Hadassah123

So, I am dual now too, but have not yet had to renew my Dutch passport. 
 

What I know is that in order to keep your Dutch passport, you HAVE to make sure to renew your passport on time. The rules recently changed that you now have 13 years to do so, so 3y past the expiration of your passport. Though, when you need to renew will also depend on when you naturalized. If you are on Facebook, there are is the group below that has extensive info on this topic. The admin is great and has gathered a lot of info and example docs. 
 

For renewing your Dutch passport, you’ll need an apostille on your naturalization certificate, and since that can take a while, it’s key to get that done on time. 
 

 FB group here: https://m.facebook.com/groups/150599834962586/?ref=sharehttps://m.facebook.com/groups/150599834962586/?ref=share&exp=8ce3

5 hours ago, Alex Prijn said:

You can get the letter off of the state.gov website. On the page with the Dutch civil document requirements, there is a letter under the police records tab. It says supporting letter for Dutch VOG.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/Netherlands.html

The link on the page seems to be broken on my end. 

@dittoit searched in my files and can't find it, sorry! 

Hi all!

Did not think to check VJ for a N-400 September group before, so I'm only just now finding it after having my oath ceremony earlier today!

Happy to report that I am now a US citizen and forever done with USCIS! Whoop! 🥳

Timeline in my signature, downtown LA field office. 

This happened today! 🥳

Thank you @Albator for sharing your experience, very helpful! And I can attest that it was the exact same. 

1) I checked in, handed over my GC and expired EAD/AP, answered the questions from the notice, GC&EAD got stapled to a sheet and was then told to proceed to yellow caution tape.

2) At yellow caution tape another officer told me to pick a spot with blue tape on the ground.

3) Had to wait till other 8/9 people were there. We started 5 min before ceremony time because everyone was already there. Officer had told us grab our oath pamphlet thing from the envelop given at check in.

4) Officer told us to raise our right hand and to repeat the Oath after him. After that was done, he said "congratulations, you are now officially a citizen of the United States" 

5) All done! Then had to form a line and someone took the sheet with my GC&EAD/AP stapled to it. Then got handed my naturalization certificate.

When I arrived the previous group was just finishing up and when I left, the next group was already gathering. Seems to be a constant flow of ceremonies! 

Husband  (and baby) came along and he took this pic. I wouldn't take a whole group of people along, but 1 or 2 should be fine. 

Very very happy to be done with USCIS! 

14 minutes ago, Scandi said:

Thank you for that post. Did you and the officer sit in different rooms and communicated via the tablet, or was he just behind a glass window in the same room as you? 

Same room! The officer behind his/her desk with a plexiglas screen in between you and them. The tablet is on your side of the screen, so that you can read, write, and check your info (that they will show you).

Had my interview today and passed! 🥳

Most annoying part of the whole process was the long wait! My appointment was for 2pm, but I didn't get called in till just after 4pm - by then there was almost no one left. Heard from a guard around 2.30pm that I got lucky, because they were so backed up that everyone after 2pm was being re-scheduled.  Either way, am glad to have this over with! 

Was told I would be asked 10 questions, and that I had to have 6 correct. So then once I answered the first 6 correctly, she stopped. 

Had to read 1 sentence off the tablet in front of me and then had to write down one sentence on that same tablet (with a stylus pen thing, so it didn't turn out very pretty 😂).

Oath Ceremony scheduled for Thursday! 

Since they are so backed up, they try to schedule Oath Ceremony's asap after interview approval and will give you your Oath Ceremony notice right after the interview. In my case the system wasn't working, so the officer was going to try schedule it for later (which could be next month), but then called me while in the car on the way home (luckily husband was driving ) that she managed to schedule me for Thursday. However, now no interview notice and not enough time to receive it in the mail (I do see in myuscis account that it's been sent out 😅), so she told me to just show up with only my GC on Thursday. Guess we'll see how that goes! 

2 hours ago, MrKo said:

Just FYI, it's been over 10 days since my passport application has been approved. I have received my passport and passport card over a week ago but to this day my NC has not arrived. I called the passport service today and they told me my NC had been mailed out on the day my passport was approved. I hope, like I said in this post, it would eventually show up.

My husband and I applied for our daughter's first passport the last week of December. Her passport came in the mail the last week of January and her birth certificate came in a separate envelop a week after. Which makes me think that's similar to your situation. Additional documents just get sent separately from the passport itself. 

Hi all!

Found this thread and want to say I have my interview next Tuesday! (Feb 16th).

I filed for expedited citizenship based on my husband being military and him getting orders for overseas. My timeline therefore not standard. 

Had already started studying for the civics portion after I applied, so now just to memorize the last 20 or so. 

13 minutes ago, Junhan said:

Heb ik mijn aanvraag nu wel goed of niet goed gedaan? 

Geen idee? Heb je de website die @Bunbunbunny had aanbevolen gebruikt? Of ben je naar de gemeente gegaan? In geval van dat laatste, als je voor emigratie hebt aangevinkt/ingevuld, dan moet het goed zijn gegaan neem ik aan. Zoals ik hierboven schreef hangt het van de balie persoon af of ze het wel of niet in gang zetten met of zonder brief. Feitelijk was de brief een extra zekerheid/garantie zodat ik iets bij me had als er om gevraagd zou worden, wat dus voor mij het geval was. 

@Bunbunbunny @Junhan

Ik heb voor mijn VOG aanvraag vorig jaar deze brief meegenomen naar het stadsdeel kantoor (Den Haag). 
 

https://photos.state.gov/libraries/netherlands/19452/public/IVNIVVOGAPPSUPP.pdf

"Probleem" was dat de dame aan de balie dacht dat het hiermee niet kon, omdat het ondertekend moest zijn door de instantie. Na enig aanhouden van mijn kant (al werd ik er wel zenuwachtig van), ging ze het toch maar even navragen bij een collega/leidinggevende en kwam ze terug met het antwoord dat het blijkbaar tegenwoordig zo gaat..... Jaja.... Ik had via VJ en FB al het advies van deze brief gelezen, dus no way dat het een nieuwe procedure was. Anyway, eind goed, al goed - VOG 2-3 weken later met de post ontvangen. 

Heb deze vraag recentelijk weer in een van de FB groepen gelezen en iemand had een soortgelijke ervaring. Bij anderen gaat/ging het soepeler en kon het gewoon gelijk, maar dus een enkele keer dat een balie medewerker even tegenstribbelt, omdat ze denken dat het met deze brief niet kan.

1 hour ago, manful said:

I'm so sorry to hear you got rescheduled! Glad you didn't have to wait too long for another date. We had our interview this past Wednesday. It went well and we got approved on site. The one thing that was stressful was the security line to get into the building took over an hour. It stated on our interview letter that we should arrive 30 minutes before but no earlier. I would suggest arriving an hour before, we ended up being 20 min late to our interview. As soon as we went up to the USCIS waiting room, we were the second person to be called. The questions were easy, birthday dates, wedding date, how we met, date of last US arrival. Hope that helps and good luck on your interview this week!

Yay congrats! 

And yes, I knew about the security thing already, I warned you in an above post   But still, very good to know, so that we really do come on time.

My interview is actually the 28th. I just keep saying it wrong. Luckily the right date is in all the relevant calendars, but lately I keep going back to the appointment letter to triple check, haha! Pre-interview jitters, or just other things on my mind - idk, but it's soon!  

Just now, Bunbunbunny said:

Oh ok, yea I only sent in my originals after the interview, no copies.

 

Eh i guess i will get some originals quickly before i leave

Yes do! No need for VOG I think, but you'll need BC for SSN and AOS and perhaps some others that I'm forgetting.

17 minutes ago, Ludovic UK said:

I know right!!! I thought all of the LA offices were under the same wait time because the San Fernando office isn’t listed on VJ, but I was wrong unfortunately. 

Nah, I found out a while ago that there are multiple field offices, so I was even asking people on this page if they were in down town LA, or other offices, because people might consider it LA, while it isn't. 

I looked up the San Fernando office times and jeez, so much longer than LA and I thought LA was long! Though... I had not yet expected an interview letter yet. Was expecting it more to be around late summer. Am happy that it's earlier, but the difference with the San Fernando office is a little crazy then! 

8 minutes ago, Bunbunbunny said:

alright thanks for the information

 

I went ahead and opened it, the CD and original documents like police certificate of conduct aren't in there as shown on the picture.

 

The CD however I received during my interview at the consulate, am I supposed to get my VOG and birth certificate back?

Ah ok, I went through this part of the process in Feb 2018, so some things (may have) changed since then.

Did you submit photo copies of your VOG and birth certificate? If not, they keep the originals. In my case, I had submitted originals and copies and got the originals back. 

Unless those things have changed too and they kept the copies at the consulate and gave you back your originals during your interview? I wouldn't know.

On 5/10/2019 at 3:10 AM, Bunbunbunny said:

yup you were right

So I have this huge envelope (it has a small tear in it...), sealed with tape.

Am I allowed to open that or not? my passport is inside it? I kinda need the passport to travel right?

 

Sorry for the amount of questions

Been a couple days now, so I assume you've opened the envelop? If not/for future people, below the pic I sent to 2 other people who were right behind me in the process. . 

So you can open the first envelop. It contains your passport, original docs, X-ray CD (that you get to keep) and that thing on the right side. The envelop in the middle with the paper stapled to it is the one you're not allowed to open. I believe the back of it also clearly states that you are not to open it/only to be opened by the IO.

36 minutes ago, Ludovic UK said:

@Hadassah123, is your interview scheduled at the San Fernando office? I’m still waiting but I called the USCIS on Friday and they said that that office has the longest wait times and it could be another year for me!! I know they always give crazy estimates but I wanted to check if people are seeing movement in the Valley office. 

What??? That's crazy! 

But no, I'm at the LA office down town. 

42 minutes ago, johnfvan said:

I just got the text that our aos interview has been scheduled in St Paul. Anyone know how far out they get scheduled?

4-6 weeks! A friend of mine, his interview was within 4 weeks of receiving his letter. From the time I got my letter, it was 6 weeks (though it actually got rescheduled due to "unforeseen circumstances" to 2 weeks later). 

@manful my interview got rescheduled! Had a stressful day on April 16th, as I went to check my status online for no specific reason and then saw "Interview cancelled and notice mailed". Freaked me out a little. Then the next day, April 17th, I checked again and it said "Interview scheduled". Soooooo.... I got the cancellation letter yesterday (cancelled due to "unforeseen circumstances"), but am still waiting for the new interview letter. I called USCIS today, and it's been re-scheduled to May 23rd. Bummer, but 2 weeks later isn't too big of a deal.

Is yours still on for May 15th? 

@manful got my letter today! Interview on Monday May 13th. Interesting/weird that you got the interview scheduled notice and letter earlier than me, but that your interview is 2 days later. So for me it's exactly a month from receiving letter till interview date. 

What time is yours? Mine's at 8.15. Ugh! Had hoped for an afternoon appointment (if they even have those - I saw office closes at 3pm). I'm ugh-ing, because the website/page of the office states that they are having troubles with the security clearance thing, so that you have to come an hour early. With LA traffic we'll have to leave on time anyway, but this is going to be even earlier... Oh well, suppose it's for a good cause eh? 🤔

13 hours ago, Ludovic UK said:

Amazing news!! I've been seeing some movement for May applicants in LA but great to see June changes. Supper happy for you, congratulations!!

Thanks!

Are you in the LA Group as well? There's not that many of us, but that's where I've been getting my info from. Am not too active on VJ anymore besides that page and a Dutch one. 
 

1 hour ago, manful said:

Congrats! So glad you got a notice too! It was so much earlier than expected, in our notice it indicated the original date of application of August 1st. I got our letter today, 5 days after the app notified me and our interview date is May 15, exactly 6 weeks from the app notification date. Hope that helps! We are in LA city proper so our interview is in downtown LA. I will keep you posted on how the interview goes. I'm mostly concerned about the medical since it will be almost exactly 1 year old by the time of our interview. Hopefully we won't have to do another one, there was no indication of that in our letter.

I honestly had no idea what "city proper" meant, so I had to google that. I thought you'd made a typo 😂 But yes, LA proper is LA County/the LA County Field office. So I'll have my interview at the same location! 

And thanks for that info. Hubby and I are going on a one week trip starting April 24th, so we should be totally fine! 

Re medical, yeah... they recently changed the rules. I think I copied them here a while back. And while that seemed to be for new applicants, I've read multiple stories of people not having to re-do it (also some people a couple comments above here).  My medical is from Feb 2018, so more like a year and 3 months since. Medical is reviewed by IO before/during interview. If they require you to get a new one, you'll hear about it then. You can be tentative-approved, pending a new medical. 

I really hope to not have to do a new one either, but I'm not stressing about it. One step at a time  

But yes, let me know how it goes! 

Just found out my interview was scheduled today! YAY! Had thought it would take till at least mid-summer based on the processing times. Though, I'd seen some fellow LA people who filed before me getting their interviews recently, which already led me to hope/believe that it could be sooner. Though, with USCIS you never know.... 

Now to wait for the letter and interview date!

On 4/3/2019 at 4:53 PM, manful said:

Hi All, I just got my text that our interview is scheduled, filed on August 29th 2018. Way sooner than expected and hopefully the interview will be before I go on a trip. I will update with timeline of letter received in the mail and interview date. Shocked at how off timeline the USCIS are here in Los Angeles I was sure it wouldn't happen until the Fall. 

😮 ! That was really quick! I filed in June, case ready for interview since July 24th. No answer yet. Are you in LA County specifically?

EDIT: I was grumbling to hubs because of your case, then I just went to check my case status. Last update from today; interview was scheduled today! So now I have to wait for letter and interview date too. YAY! I believe the interviews are generally a month out. Hubs and I have a trip planned as well, but with a month notice, we should be ok. 

On 4/3/2019 at 10:19 PM, Anna92 said:

Did anyone schedule their interview before receiving P3?

You can't, because packet 3 includes a slip of paper that you need to send back to the consulate. That piece of paper is the "Appointment Request Form". See below the pic I took of it back in Feb 2018. After the consulate receives that, they will send you packet 4.

On 3/26/2019 at 12:05 AM, Anna92 said:

Oke, so u booked ur medical before knowing ur exact interview date? Veel succes vandaag!

I called the doctor after I got my first packet  (3? I don't remember which ones anymore). With that packet I was able to see the available interview times, but since you need 10 days between medical and interview I'd say, go ahead and schedule medical and based off that date schedule your interview. I think I had to wait 2 (or 3?) weeks till a medical appt was available.