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Can anybody help? I got divorced and want to go back to my maiden name, nothing else would change, however today in my interview my IO said she couldnt do a name change because it has to be through the court and they dont perform judicial ceremonies, which was so confusing because it's just going back to my maiden name. I got a "decision cannot be made" and she suggested i try to change my name through the court that way when i came back for the oath i'd have the paperwork, but my county is telling me I don't need to change my last name through the courts if it's because of divorce. I'm so confused.

Could I then just get my certificate in my married name and then just use the divorce judgement to change my name everywhere else or does the naturalization certificate must also show my maiden name?

Happy to report that after 21 months, I was finally approved today! Sooooo happy 😊 and thankful! 

Filed March 8th 2017 to CSC
Transferred to Nebraska in April 2018
RFE received in Oct 2018
Response sent Nov 2018
Received notification of card being produced today 🙂

On 12/9/2018 at 3:15 PM, Andrey.s said:

In about a week.

Good luck! Hope you get approved on the spot

On 12/3/2018 at 11:57 AM, Andrey.s said:

So couple weeks later I received an interview appointment, if somebody wondering .

When is your interview scheduled for?

On 11/23/2018 at 12:55 PM, tiffynets said:

Awesome! Enjoy the holidays, wish you guys all the bests and card in hands soon 

I forgot to ask you, how long did it take you to hear back? I hope it doesn’t take too long, just have so many things to stress about lately that I really wish I could get some good news soon!

1 hour ago, ms80 said:

Can you please let us know what did  you initially submit and what the RFE is asking?

thank you

I initially submitted:

copies of DLs showing same address

health insurance for 2015 - 2017

2013, 2014 tax return (we had amended 2015 so that one wasn’t available)

auto insurance showing us both under the policy

Husband’s 401k showing me as beneficiary 

husbands life insurance policy showing me as beneficiary

photos of us with family 

Different membership cards with both of our names

some utility bills 

so we have been married since 2013 received green card in April 2015. The rfe asked for proof of joint residence (they didn’t list the DL copies and we don’t have a lease as we live in a property owned by my parents) asked for birth certificates of children (which we don’t have any) and proof of comingling of finances and liabilities.

Sent our RFE response last week, Nov 22nd. Included the following:

Exhibit A:

• Copies of current driver’s licenses showing our joint residence 

• Copy of a notarized affidavit in lieu of lease from My mom who owns the property we live in attesting that we’ve loved there since feb 2013

• Copy of the warranty deed of the property showing mom as owner 

• Copy of our State Farm condo policy addressed to both of us listed as insured under the policy

Exhibit B

• Copy of husband’s current 401K showing me as 100% beneficiary

• Copy of official HR letter from My work showing Husband a my 401K beneficiary

• Copy of Husbands 2019 upcoming benefit enrollment showing Me as listed dependent

• Copy of Husbands pension showing Me as 100% beneficiary

• Copy of Husband’s current benefits showing Me as beneficiary for Basic LIfe, Supplemental Life, AD&D, and Business travel account

• Copy of my benefits showing Husband  as covered dependent and beneficiary for basic life insurance, supplemental insurance AD&D and short term disability for 2016 and 2017

• Copy of my 2018 benefits showing Husband as the beneficiary of life insurance

• Copy of My 2016-2017 401K through past employer showing Husband as beneficiary

• Copies of  Husband benefit confirmation statement showing me as a covered dependent and beneficiary for health insurance, life insurance, AD&D and short term disability policy for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

• Copy of Husband’s benefits dashboard also showing me as dependent and beneficiary for 2015

My worry with these evidence is that we don’t get physical copy so o had to print out the designations from our online dashboards. Is this still acceptable?

Exhibit 😄

• Copies of bank statement from Feb 2015 when we first opened the account to 2018 (5 random statements per year) from our joint savings account showing deposits from both of us (different jobs) and paying our Capital One credit cards

• Copy of my mom’s bank account showing  5 deposits throughout 2017-2018 from Our joint account showing payment of a $1500 loan to repair the bathrooms in our residence. 

• Copy of my checking account showing our 2017 tax refund deposited into my personal checking account, $x amount transferred to our joint account and $x amount  to pay the property tax (copy of receipt also enclosed)

Exhibit 😧

• Copies of our secured Capital One credit cards and copy of online account showing Me as the owner and Husband as an authorized user

• Copies of our joint Credit One credit cards, showing same card number but with each of our names

Exhibit E:

• Copy of 2013 IRS account transcript showing both of our ssn and filed as married jointly (tax transcript wasn’t available to be requested)

• Copy of 2014 IRS tax transcript showing both of our ssn, our joint residence and filed as married jointly

• Copy of the amended 2015 tax return 1040x form we mailed in as the transcript wasn’t available for download as well as a screenshot of IRS.gov showing amended tax was submitted. Tax form shows our joint residence and filed as married jointly

• Copy of 2016 IRS tax transcript showing both of our ssn, our joint residence and filed as married jointly

• Copy of 2017 IRS tax transcript showing both of our ssn, our joint residence and filed as married jointly

• Copies of car insurance policy showing both our names as covered insured from 2013,2014, 2015 2016, 2017 and 2018

• Copy of letter from Geico showing we have both been insured under the same policy since 07/2012 (since we lived under the same residence)

Exhibit F:

Utility bills addressed to each of us  at our joint residence for all of our utilities, which include:

• T-mobile (phone bill) random statements from 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 showing Husband as the account holder at our joint residence and both of our numbers listed under the account.

• Duke Energy (electric) Statements for 2016, 2017, 2018 showing Husband as the account holder. Unfortunately we called Duke Energy to get copies of our past bills but we were told they only kept bills for the last two years. We are also including a screenshot of our online dashboard that shows the account has been active at our joint address since 02/04/2013

• Maitland City utilities (water, garbage etc) 2014, 2017, 2018 in my name as they only allow one person as the account holder. They only had statements for 2017-2018 but we found an old bill from 2014 and we included email notifications of the bill due showing the same account number for 2015 and 2016

• Bright House/Spectrum (cable)  showing Husband as the account holder. Again, we called to get copies of past statements but we were told they do not have copies of past statements.We’ve Included two statements from current year as well as a copy of a work order form 2014 . We are also including a copy of our online account showing Me as the authorized user for the account 

Exhibit G:

• Copies of (37) different bills and mailers addressed to each of us at our joint residence 824 Park Lake Pl, Maitland FL 32751 over our 5 years of marriage 2013 - current (includes copies of some of our w2 we had on hand)

Exhibit H:

Copies of health insurance cards showing each other as dependent from 2013- 2015, dental card showing covered dependent, copy of our Disney annual passes for 2016-2017, copy of our current Disney Silver annual passes, Copy of our 2017 Orlando City annual passes, Copy of our 2018 Orlando City annual passes, Copy of our AAA membership cards. Membership card to a local theater

Exhibit I:

Two affidavits from sister and brother in law

I also wrote a letter on why we don’t have more commingling of finances from 2013-2015, I wasn’t working and my husband lost his job (that’s also why we didn’t file AOS until two years into our marriage) not sure what else I could have submitted as we do like keeping our own checking accts separate and we don’t have any kids.

Hi Everyone!

Thought I’d create a thread for 2017 ROC filers who have received RFE to maybe keep track of how long it took to receive a response after submitting your rfe, questions about what else to submit and just general support.

We filed on March 2017 for ROC, case was transferred to Nebraska on April 6th, received RFE on October 23rd, sent in response on November 22nd.

anypne on a similar boat? Any clue on processing time for rfe?

On 11/7/2018 at 8:03 AM, tiffynets said:

Cool background  I think you guys are even more solid than my husband and me, in terms of the case and documents. My husband was in and out of work a few times since we got married, so all the insurance are under me with him as beneficiary or covered dependent. Some of his W2 even had wrong address (I never noticed that until I put them together for RFE response because IRS was fine with that lol  ). We don't even have a dog haha, just the two of us against the world 

 

Like i mentioned, the officer who sent me the RFE had clearly stated in the RFE like so:

So that above was the only thing that actually matters in the RFE, everything else was just suggestion, nice to have. I also went to 1 lawyer just to hear from a legal professional perspective. He said "don't submit again what you did, submit new things to prove continuous of the relationship, also go strong on the affidavits, they suggest 2, you may go 3 to overwhelm them. And also make sure you go straight to the point when you explain things, don't write them 5 pages cover letter, keep it within 2 pages, else they might skip some important words". I went for 5 affidavits by the way  In my cover letter I pretty much did bullet points saying "I'm respectfully submitting this because ... or to prove ... " and so on.

 

Our insurance was new too because I got a new job last year, so I submit those with explanation so they won't think I was re-submitting stuff. Same goes for credit card, since we lost the one we submitted, we had new card with new number, threw in an explanation and submit that. And other stuff like you guys did above.

 

Regarding the rental situation, I stayed honest: We started our lives together at ground 0 (no money - even though my job paid well so we didn't need a sponsor but we obviously needed time to save up - and average credit), so 3 years ago, all we could afford was sharing a small room in a house with other people (like stated above). And of course utilities were paid with rent and weren't under our names. Only until I got my new job (by then we had some money saved up and my credit was improved a lot), we were able to sign our first apartment lease (yay!). I couldn't contact the co-tenants anymore but lucky for me the landlord responded and agreed to write me the affidavit stating that we were living together in his property for the length of the rental and that utilities were under him and we paid him together with rental. Same goes for the other place. 

 

So if they were also questioning your living situation, by all means find ways to explain that, tell them the stories, ask for witnesses to vouch for you. Explain why you don't have utilities bill under your names, and if you mother is your landlord, well jack pot  She can write you some good words (mine did, we just didn't live with her, we came home to visit her together ). Letters from doctors are great too, they are the ones with high social status and thus are trustworthy and respected. I got two from my chiropractor and the care physician.

 

I also had a friend of mine from work proof reading my cover letter to prove any random person who doesn't know me well can still understand why I did what I did from the explanation and evidence that I provided.

 

Hope this help!

Thanks! I sent the RFE response package on Monday! I’m guessing with the holidays it will take some time but hoping We get good news soon! 

On 11/5/2018 at 11:41 AM, tiffynets said:

Hey sorry for the late response, i was traveling for work the last few days, hope this didnt hold up your progress.

 

I shouldn't tell you what not to do, but I can share with you that my husband and I don't have children either, and it's simply our choice. We don't want kids, we'd rather live our lives together to the fullest and focus on our careers for now, especially me. I just simply cant imagine myself giving up my career to be a mother just yet. So I didn't mention anything about kids when I first submitted the case as well as when I responded to the RFE. I simply went with what we have, provided explanation, supporting evidence for those things. For example, I submitted our join checking account bank statement, so I included a brief explanation in the cover letter that they would find the statement on page 30 (I put all the docs in a binder and marked the pages accordingly), and within the statement they should find transactions of rent, utilities payments and so on. I felt like if i included what we don't have and try to explain them, it was just going to create more doubts and confusions. If they don't specifically ask about it in the RFE, I don't see why I need to explain myself. That was what I thought  But yeah, doggy sounds cute and very persuasive since he is an important part of your life, send them a pic of you guys doing things together with doggy, I think that's cute 

Thank you for replying back! So just a bit of background, we got married in 2013 but we actually didn’t apply for AOS until late feb and got approved at the beginning of 2015, stupid me I didn’t save the stuff I sent back then so I don’t have a lot from the early years. The RFE asked for proof of same residence, commingling of finances and children, this is so far what we have gathered:

Copies of both or driver licenses showing same residence (we sent this in the past, but we just renewed them) 

Car insurance showing both of us under samepolicy for 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

IRS transcripts for 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017

2015 (copy of amended tax submitted to IRS as we just did this) 

joint savings bank acct statements from 2015 to current (that’s when we opened the acct and I forgot to send this initially as I only sent a Silly paper card from the bank that showed our same acct number)

Life insurance statement from work from 2015-2018 showing me as a beneficiary on his policy 

Life insurance statement from 2016 to 2018 showing him as beneficiary on my policy

2016-2017 401k showing him as the beneficiary on my acct 

current 401k showing him as the beneficiary

husbands 401k showing me as beneficiary

medical insurance cards showing me listed as covered dependent from 2013 - 2016 (we currently have separate medical insurance because it made more sense financially)

the house we live in is owned by my mother, so she wrote a notarized affidavit stating that we have been living here since we got married in 2013 and that we are responsible for all utilities

utility bills (this one is tough as none of our utilities allow two people as acct holders and I wasn’t able to get previous statements except from cable company going all the way back to 2013) electric in his name I will send 2018 statements and I have an old statement showing that the account has been active since feb 2013 at our current residence. Water is in my name I can show statements as early as 2014, cable is in his name and sadly we could only get 2017, 2018 statements so not sure what to do here?

my credit is terrible so we don’t have any other joint accounts but I do have one secured card to try to rebuild my credit and I just added him as an authorized user, the problem is his card won’t appear in past statements should I just go ahead send a copy of the credit cards only?And explain our financial situation? 

Sending vet bills showing us both as responsible for our dog +pictures

Im also sending copies of our annual disney passes, membership cards to AAA, costco cards

two affidavits from family

About 30 different bills sent to each of us at our residence from 2013 until today

pictures of us, family and friends over the years and cards addressed to both of us and each other

honestly not sure what else to send 😕 

On 10/26/2018 at 4:30 PM, tiffynets said:

What you have already submitted shouldn't be submitted again. You should just submit new documents to support your case. I got an RFE too. In my RFE, the officer said that the copy of month-to-month room rental agreement wasn't enough to prove share residence. I was actually offended reading that, but then I took a deep breath, suppress my feelings and worked on the response so that it clear to the officer why we did what we did. I also went and ask for more affidavit letters from people that I thought would be strong witnesses: my mother, the landlord from those places that we shared room at, even our chiropractor as well. It worked
Besides that, I submitted new tax returns, new insurance policies from my new employer, new pictures, new flight tickets, new hotel receipts, new everything. I got approved about a month after I submitted my response.

 

Hope this help and best of luck to you guys!

Thanks so much!

im submitting also bank statements from 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, more pictures, even records of the dog we have since we don’t have children due to a medical condition I have,  should I go ahead and explain that?  

Hi everyone, I received an RFE yesterday regarding our case. Two questions, can I travel abroad while rfe is pending?i have a trip this coming Friday.

second question, the letter said I need more evidence regarding living together, financial commingling as well as any power of attorney etc. The problem is my husband and I decided from the Beginning we wouldn’t be sharing a bank acct and for the last 5 years we have lived in a house that my parents own any ideas on how I can show more evidence. We have actually been married for 5 years and together for 8. Also initially I also only sent the tax return of 2014 as2015 had an error and we had to resubmit it.

im thinking of sending:

2014 tax return - again

2015 tax return

2016 tax return

2017 tax return

401k from 2016-2017 with him as beneficiary of my policy

life insurance, short term disability and accident insurance for 2016, 2017, showing him as beneficiary

and same for him showing me as beneficiary

condo insurance showing us both as insured parties

geico insurance showing both of our names for 2016, 2017, 2018

Current 401k showing me as beneficiary and showing him as beneficiary on mine 

ive added him as an authorized user to my credit card and he has done the same for one of his credit cards

energy, water, cable, and phone, although these do not have both of our names because the companies only let us add one we can show we are both responsible for the bulk of utilities bills at the same address.

copy of our DL showing same address

 any other ideas?? Thank you 

5 hours ago, Didier Drogba said:

Did you apply N 400

Nope

Is there anyone out there who filed at the same time I did and hasn’t received their green card? I’m starting to get really worried and disappointed with the whole process. My case was received on March 10th 2017 on April 4th of 2018 I got a letter in the mail saying my case had been transferred to Nebraska and no updates since then except for an extension letter about a month and half ago. The automated phone system said my case was in Laguna Niguel, CA but a tier 2 officer confirmed its in Nebraska. :( seems like most ppl that filed around my date had been processes

Hi Everyone! Long time lurker but wanted to add my experience and hope for any insight.

I'm a march 2017 filer and had not received a peep from my case until Feb 26th when i got the notification online saying my case had been transferred as everyone else i assumed it was a glitch. Then on April 3rd I received another notification saying my case had been transferred and today i receive a NOA on the mail saying that after preliminary review my case has been transferred to the LIncoln, NE office which now has jurisdiction over my case. Im in FL so I am a CSC filer why would my case be transferred to Nebraska, anyone else received a notification in the mail?