Hawksquill

Just to give you a sense of timeline, my British husband's UK passport expires this month. We applied for a renewal in May and just got the approval email in July. The passport still has to be printed and mailed to us. I'm sure the queues might get even longer in the future depending on how long the disruption lasts. All just a warning to not get too complacent or leave it too long to apply!

Does it just say "ready to be scheduled for interview" or something else? Ready to be scheduled for interview is a little different than having an interview scheduled - it just means all the other boxes have been ticked and the next step is an interview, which you've been put in line for. I'm not sure if USCIS is actually scheduling interviews at the moment for ROC cases.

Congrats to everyone who's seen movement on their case, and solidarity to those of us still waiting! 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? Anyone having similar thoughts?

If you create your timeline on VJ and keep it updated, you'll receive email updates about approval estimates. The big caveat is that these are by no means guarantees, because they're based on user-submitted timeline data. If anything, they're more helpful for getting a general sense of what's happening to other people with similar timelines to you - the date moving forward generally means that there's been some movement on these cases, and the date moving backward means there's not been movement. It doesn't guarantee when your case will be approved, and it's not even really useful for planning purposes.

Another I-751 EAC case number near ours approved today without interview, plus a few more transferred! Very encouraging, fingers crossed we'll see movement soon

No updates on our case but a whole bunch of case numbers near ours have been transferred to other offices over the past couple weeks. And two I-751 cases near ours were approved on June 15, I assume without interview!

September 2019 filer here, case assigned to VSC. Our case hasn't been transferred yet but a few case numbers near ours have been transferred - not sure where they went, it just says "transferred to an office that has jurisdiction" - could that be the local field offices for interviews, or NBC? If our case does get transferred, I'm wondering if we should put off applying for N-400 in September like we were planning. Part of me thinks we should just apply as soon as we can to get in the queue as early as possible, but if our I-751 is transferred to NBC or anywhere other than the local office, it seems that applying for N-400 might slow down both processes? In which case maybe we should just wait. Field office is Hartford, CT if it makes any difference.

Exciting! I'm pretty sure this means they're using your fingerprints from the last time you did biometrics, so you won't have to go in for another biometrics appointment. From my understanding it's just box ticking and doesn't necessarily mean anything in terms of processing times, whether or not you'll receive an RFE, etc.

Some people wait until they've been a resident for 5 years and apply for citizenship then because you don't need to go through the hassle of preparing all the relationship evidence. I think it's a personal choice. When you apply for N-400 when I-751 is still pending, the I-751 needs to be decided before you can move forward with citizenship. Based on what I've seen on VJ, sometimes that means the I-751 gets "pulled" and adjudicated faster so the N-400 can go forward. Sometimes there's a combo interview for both. Sometimes the N-400 interview gets scheduled and then gets cancelled until the I-751 is adjudicated. Sometimes it's a long wait for both. Like all things in immigration, it really just depends. Personally, my husband will be eligible to apply for N-400 in September and our I-751 is still pending. We're planning to apply as soon as we can. We figure we'd rather get in line now than wait another 2 years. We have saved loads and loads of relationship evidence for our other applications that can all be reused, so getting a few more recent things for N-400 isn't that big of a deal to us. Some people have recently been getting their I-751s approved without interviews. From what I've seen on the forums, it seems to be a lot of people at the Texas Service Center.

One EAC 751 case within 10-20 of our case number had the status changed to "ready to be scheduled for interview" on June 3, so exciting that some cases are having movement!

So they're not currently in the US? If they haven't entered yet and are planning to enter on a tourist visa, get married, and adjust status, that's fraud. There's a grey area for people who enter on a tourist visa and spontaneously decide to get married while they're here, but it sounds like your friend doesn't fit that category. To do this lawfully they would need to enter, get married, leave, and apply for I-130, or wait to get married and apply for K1.

I don't consider it accurate in terms of "now I can expect to hear back by exactly July 14," but it's helpful because it's based on member timeline data. If your estimate moves up significantly, it usually means other people with similar timelines have had movement on their cases.

VJ approval estimate updated to August 27, 2020 so that's at least exciting. No recent movement or soft updates on our case, or any of the other cases in our range. Hopefully soon!

Have you checked the USCIS website? They have helpful documents with instructions and a checklist of attachments: https://www.uscis.gov/n-400 The basics are a copy of the front and back of her green card and payment. Other attachments depend on if she uses a lawyer, if her name has changed, if she's been arrested or convicted of a crime, if she's paid her taxes as required, and a bunch of other things all listed on the document checklist. You can also file online, which makes the process a lot easier - the form will give you error messages if you forget to fill out required fields.

If you can't afford a lawyer, you can see if there's a law school near you that has a legal clinic, which are often very affordable. I'm not sure if these have gone remote or not, but it's worth a shot. Because you are a victim of domestic violence, you can probably also find legal aid charities that will give you free or affordable legal assistance. I'm not a lawyer, but getting a PO box sounds like a good way to prevent him from getting your address, unless the form specifies that it needs to be a physical address or a residential address. If it's asking for your SSN and you already have one, I wouldn't advise that you leave that info off the form. He'll find out that you already got your SSN eventually, and assuming you are physically safe and you keep your card safe (consider getting a safe deposit box at a bank, or a safe for your home, perhaps?) there's not much he can do to take them away from you now. And yes, document the threats! And if you feel threatened or unsafe please get help.