narakthisud

On 7/22/2021 at 9:28 AM, narakthisud said:

My wife has her oath ceremony in Philly on 8/3! She was delayed by an RFE she got at her interview. So glad and relieved to be (nearly) done with this looong journey. 

 

Here is her timeline:

Event Date Service Center : Online CIS Office : Philadelphia PA Date Filed : 2020-09-09 NOA Date : 2020-09-09 Bio. reuse notice. : 2020-12-10 Interview Date : 2021-05-25 Approved : Yes Oath Ceremony : 2021-08-03

Oath ceremony today! So excited to finally be DONE with USCIS.

Next stop: registering to vote (online) and a trip to the passport agency!

My wife has her oath ceremony in Philly on 8/3! She was delayed by an RFE she got at her interview. So glad and relieved to be (nearly) done with this looong journey. 

Here is her timeline:

Wife had her interview on 5/26. She passed the English and civics test, thankfully. However, she was issued an RFE as they needed updated marriage evidence. I helped her upload 60+ pages of evidence to the USCIS portal the same day. Here's hoping they process it soon...

Given the new CDC guidance released last week, there may be changes to USCIS policies around in-person activities like interviews and oath ceremonies. 

I received a "biometrics reuse notice" dated 12/10 which means no ASC appointment needed!

Here's hoping more people will hear from USCIS soon on their N-400's!

This is a fascinating thread. If I were to look at my own wife's situation, I could imagine her feeling similarly homesick. To be fair, if something like this could happen to a UK expat, it could certainly happen to others. I suppose this risk exists at some level for all USC's.

The culture differences between here and Asia are even bigger, so I find it interesting that someone would struggle with the differences between the UK and USA. To each his/her own, though. Just thought I'd stop by to offer a perspective from outside the Anglo Saxon sphere of influence.

2 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

I literally cannot think of one reason, other than being totally unable to fill in a form online, why anyone would still mail it in.

And there's the rub. Some folks are more comfortable with paper forms. I honestly found the online N-400 much easier to navigate versus the paper form. I truly hope that USCIS moves more forms online (I-485, I-129F, etc.) because it really streamlines the process!

Happened to be logged on to the USCIS web site to check on the pending N-400, so I checked on our pending I-751. Lo and behold, it was approved just today! 

6 hours ago, Paul4GC said:

It puzzled me at first too but here is what I think it is. My wife has a son from previous relationship, so I “think” they want to see if I ever proceeded to adopt him. I love him and treat him like my son but his father has a court order of paying child support, insurance, and legal rights to his son. Plus all the visiting rights. So when my wife and I get insurance, we don’t have him on ours. He loves his son too and he wouldn’t arrow me to do anything ordered to him by the court. And I respect that. Laws are very strict.

see the attached pic. (Honestly I thought I had provided enough in the beginning)

The listing of evidence you provided so far is impressive and I'm honestly surprised USCIS is asking for more. In any event, the keyword in the sentence mentioning children is "may." As in, "...the evidence may include but is not limited to..."

If you look at the list of recommended evidence (cut off in your photo) beyond what is listed for children, I'm sure you'll be able to find something additional that will help USCIS make a determination in your favor. Perhaps if you have life insurance, or some other commingled assets/accounts? I wouldn't recommend it right away, but now may be the time to start thinking about a lawyer if you continue to get RFI/RFE's as that has the possibility of putting your partner's immigration status in jeopardy.

On 8/28/2020 at 11:02 PM, Paul4GC said:

So the RFI arrived in mail. 2 major things they want to see:

1. A child together or adoption 

2. shared property or lease.

That seems unlikely and unusual. There are plenty of couples who've been approved without children. Are you certain that USCIS has requested that you procreate in order to obtain a 10-year green card? This is the first time I've seen anything like this on VJ.

On 8/27/2020 at 7:15 PM, WI_CA said:

Yes. Can save for 30 days if I understood that correctly 

That's correct. Per USCIS:

Once you start your form, we will automatically save your information for 30 days, or from the last time you worked on the form.

16 hours ago, bali said:

Now on to filing for N400 before price hike lol

Ain't that the truth! Already have my wife's application saved on the USCIS web site and ready to submit the day she becomes eligible!

On 8/18/2020 at 10:09 AM, luckylola said:

Congratulations!!!!  Is your husband’s case starts with LIN ?

If you're a fellow LIN filer, please check out this Google Sheet we're using to track our cases!

On 8/11/2020 at 2:44 PM, RS2016 said:

I heard filing for N400/naturalization may help nudge the i751 along faster than if you didn’t file.

This seems plausible since USCIS doesn't seem to do much until prodded/prompted. If you're planning for naturalization, it makes sense to do it early since fees are going up soon! 

On 8/12/2020 at 6:20 AM, oloyede777 said:

I have heard of someone that got citizenship approval before i751 (that is before the pandemic), which to me is absurd.

Given the state of USCIS today, that actually makes sense and is perfectly reasonable. (I'm being sarcastic.)

On 7/9/2020 at 4:15 PM, saeshhh said:

I am also a LIN filer and the status hasn’t changed since Case was received. I was reading somewhere here in the Forum that the Naturalization Filing Fee will increase to over 1000 by October. So we are planning on filing before to avoid the Increase. 
See here

Very good plan. We already have our online draft saved and ready to submit as soon as she's eligible (90 day early filing!). A nice feature of online filing is that your entries are saved for up to 30 days in draft. So you can work on the N-400 over time and don't have to rush through it in one sitting!

On 7/28/2020 at 4:14 PM, PolarPear said:

Filed Sept 29, 2019. Divorce waiver. 

 

My case got updated today, case " was transferred to another USCIS office. That office now has jurisdiction over your case. We sent you a notice that explains why we moved your case. Please follow the instructions in the notice."

 

Anyone know what this means? Does it usually say "case transferred to local office" when called in for an interview?

It could mean that or it could simply mean the local office is handling the case and it may end up being approved without an interview. See the below excerpt from USCIS's "Workload Transfer Updates" page:

We transferred some of the following cases from the Texas Service Center to various USCIS Field Offices:

• Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence

On 8/1/2020 at 11:23 AM, Hanswurst1989 said:

Hi there,

 

We got the lucky (or unlucky?) news on 7/20 that our I-751 filed with EAC got approved. Yay - so far. 
As I read through the approval letter, it is stated that I shouldn’t travel outside the US as long as I‘m not in possession of the new card. Bummer - since my wife and I have a vacay to Cancun, Mexico planned for 8/22 as we didn’t anticipate to get the approval at such an „early“ stage. 
 

Could anyone with approval potentially share the timeline with me how long it took to receive the physical  GC after approval? Thanks - any guidance much appreciated! 
 

Good luck for anybody still waiting! 

That seems odd. If your 12/18-month extension letter is still valid, you should be able to travel legally, especially to Mexico! I'm not a lawyer, but the verbiage in that letter about not traveling feels off to me.

On 8/3/2020 at 7:34 PM, Goodluckeveryone said:

status updated to new card being produced.

Congrats!!!!!!!

On 8/4/2020 at 12:40 PM, larnar1309 said:

Agreed!! We've been married for over 3 years now - have a house together - cars - family holiday's - EVERYTHING! No idea why they would need to interview?! 

As others have mentioned, if you haven't been interviewed in the US already, you may need to go through the motions. Also, you may just be randomly selected for one. It sucks, especially when your evidence is robust (as you mentioned).

On 7/6/2020 at 3:34 PM, Hawksquill said:

I'm curious for those of you who were planning to apply for citizenship under the 3 year rule and who have seen case numbers close to yours have movement, are you planning to apply as soon as the window opens, or wait until your I-751 is approved?  My husband is eligible to apply for citizenship on September 15, and when we first applied for I-751 we expected to be waiting well over a year, so we were just planning to apply as soon as the window opened.  But now that a lot of case numbers near ours are getting approved, I'm wondering if we don't hear back by September 15 if we should wait just a little bit in case we get the approval somewhat soon?  I don't think our local office (Hartford, CT) is known for slowing down both processes when you apply for N-400 with I-751 still pending, but it does seem like it might be simpler/neater to apply for citizenship once the I-751 is approved.  If when September rolls around it seems like a lot of cases near ours are getting approved, maybe we could wait a month or two just in case?

My take is that if you plan to apply for citizenship at some point, it makes sense to apply as soon as possible so long as you have the money and are prepared to take the civics and English exam. Given the likelihood that USCIS fees increase annually, it'll just get more expensive the longer you wait. That being said, once you have a 10 year GC, you don't really need to make a decision until you hit the 10 year mark. You'll either do an I-90 to renew your PR status or make the jump to citizenship. Personally, my wife and I decided that it makes sense to apply for citizenship as soon as she's eligible since it gives her the flexibility to travel with me (mostly) visa-free along with a host of other benefits (voting, eligibility for federal government jobs, etc.)

(By the way, we're LIN filers without any status update since "case was received" back in September of last year.)

12 hours ago, Randyandyuni said:

Within service centers too

That's beyond frustrating; it's infuriating! But there's not much one can do but be patient and wait it out.

On 5/20/2020 at 3:55 PM, J/G said:

you guys... read this... 

this person applied ROC in Oct 2019, fingerprint taken in Nov 2019.. and now their case is approved. I'm not crying... you're crying. 

 

 

Glad to see such a quick approval, but it's frustrating how uneven the processing times are between service centers! 

13 minutes ago, Randyandyuni said:

There is a thread on this forum that is specific to LIN filers

Thanks for the heads up! I found it.

For any other LIN filers, here's the thread @Randyandyuni is talking about:

No real updates on my wife's case since she had her biometrics taken in January. Case tracker still says "Case Was Received." Her case number begins with LIN, which translates to the Nebraska Service Center , I believe. Have any other LIN filers seen updates on their cases beyond biometrics?

11 hours ago, laci1806 said:

they stamped and signed his biometrics appointment letter yesterday. Are we supposed to do anything with that or just keep it? 

You don't need to do anything with it other than keep it with your files. 

My wife got her biometrics appointment letter on 10 Jan for an appointment on 23 Jan. Her case was assigned to the Nebraska Service Center (LIN).

For those of you who've gotten your biometrics notice, be careful about doing a "walk in" before the date of your appointment. Despite the fact that the Philadelphia ASC was so empty you could hear a pin drop, they wouldn't see my wife today because there "weren't enough fingerprint technicians on shift." Ugh. Bureaucracy at its finest, my friends!

Just got our NOA1 in the mail yesterday! Woo! 

16 minutes ago, Jackfruit said:

If "the window" open let's say tomorrow , can I sent my documents today ? 😉😊

I've heard most folks say to send documents a day or two after the "window" opens, just to avoid the possibility of USCIS rejecting your packet and having to re-file. It couldn't hurt since I assume you have a full 90 days of validity left on your GC at this point.