skaratso

It's a moot point now. We have already decided not to delay filing. We had already decided to just do it and accept taking the 2020 version of the test before the change was announced. And now my wife most certainly will end up taking the 2008 test because even if we had filed the day after her 10 year Green Card arrived in January, there's no way she would get an interview before April 21, 2021, as per the note that

• For December 1, 2020 through February 28, 2021 filers, the applicant can choose to take either the 2008 version or the 2020 version IF the interview is before April 19, 2021.

Under the Processing Times page on the main page of this site, it estimates that they are currently processing applications filed in March of 2020, almost 12 months ago. Does anyone think that she could get a naturalization interview within a month and a half, skipping all the others who filed before her?

Thank you to everyone that answered.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. We're going ahead with it now.

And, a couple of clarifications: I never said my wife wanted to wait 25 years before applying for citizenship. That was my father who did that. He chose to remain a permanent resident for 25 years, until my mother died and he was spending up to 4 or 5 months outside the country a year and suddenly had fewer ties to the United States in case he were to lose his Green Card. Then he applied for citizenship in 2013.

If we decide to wait it certainly wouldn’t be for very long, maybe another month or so. There’s no way my wife wouldn’t want to be able to have a say in the 2022 midterms.

So about three weeks ago my wife’s removal of conditions was approved and she received her 10 year Green Card.

Now she is eligible to file for U.S. citizenship on the basis of the three year rule. She entered the United States with her K1 visa on September 30, 2017, we got married November 7, 2017, and since then she’s only been out of the country once for a 10 day trip (not counting the handful of other times we’ve been across the border into Canada for less than 24 hours).

The question is whether to file now, or wait to see what the Biden administration does about the more objectionable changes to the Civics Test. Specifically, questions where the answers exclude immigrants. For example, changing the correct answer for “Who do your state senators and representatives serve?” from “all the residents of the state” to “all the citizens of the state.”

I know the changes are minor in that regard, but, much as the Constitution makes clear that the Census is to count ALL the people residing in the country, a state’s Congressional leaders are supposed to serve ALL the residents of their state, citizens AND immigrants alike, and the idea that even the immigrants are not included in the answers is EXTREMELY repugnant to me as both the child of an immigrant who chose for 25 years to not get US citizenship and now the spouse of an immigrant as well.

So, what do others here think? File now or wait and see?

On 1/7/2021 at 9:32 AM, skaratso said:

So my wife's receipt number also started with LIN and the status changed similarly to yours. 5/13/2020 fingerprints reused from previous biometrics and then yesterday (1/6/2020) new card has been ordered, with no other updates in between.

 

That happened a lot faster than we expected. Will update further once we get notice card is mailed or we receive it.

Update:

The reporting sequence was strange. It changed to "New Card Ordered," then "Case Was Approved" the next day, and then "Card Was Mailed to Me" the day after that.

13 hours ago, VN2016 said:

Hi there, my status changed to your card is being produced. I see there is movement in receipts starting LIN. I know someone that their card has been mailed yesterday. they filed in Jan 2020 and Lincoln processing center. Good luck

 

 

 

 

02/20/2020 - I-751 Case received 

05/13/2020 - Fingerprints "taken" (applied from previous biometrics)

01/06/2021 - New card ordered 

 

 

So my wife's receipt number also started with LIN and the status changed similarly to yours. 5/13/2020 fingerprints reused from previous biometrics and then yesterday (1/6/2020) new card has been ordered, with no other updates in between.

That happened a lot faster than we expected. Will update further once we get notice card is mailed or we receive it.

1 hour ago, Marieke H said:

Incorrect. SRC is the Texas Service Center, which used to be called Southern Regional Center. 

I stand corrected. Thank you.

On 9/16/2020 at 9:31 AM, sweetadams said:

February 7th, 2020, Texas Service Center.

 

Yes, everybody sends their applications to the lockbox in Texas. But that's not the center which processed your file. The "SRC" at the beginning of your case number means the California Service Center, in Sacramento. My wife's case number starts with "LIN," which is the Nebraska Service Center, in Lincoln.

When my father applied for his citizenship after over 30 years of being a Green Card holder I was allowed to serve as his interpreter for the interview and civics test. They had his entire file too and went over everything as if he were still going through the K1 process. At one point the officer showed me his original divorce decree and asked me if it was my father's birth certificate (if he had turned the page he would have seen the translated version), then hunted through the files looking for it. He couldn't find it. So I politely asked for his file, located the Greek government form stating that his original birth certificate was destroyed when the municipal building housing those records was burned down during World War II and that, to the best of their knowledge, he was indeed born "approximately" around the date my father used as his birthdate. The officer was like, "but where is his birth certificate?" I showed him the translated version and said, "it says right here that the original was destroyed in the war." "But they would have issued him a replacement." "This IS the replacement." "OK, whatever." The rest of the interview went fine and my father was approved.

He was polite, but he sure didn't seem too bright.

2 hours ago, juancarlos said:

Hi,

 

I'm taking a look at the vaccines that are required in the form I-693 and it seems like I already have them all. I got vaccinated in my country, Spain, and they are all registered in an official vaccination card signed by doctors, etc. The original one is in Spain and my mom sent me a copy through email.

Said this:

 

1) Is a photocopy of this vaccination card valid to prove to the USCIS civil surgeon that I have those vaccines already?

 

2) Regarding the chickenpox or varicella vaccine, I never got it because I got the disease when I was a kid, hence, I am immune to it. The thing is I cannot prove this, I don't have a document or something saying I've had chickenpox before. In this case, how do you prove that you don't need that vaccine?

 

3) Do I need a certified translation of the vaccination card to carry when I visit the civil surgeon? It's entirely in Spanish.

 

I don't want to have again vaccines that I've already had, plus I guess I'd have to pay for them, so the fewer vaccines I get, the better.

 

Thank you!

It sounds like you are already in the United States, so you will need to have your vaccination card translated into English, especially if the civil surgeon you are seeing does not know Spanish. For the chicken pox vaccine, since you had it as a child you will not need the vaccine, but the civil surgeon may want proof that you had it. The easiest way to do that is to get a blood test called a Varicella Titer, which looks for antibodies to the virus.

On 6/12/2020 at 9:16 PM, Majdy said:

Is anyone have their receipt begin with LIN?  Thanks

Ours starts with LIN.

If you send statements from your bank you really should send every single statement. Also, you could probably get away with one or two bank accounts. No need to do all four. People have received RFEs for the missing months in the past. My wife and I sent all the statements from our bank account. Do the same with the credit card. You could probably get by with just one of the credit cards, no need to do all three.

For the tax returns, you can just send transcripts from the IRS. You can request those from the IRS website and they usually take about a week to be mailed to you. You don't have to send in the whole return. Each transcript is like two or three pages.

The rest of your list looks pretty good.

Also, continue to gather the evidence. Save all your water bills and insurance bills and other stuff and continue to do so up to the date of your interview (or you receive the 10 year card if they waive the interview), so that you can bring it with you to the interview in case they ask for it.

I'm attaching a picture of the packet we sent to show you how much paper everything was.

25 minutes ago, Ha-Li said:

Cool, did they transfer her case to local field office?

No, because the case status would have said that they transferred it to the local field office. It will probably happen later, but that hasn't been done yet.

We have also been notified that my wife's case has been updated to show biometrics taken. They must have reused her fingerprints from when she adjusted status (she came here on a K-1 visa). And our service center is listed as the one in Nebraska. (case number starts with LIN).

On 2/19/2020 at 9:37 PM, J91939 said:

We have identical timelines! Except for the text notification... I didnt sign up cause it didnt work during the AOS process

My wife’s NOA came in the mail today. It was dated 2/18/2020.

Now she can go renew her driver’s license before it expires March 15.

We mailed the form on 2/10/2020. My wife received a text on 2/18/2020 that the form was accepted by the office and they cashed the check today. Still waiting on the extension letter.

I just took ours to the post office today. My wife's conditional Green Card expires March 15, 2020. Checking the website today it still says to use the 12/2/19 edition of the form, so we should be good to go.

Thanks to both of you. I’ve done some additional searching and discovered it doesn’t seem to be a major issue, but still don’t want to take any chances.

So the time has come for my wife and I to apply for removal of conditions from my wife's Green Card. As we wait for a few remaining pieces of evidence to arrive, we've been checking to make sure there was nothing overlooked, and sure enough, there has been one thing. When we moved to our new house my wife updated her address within the 10 day period using form AR-11. However I did not file a form I-865 to change my own address, because we weren't aware of the requirement. As ignorance of the law is not an excuse for not following it, naturally I need to comply with the law and file the form now, so that it will not jeopardize the removal of conditions process.

I have a couple of questions, though. The INA, Section 213A(d)(2) specifies a penalty for failure to report an address change. Since my wife has not received means-tested public benefits, the penalty is listed as a fine of not less than $250 or more than $2000. When the move took place I had recently had a major accident and was recovering in a nursing home receiving rehabilitation and physical therapy, which is part of the reason we were not aware of the requirement that I send a change of address form. Also, because of the accident, we still have not yet sold the old house (due to my needing to recover enough to move smaller items over and then doing some minor renovations to get the house ready to sell) and have still been receiving mail at the old address (though living full time at the new one). Will either of those things be considered mitigating circumstances in determining whether or not I will receive a fine? Anyone know whether the fine is generally on the low end of the range or the high end (or somewhere in the middle)?

Thanks in advance for any answers.

3 minutes ago, NikLR said:

Leaving an RRSP has it's own tax implications you'll have to look into as well. 

Yes. She explored all of her options with an accountant familiar with both US and Canadian tax law, both before and after she moved here and she decided to just leave it be for now. 

For instance, both her RRSP plus her Canadian savings account together have amounted to more than $10,000 US the last two years, so we've had to do an FBAR. But as her loans get paid off her savings balance has declined and this year the combined balance has finally gotten to below $10,000, so this should be the last year we'll need to file an FBAR.

My wife has a RRSP that she is leaving. It doesn't have a whole lot in it, but it is several thousand. She also has a small savings account left in Canada for her student loans and a Canadian credit card that gets payments deducted from regularly. Her bank is with Royal Bank of Canada because they have a US bank called RBC Bank. She has a personal account on the US side with them and they can do "North to South" and "South to North" transfers (with less of a spread between interest rates and saving a little money that way). Once the loans are paid off she'll probably close the Canadian savings account and then just maintain the RRSP until she gets to retirement age and can withdraw the money without penalty.

When my wife filed for AOS back in December she also filed for an EAD and AP at the same time. We got three receipt numbers, one for each application. When the USCIS created their new case tracking system my wife applied for email updates. Her AOS was adjudicated in March and she got her Green Card that month before the EAD and AP were processed. The EAD and AP cases were closed and when we look up the receipt numbers manually they state that the cases are closed and that the benefits were "obtained by other means." (i.e., the Green Card obviously means that an EAD and AP are no longer necessary).

Since then, my wife gets two emails once a month from the USCIS case tracking system that state "We are still reviewing your case and there are no updates at this time. We last took action on your case on December 14, 2017." We have been ignoring them, but I am wondering if this is happening to anyone else who received their Green Card before their Employment Authorization or Advance Parole cases were completed. Also, any idea how to stop receiving these emails?

Just wondering if that was a recent addition. Thanks.

Is the line about being in a “tracking database” a new thing?

We used AirBnB as well. As my wife was from Alberta we made a 10 day trip out of it and did the medical examination and then the interview a week later. The place we stayed in was very affordable and not too far from where we needed to go (about a 15-20 minute drive to downtown Montreal). I had my own car as well (I drove 650 miles from Ohio). There's lots of sightseeing to do there so we had a very good time.

We stayed here.