YESWECANDOIT

Hi Everyone,
 
I created this post to bring together all i751 filers from California services center to compare our timeline and encourage each other during this challenging wait. 
 
Please share your timeline so we could all have a better estimation of the processing time. 
Our timeline is:
October 31st: i751 sent to CSC
November 5th: case received 
August 16th: Biometric 
Patiently waiting for card being produced! 

😄yes pretty terrible to wait that long. But it's really common now and some people are waiting even longer than that. I quoted someone who filed in june 2018 and still waiting. And a lot of applicants who also filed the N400 while their i751 is pending have been waiting 3 to 4 years for a combo interview, specially in Seattle WA where people get stuck with combo filings.
 
Don't  worry, after you receive your extension, you'll forget about your application and move on with your life until when some applicants who filed the same month and year than you start telling you that they've been approved. Then you'll start checking again. 

This happened to me. I realised that just before submitting application if i upload documents then it works. The uploaded documents don't stay if you close the application or even go to the previous pages while working on the application. Online app only saves data for 30 days , does not seem to save uploaded files. I made a folder in my computer and put in all the documents in either PDF or JPG format and on the day i was going to submit my app i reviewed all the data info and then uploaded my documents ( and after uploading i made sure i don't click on any previous page options) and submitted my application. That worked out well. Now after submitting i can login and check my uploaded document just fine and the advantage of online application is i can continue to upload documents even after submitting application. Its kind of interactive. After submitting the application with some documents, even after they received my application, i could upload two more documents. 
 

1. You can update everything at the interview. 
2. You don't have to report trips that are less than 24 hours. If you are missing/have more trips to report, just let the officer know. It's not a big deal. 

Just make sure do your research and go prepared when called for an interview. At the time of application we didn't have joint bank account as it it not required, but I guess that was something they noticed, we didn't have any utilities under both of our names, no major purchases like car, furniture, etc. So make your evidence file is filled with different types.

Thank you. 😀
 
So my advice is take more evidence than you think you need for your N-400 interview in case they do combo interview. Had we researched more and took everything we did today, wife would have been US citizen 16-17 months ago. Learn from our mistakes and go prepared.

Approved. Interview was at 10:10 and got in 10:45. Left interview at 11:20. Asked officer I wanna same day ceremony, he said it's up to the scheduler. So Waited outside and then was called for same day ceremony. I think you need to let them know that. Make them a aware of your request. . Anyway, Got ceremony same day. Yay! Officer asked about copies of all documents mentioned here on the forum section. So check them all and take them with you. Ceremony started at 1:30 and finished at 2:30. It was smooth and kinda short day. Next day applied for passport at passport agency and showed I have travel plans the same day. I made an appointment one week in advance at 8 am. There was no line when I arrived. So they picked up my app. And asked me to come back same day at 2 pm. I picked it up. End of story. I wish all the best to my awaiting fellow citizens.

Hi everyone, I have been following this thread for the last year and recently got my citizenship. I wanted to provide some information about my experience so it can be helpful for others.
 
I am a solo N400 filer from Seattle. I filed in mid September 2018, did my biometrics in October 2018 and had my interview scheduled in early December 2019 at the 7:15 AM slot. The interview was straightforward. I arrived around 7 AM, and was called in for the interview at around 7:40 AM. The interview was fun, extremely friendly and breezy. I was out by 8 AM. Most of the time was spent entering information about the trips that I took since September 2018, all of them were less then 10-15 days each. She appreciated that I filed out the following form with the updated trips, printed it out and gave it to her, which she then entered manually into her system.
 
http://www.lalawlibrary.org/pbw2017cl/Citizenship/N400 Addendum/Part 9 Time Outside US.pdf
 
After the interview, she asked me if I wanted to do the oath at 1:30 PM on the same day. I requested the interviewer if she could schedule my interview for the 8:45 AM oath ceremony on the same day. She said she will try (and tried to contact her colleagues over the phone) but I guess it was a bit late and so I was scheduled for 1:30 PM the same day. You need to return your green card at the start of the oath ceremony. The ceremony was done by 3 PM.
 
At the oath ceremony, you can register for voting (which everyone should do since it is our duty as a citizen). After that you will have to notify social security of the change in citizenship status after 10 days of taking the oath. You can also apply for a passport book (you can get a jumbo book with more pages for free, in case you will be traveling a lot) where you need to give your original naturalization certificate at a local processing center. You can find the list here:
 
https://www.seattle.gov/customer-service-centers/university-customer-service-center#applyforapassport
 
I applied for expedited processing and got my passport in 2 weeks. The original naturalization certificate was mailed back to me separately a few days after I received the passport.
 
That is all. Hope this is helpful information.

Thanks so much. Hope everything goes well with you

When did you file? And interview scheduled yet? 

Congratulations. That was really fast😊

Yeah I saw the processing times.
Big oof

Yeah super quick..
Filed 1/21/2020
Biometric appointment was 2/15/2020
But I walked in on the 2/5/2020
Now waiting for an interview.
My case completion time is April 2020

Or come to Spokane which is in the same state. Times here are 2-5 months

We also found that Fresno CA has a really fast immigration office for processing citizenship. And for some reasons, the house market is really cheap but poverty is really high.
So you're right. Cities with less immigration attraction are fast at processing applications. I understand now why Seattle is really backlog. Washington state is one of the most welcoming places when it comes to immigration. Seattle is even a "sanctuary city ". The minimum  wage is among the highest in the country. And with Amazon, Google, Microsoft... that definitely explain why the immigration demand is so high and the staff is very overwhelmed. 
 
I wish they didn't have the residency requirement. I would have transferred my application to Fresno to get it completed fast. 

Like every big city in the US, Cleveland has its not so great parts. 
I live in the suburbs of Cleveland, pretty nice and quiet area. 

Wow that's really fast.
We are in Seattle and it's the slowest one (14 to 16 months minimum wait time. I was wondering if getting an address in Cleveland just for the citizenship would help our case. I know we need to have at least 3 months of residency but how to prove the residency beside the lease agreement? We won't have anything else if we just rent a place to collect the mail and wait for the interview then come back home in Seattle 😄

Congratulations my friend. I'm so happy for you! Yes now no more uscis. Enjoy your new status and enjoy as many trips as possible with the passport that opens many doors to the world 😄😊

Update: Both my I751 and N400 got approved yesterday, a little over two weeks since my N400 interview. The oath ceremony notice already posted online for 2/25, which is less than 2 weeks away! That was a lot shorter than I thought I'd have to wait for everything to get resolved. I was mentally prepared to wait it out until the summer.
 
Looking back at everything, I'd say that my case was pretty straight forward. Just a few traffic citations and lost my green card, but no crimes, no divorces or anything like that. The only weird thing was that my biometrics for the I751 never came even after a year after filing. Once I filed the N400, everything else moved fairly quickly; biometrics was scheduled right away within the same month. Interview got scheduled 7 months later. The online personalized estimated case completion time was pretty accurate. Mine says completion March 2020.
 
I relied a lot on VisaJourney's immigration timeline to compare other applicants in my same area. Based on a few applicants who had filed their N400 a few months before me, I was able to estimate when I would get an interview, which I estimated to be either Dec 2019 or Jan 2020, so it was pretty spot on. It helped me a lot with my bouts of impatience regarding my case. The last few months of this process felt painfully slow and agonizing and I'm just so happy to put this all aside and never have to deal with USCIS again! Also very excited to finally be able to vote

The NBC's answer is pretty much what everyone in your situation already knows: the NBC is NOT the one creating the combo delay in Seattle Field Office. IT'S THE SEATTLE FIELD OFFICE that is taking forever to schedule YOUR APPOINTMENTS.  
The NBC has been pretty fast at transferring applications for other COMBO FILERS IN OTHER STATES.  Your experience in SEATTLE FIELD OFFICE IS UNIQUE TO SEATTLE. So the NBC can NOT help you as they don't have jurisdiction in Seattle or any other offices. 
 
The problem now is the US Senators who are helping you, are NOT KNOCKING AT THE RIGHT DOOR.  They should not write to the NBC. THEY MUST REQUEST AN EXCEPTIONAL AMENDMENT OF PROCESSING TIMES AT THE SEATTLE FIELD OFFICE as your applications processing  times have been severely ABUSED.
In that case, your applications (you and all the combo filers in the same situation) should be treated with high priority. 
 
Also, each of you individually writing to the US Senators is not going to help everybody's case. 
1. You should all you come together and assess how many applicants are dealing with this problem. 
2. You should assess the abusive waiting period for each of you
3. Find evidence that OTHER COMBO FILERS from other states ARE GETTING APPROVED within the normal processing time and that Seattle FIELD office is unique in delaying combo applications 
4. Proof that N400 singles applicants in Seattle who filed AFTER you have been scheduled  for interview and approved BEFORE you. 
5. Proof that I751 applicants who file AFTER you (my case), have been approved without interview BEFORE you. 
6. Proof that your lives have been severely jeopardized due to lack of stable immigration status (excessive extensions,  difficulties to travel, repeated justifications of the legibility of the extension to third parties,  difficulty to get US jobs...you are not us citizens but you are not permanent resident either,  you are just between). 
 
7. Have the senators and any organization willing to help you to knock at the right door with all your documentations and evidence: the local office in Seattle. This is where things are moving slowly or just stuck. Each local office has a director. He/she needs to hear all your cases and do something about it. 
8. File a suit against the Seattle FIELD office in case these delays are going for more than 3 years. 
 
Nothing is impossible. People are just not willing to get things done. 
 
 

I'm really sorry that you are experiencing an uncomfortable delay of your applications. And you're right, if you waited to get your i751 approved first, you'd at least already have your 10 years green card by December 2018. You'd had file the N400 by beginning 2019 and definitely be done before the end of 2019. So by now you'd have a us passport and not dealing with immigration anymore. 
 
We just figured out that if it takes the same time to go step by step than doing the combo, we were better off on getting the 10 years green card. 
 
If by March you hasn't been scheduled yet, I suggest that you start writing letters to whoever can hear you. Turn to Immigration non profit organizations. Recently, a lot of organizations in WASHINGTON have been fighting and wining for immigrant and asylum's rights. You should reach out to them, along with the WA judges who blocked Trump's executive orders. I can't recall the judges names but you should find them through the news. 
 
Also, if more than 10 to 20  combo applicants are experiencing the same delay, you should all come together and start a petition. 1 voice might be ignored but not when several people come together to rise their voices for the same cause. 
The problem is that each applicant is dealing with the issue on his own and nobody is taking that seriously. By proving that the Seattle office has abused the normal processing time compared to other offices and they have jeopardized lives of many immigrants, You should definitely start making a huge difference. 
Please guys, don't just wait forever. Start taking some actions. But mostly we should start a list of everyone stuck in that situation to have an idea of how many people are experiencing that. A petition would definitely be a good way to start. 

Here's my interview experience at the USCIS Seattle Field Office. 
 
I arrived 20 minutes before the 10 AM appointment. The parking is $8, and they now accept credit cards. After checking in, I got a number and went to wait on the 2nd floor. I was called at 11:30 AM which was super late.
 
The officer asked to see my passport, green card, driver license, and my trusted traveler card (Nexus). It's obvious that the officer has already gone through my A-file to know that I'm enrolled on one of the trusted traveler programs. After that, I was sworn in and answered 6 civic tests, reading test, and writing test. Then, he went through the entire application. I have a pretty extensive travel history with 10+ more entries to add, and I gave him the entire list. He manually entered a few before saying that he will enter the rest of it later. The interview finished at around noon, but I didn't make the 12-noon cutoff for the same-day oath due to the fact that he still needed to enter the rest of my travel history and reviewed it before approving it. I got a paper with "a decision cannot be made yet about your application."
 
The next day, my USCIS online account showed an approval status with the oath ceremony notice being mailed. I'm still waiting to see when is the oath ceremony. 

Awesome!!! Yayyyy!!!😊

Hey guys!
 
So I sent my response to the RFE from SRC (they said my petition was filed late, while it wasn’t). The response is just on its way, definitely has not made it to Texas yet.
 
BUT! This morning I got a notification “New Card Is Being Produced”! What???!!! 
 
I wonder if the USCIS contact center officer who I spoke to on the phone somehow helped the case? I don’t know, and I just hope this is not a mistake

Yes you don't realize how long the i751 application would take until you file it. Before filing it, you think this part will be the fastest compare to the i130 and adjustment of status. But nooooo. It's unbelievable!