SacredBruce

47 minutes ago, SarahTheScientist said:

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply! WOW, 3 hours! We got the 7:30 time slot too. They told me to be 15-30 minutes early to make sure I’d have a spot in a room.

 

I just don’t understand why it’s being done this way. Is it so there’s more room for those naturalizing? Makes me sick that I can’t witness his ceremony 😞

 

Did you seriously have to clap 86 times? 😂 everyone’s hands must have been raw!

Lol, 100% serious - 86 different countries, had to clap 86 times.

The room where the ceremony takes place is big, but if all the family and friends were to attend, it'd be packed. I can see why they don't allow it - as you'll find out, it's a logistical nightmare organizing everyone to different tables to check in etc.

3 hours ago, SarahTheScientist said:

@SacredBruce how was the ceremony? My fiancé's was just scheduled next month at the Plano Event Center. I've talked with them and they told me there is limited seating in an adjacent room that will have audio of the ceremony. Was this your experience? Just wanting to know before we go!

Prepare to spend the best part of 3 hours there 😁

We got there at 7, was already a line of 3-400 people, around 7:45 they began letting people in. In the hallways there are multiple rooms for family where you can sit and listen to the ceremony over speakers.

Ceremony itself - I counted 22 rows of 45 people for mine, they wait for it to be full and then the ceremony begins.

Oh, be prepared to applaud for every country represented, we had to clap 86 times.

After that, there's a large outdoors area you can use for photos that's just outside where family and friends can sit.

2 hours ago, Lil bear said:

Information should be on the letter ..  but a quick google gave me this .. https://www.txnd.uscourts.gov/naturalization-ceremony-schedule

 

Guest seating severely restricted .. so dont  count on it.. also a very brief ceremony .. like 10 minutes .. so very little to observe. I did mine in Kansas City and it was live streamed on YouTube .. maybe yours will be also 

Yeah it's odd. I did find that site but the date of mine isn't listed, and it's at a conference center instead of the one they have at the USCIS office, which is already pretty large.

Letter says nothing about guests, only if you need assistance or an interpreter.

Morning all.

Got my oath ceremony scheduled for June 23rd in Plano, TX.

Despite extensive searching online, I can't find any definitive information on whether or not guests are allowed to attend the ceremony. Was wondering if anyone has been to one recently, or if anyone in the Dallas field office has attended one at the Plano conference center recently, and if so, did you have or see any other guests attend?

25 minutes ago, Balaji_v said:

Hey Hearty Congratulations on your approval. That is awesome news.

It was very quick too. Hopefully USCIS will process all applications this fast.

Which service center is your case assigned to ?? If you don't mind me asking, I have a similar timeline as yours and my service center is Nebraska.

 

My original packet was FedEx'd to the Phoenix, Arizona location. They then forwarded it to the Texas service center shortly thereafter 

On 11/26/2018 at 1:24 PM, Wiz_Fit said:

Wednesday at 8 am, going to be able to get that.  Our wedding photos we picked to print though are having issues at our Walmart to print so not sure if we will get that.

 

Are you able to take your smartphone into the building or do you have to leave it in the car? Worried if we don't have hard copies of this to show now.

Hey man, did all go ok?

You can take your phone in.

walgreens/cvs also offer on demand photo printing via your phone, memory card, social media etc.

On 11/24/2018 at 3:12 PM, Wiz_Fit said:

For the couples with interviews already, did they take another certified copy of your marriage certificate? We mailed in a certified copy and on the letter its asking for another copy of it. I don't think we have anymore certified copies only regular copies and worried if we will have time to get another certified copied by our interview now with all the holiday stuff we had come up this last week.

I mailed a certifiied copy in the application and took another certified copy with us to the interview.

The officer compared the two side by side and handed it back to me. If you absolutley cannot get one prior, maybe take the original and explain?

Picking up a certified copy should take you only 10 minutes, I went to a local office and got a couple a while back.

When is the interview ?

20 minutes ago, Wiz_Fit said:

Gratz!!! How nice is the Irving office?  Did you have any early appointment or afternoon? Assuming you went there based on the signature.  We'll be there next week!

It's a big center - there was a citizenship ceremony going on when we arrived. Make sure to check the traffic ahead of time, there was a massive wreck on 114 closing the whole road, luckily we missed it on the way there.

Our appointment was 12:30pm - we turned up at 11:45, sat in the car until 12 - A line of about 15 people to go through security, didn't take long. When you get in, you'll go upstairs & hand your interview letter to the receptionist on the left and they'll tell you to take as eat.

We got called in at around 15-20 minutes after our appointment time - Our interviewing officer was really nice, explained everything to us, what the structure of the interview would go like. She made small talk throughout the interview - and asked questions about where we had been with our photo's etc and genuinely seemed interested in us.

She asked if we had any questions at the end of it, and said it may be up to 2 weeks before we hear anything, but she said she felt like we had everything needed in our case.

5am this morning my status updated to my new card was being produced.

Happy to finally have it all done!

Hope yours goes well.

Had interview this morning. Went well from what I can tell. Called in to room about 10 mins after appointment time. Officer said she believed she had everything she needed and that we'd get an update within the next few days.

I have my interview next week and my medical falls in to the two year validity period as posted above, i haven't re-done mine, so hopefully all is good.

51 minutes ago, APGG94 said:

Wow. Based on this table, I didn't have to do another medical after all. $400 wasted. I guess it's always better to be on the safe side but that's a lot of money I could have saved. 

Yeah, my interview is in 3 weeks - I'm dabbling with the idea of getting it done again just in case.

From the USCIS site, interesting table.

57 minutes ago, Jeilvi said:

May be you don’t need new medical read this article (scroll down where it says about medical filled before November 1 2018) https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume8-PartB-Chapter4.html

Great info! I wasn't aware of this.

Based on the tables of surgeon signature and filed dates mine should be valid for 2 years.

Interview 19th November.

Getting another medical booked up for next week to take with me too 

2 minutes ago, Wiz_Fit said:

 Awesome!! Congrats man! Great news. Let's go Dallas office!

 

The old site is just the USCIS.com, right?

Yep, this URL: https://egov.uscis.gov/casestatus

59 minutes ago, oguzksk said:

You might cancel your trip. Usually uscis sends the notice 4 weeks before the interview. 

Can't - business.

I'll reschedule if i need to once i find out the date.

26 minutes ago, Wiz_Fit said:

 Did it update online? If so which site? Know there were 2 which I checked occasionally that had close to but some different information.

 

Yeah had a text this morning, it updated on the old original site. The new site still hasn't updated.

Dallas office is finally making progress. I just had my interview scheduled. Waiting on letter to find out the date. I'm abroad in 4 weeks time, hoping it's after I get back from that!

4 hours ago, Asakelove said:

Hey any update on your interview yet?

I wish! Lol.

Still waiting. I've got EAD until next July as I got the renewal, so just patiently hanging on

1 hour ago, Lupigirl said:

I apologize, I’m not sure why I worded it that way. I meant to say my receipt notice for the renewal EAD gave me an automatic six-month extension and I was worried that the actual card would also only be good for six months.  

Ahh gotcha.

I had the same 6 month extension notice, the card should be another year.

13 hours ago, Lupigirl said:

Did you really get an EAD/AP renewal for one year? My original one was only good for six months. I thought the renewal would be the same.  

My case has been ready to schedule since June 29.  I hope we hear something soon! Good luck to you!

Yeah both have been valid for a year on mine.

Hurry up and wait! 

16 hours ago, Lupigirl said:

So today I got an email from VisaJourney asking me to update my timeline since it hadn’t been updated in 12 months (which was when I got my EAD).  Unfortunately there are still no updates.  No interview letter after 15 months of waiting.  And my local office is processing cases between 12-18 months, so I’m still within their processing times and can’t make an inquiry.  The stress of waiting and not knowing gets to me sometimes.  This in-between status makes me feel very vulnerable and my AP has expired so I feel stuck as well.  If I had known it would take this long, we would have waited a few months to file so I could have gotten the 10 yr green card instead of the 2 yr.  

Sorry to be negative, I just needed to express myself to people who are/have gone through this.  My husband’s family just doesn’t get it.  I’m pretty sure they think I’m already a citizen.🙄

I feel your pain - my case has been on 'We are scheduling your interview' since August last year.

I just got my renewed EAD/AP for another year - Here's to hoping we hear something soon!

Just now, Wiz_Fit said:

For your renewal, what did you send or claim for expedite reason on the renewal?  Wondering if were just missing some magic wording.

 

Nevermind, just re-read. Work international travel? Which I think the business need back home for her would fit?

Yeah i guess it fell under 'Severe financial loss to company or person' based on me not being able to travel for work business.

11 minutes ago, oguzksk said:

Who got their green cards in 4 months? Just two years ago 4 to 5 months to get interviews and suddenly the offices are busy and it takes over 18 months. Yeah right.

 

Background checks.

 

 

Many on other posts in this progress report forum, October 2017 filers as an example, some of which got theirs by February/March of this year.

7 minutes ago, Wiz_Fit said:

We're under Sam Johnson. I was going to try and contact another office to see if they could help but seems like you can't do that.  The site refresh worked great last week but this week just seems like it's not working at all. Not really sure whats going on. Last week when I checked at 7 am, had 3 choices just pop up and went in.  Was it your renewal that got processed or originally?

 

We first did a phone expedite with USCIS on the 26th and we thought we would get a letter requesting evidence but now have not gotten anything. We've even called to ask L2 if they can read any communications that were sent on the 26th and they said we just need to keep waiting and be patient..

 

Both my original, and renewal i needed to expedite due to work travel needed for the AP.

Interesting - I've never had the updates like you posted, only when it changed to approved. From what i understand my Congressman's Rep emails direct to a mailbox at USCIS for expedites. I sent across signed letters from my VP at work, along with flight booking's and privacy release forms to allow congress office to act on my behalf.