transferred to another office and now that office has jurisdiction. They will mail me a notice of why it was transferred. Any one got an update like this? My case was at the Vermont Service Center. 

Interesting! Mine is just a couple of days before yours (11/15) and no updates... 

I just got the “fingerprint review completed” update too! First update since filing - so i’m just glad they didn’t lose my papers and hopefully now an IO has the case and will get to it soonish 

10 minutes ago, FlaviaJ said:

I had my fingerprint done in NJ back in December last year and my status just changed to “fingerprint review was completed” today. Continues to say that they will let me know if they need anything else from me or if my case is ready to get approved. At least something is moving! There’s hope lol 

Oooh! Nice! Are you a Vermont filer too (EAC)?

I'm right there with you, as are all NYC people seemingly. EAC is one of the slower centers currently (along with Texas) but it looks like some July filers are getting approved. As for the biometrics, also looks like all NYC folks got to do the biometrics right away (either the local centers have more capacity or because our processing times for the inital GC were so much longer our bio expired earlier)

There are no messages in the dedicated thread about traveling with extension letter about anyone having any issues. Yes, people get taken into secondary in the US but that’s expected. Yes, not all folks on airline registration would be familiar with the letter (or the stamp), but that’s resolved by speaking with a manager so i simply don’t think that what you are saying is accurate.

Re biometrics - no one can tell you that, you need to call the service line and ask if you are concerned that the letter might have gotten lost. But  some people don’t need to do biometrics during ROC so it might be completely normal.

here is the proof that despite the infopass being shut down, stamping is not. I screenshot that from NYC office webpage

Infopass is shut down but getting a passport stamped is not infopass, it’s considered “document services” and it’s not shut down. You just gotta call the service line to get the appointment.

although if you have an extension, they will most likely refuse to give you an appointment for a stamp.

there are just as many stories about people who have stamp but don’t have an extension letter that officers and airport workers aren’t trained blah blah blah. Stamps are actually way less common than extension letters so please breath and stop panicking, you’ll be just fine. It’s not risky to travel without the stamp if you have your GC and extension letter.

55 minutes ago, newyork1234 said:

I just talked to my lawyer. they shut down Infopass. there is no way to get it stamped. 

he said some people who already traveled without stamp are stuck overseas and encountered some problem getting into the US.

please share if yall have any information.

There is a way to get it stamped. You call the service line, get to a person, explain your situation and get an appointment to get your passport stamped. People will

always need these stamps for one reason or another so they aren’t just going to stop doing it.

5 hours ago, MASH said:

can I ask how long does it take to get the biometrics letter? and also the extension letter mine was 2 pages is that the same with everyone else?

I got mine 3 weeks after filing and the appt itself was around 5 weeks after the filing date. VSC

21 minutes ago, FlaviaJ said:

Hey there, 

 

Did anyone had luck going to a local office as a walk in to get an infopass? My GC expired on 1/10 and my letter never came. I have travel plans for 2/14 and I just can't schedule an infopass. Called many times and they suppose to call me back to schedule but they only time I was able to get a call back I was told I needed to wait for the notice on the mail which is insane. My local office is Newark NJ and I really don't want to miss my President's day vacation which is non-refundable. 

NYC office doesn’t take walk ins - you need an appointment number to get to an officer. I would call again to ask for an appt and hope you get a different officer who’d be willing to schedule. When I was scheduling, they had them as soon as next day 

17 minutes ago, lapata said:

Thank you! They’re asking me for a letter of my employer to put the stamp on my passport. This is a Miami office. Not sure if others have had the same issue. 

Can you ask to speak with a different officer (nicely)? Tell them you plan to travel soon, you could even try to book some refundable flights just to have something to show if it comes to that. They are being ridiculous