jefferyd

9 hours ago, NewYorker14 said:

How much was the fees? Where did you fill out the passport application?

I don't recall exactly.  I think it was the standard filing fee plus a $60 rush service fee but don't quote me on that.  I filled out the application form on the website and printed it out completed and brought that with me.  I think I signed it in front of them.  The application itself was filed in Buffalo.

54 minutes ago, Greencardchicago said:

I think that I was not clear with the question. How long did you wait for the pick up when you get there at 3p.m? Was it fast, do I need to get a number and wait in the waiting room or its just one window with no wait? 

I seem to remember getting a number when I arrived in the morning but there was no wait.  In the afternoon I went straight up to the window, no wait at all.  However this was the Buffalo agency at it may be different at more busy offices

22 minutes ago, Butterfly83 said:

This is dumb, but what is a passport agency and how come it only took you a day to get your passport? I don't want to wait endless weeks for mine...

You have to prove imminent travel- show a plane ticket or proof of travel within the next few weeks or days, make an appointment at the nearest agency online here or by calling 1-877-487-2778

33 minutes ago, Greencardchicago said:

How long did you wait for pick up? Was it fast? 

I dropped it off at 8 am and they said it would be ready at 3.  I don't know if they can turn them faster if needed.

On 5/13/2019 at 12:51 PM, Greencardchicago said:

Hi everyone, 

I have 2 questions for all of you who did the oath ceremony and got the passport. 

First question- for all of you who got the passport at the passport agency, did they send you the passport or you need to pick it up from the same place?

Second question- I know that they take the original naturalization certificate, so did you get the certificate back together with the passport, if not, how long does it take to get the original certificate back? 

 

I dropped off my application in the morning and picked up my passport and naturalization certificate the same day from the same location.  I overheard another agent saying they could mail the passport out if the applicant didn't want to come back to the agency.

2 hours ago, br9k said:

Any experience with missing oath invitation letter? We have a copy in the uscis online account, but the physical letter did not arrive yet (a bit past expected time), so it's possible usps lost it. Will they admit to the oath with a printed copy of invitation?

They did for me. They were more concerned with the form with the questions that had to be filled out and signed the day of the ceremony than they were with the letter. They will have your naturalization certificate with your picture on it so it’s not terribly important to prove to them that you are, in fact, supposed to be there at that date and time.

4 minutes ago, missileman said:

Not required for ROC.  

Maybe I'm confusing that part with my N-400 which was more recent.

18 hours ago, longdistance12345 said:

 

 

copies of her green card

copies of her state id to prove address 

one tax return transcript we have filed jointly in 2017

our daughter's birth certificate 

daughters passport

wife's health insurance card

my passport for name verification - thats it. 

 

I have been told by an attorney that having a child together is very strong evidence.  Both your names will be listed on the birth certificate so that is good.  You do seem to be missing the marriage certificate which is usually a requirement.  When we did our original GC interview the officer led me to believe that if the evidence at the original interview was strong enough we might not be called back for an interview at the ROC.  When we filed for ROC we did not have any joint financial accounts but we had three years of tax transcripts, a marriage certificate, joint health insurance, and some photos. Oh and my spouse's birth certificate and my GC.  That was it.  We neither received a RFE nor did we get called in for an interview we just got approved (just over a year later).  I think it had also been pointed out that once they get your package, if it is complete, you will get your I-797 with an extension shortly thereafter (mine was issued the very day they received my package).  So provided they get your package and the form is complete and the check is fine (they don't look at the evidence just yet) you will have the extension letter to carry with you shortly.  Or have it sent.

I think the point I am trying to make is that we often hear only the horror stories on here but not the times things went smoothly so I am just sharing my experience which went fairly smoothly.  So take a deep breath and give it a couple of days before freaking out.

11 hours ago, cmrabet said:

Thanks.

 

I will go tomorrow to the courthouse with the letter.

 

When they sent the updated notice, did you get a notification and a new PDF in your myuscis online profile? Or you just got it in the mail?

 

If the latter, how many days it took you to receive?

First I got a phone call from USCIS telling me the time had changed.  Then a few weeks later I got an email from someone at the field office telling me the time had changed and she attached a new pdf notice of oath form. She also mailed me a new copy which came about four days later, but the notice on my myuscis profile never changed. 

My Oath ceremony was scheduled for this past Tuesday at 1 pm.  I know the events director at the museum where it was to be held and I was talking with him about it a month beforehand and he told me that it was wrong, the ceremony was at 9:30 am.  He called the judge who confirmed it.  They called USCIS and USCIS sent out corrected notices, which just confused a lot of people.  The morning of the ceremony half the people were no-shows, no doubt confused about the correct time so fortunately for them the judge decided to stay around and they had another ceremony in the afternoon for the rest of the candidates who were showing up for 1 pm.    The musical act that was on the program to perform, the passport office and social security didn't show up for our morning ceremony, I imagine they were there at 1 pm.

Find out who organizes events at the courthouse, show them your letter, and have them get in touch with their contact at USCIS or it might never get fixed.

Thought I would share as my oath ceremony didn't go exactly as planned...

My notice of oath letter had a ceremony time of 1:00 pm on March 26 at the George Eastman Museum. It also said CELLPHONES PROHIBITED. I happen to know the special events director at the museum so I asked him what to expect and what was allowed.  First off he told me cellphones were fine as long as they were set to silent.  He told me to get there early, like at 8:30.  I was surprised at that because of the 1 pm ceremony.  Impossible, he told me, they do it twice a year and it's always at 9:30 in the morning.  He called the judge who confirmed he was booked for a 9:30 ceremony.  He called USCIS.  Two days later I got a call from USCIS saying my ceremony time had changed to 9:30.  A few weeks later I got an email from someone at the field office telling me the time was at 9:30, that she emailed me a new letter and sent a new letter in the mail, also saying the ceremony would start at 9:30.  Fine.  So I showed up on the morning of March 26 and there was some commotion because people had received two letters with two ceremony times and they wanted to be sure so they showed up in the morning.  We were assured everything was fine, the ceremony was actually at 9:30.  I had also told my friends and family to be there at 9:30.  Mistake.

USCIS started checking people in at 9:30- we were 102 candidates so it was going to take a bit of time.  We were later told that the "Court" (the actual ceremony itself) would start at 11 so my poor friends were sitting around waiting for a long time.  Just as we were about to start, the museum director pulled me aside and said that there had been 42 no-shows, likely due to the confusion about times.  Also, the musical entertainment which was supposed to performed had not shown, neither had Social Security or the passport office.  Apparently they didn't get the memo about the 9:30 start time.  Court started just before 11, but since there was no music and we were only 60 people to receive our certificates, it went rather quickly.  The judge made some touching remarks. There was no music so we all sang the national anthem together, then the oath was administered. Then we all pledged allegiance to the flag. Our names were called from the stage, one by one, we stood, the judge came to meet us to pose for photographs and hand us our certificates.  I am not an overly emotional person but I bawled all the way through it.

When it was all over people had started showing up for their 1:00 ceremony.  To their credit, the people from USCIS made a few phone calls, spoke with the judge who agreed to stay and the museum director who confirmed they could keep the space, and another ceremony was to be held at 1:00 for the people showing up.  I can just imagine how infuriating it would have been  to show up for your ceremony only to find out you had missed it.... so I was happy for the rest of us who still managed to have their day, and might even have had some music to go along with it. 

1 hour ago, GoodbyeGirl said:

Darn it, I'm going to get them too now. I had a dig around on VJ and found a thread from 2017 where an understandably frustrated poster reported that his wife received an RFE at her N400 interview, because they didn't bring passport photos.

 

USCIS says that you only have to provide photos at point of application IF you reside overseas. And your pic is taken at biometrics. This person's wife didn't fall into the criteria of needing to have photos, but their case got delayed by weeks.

 

I guess either the IO was working with out-of-date info, or perhaps there was an issue with the photos taken at biometrics. But given my research, I'm now going to err on the side of caution and find a CVS or Walgreens. 

 

If anyone here has recently sat the interview and can chime in, that would be great! 

 

 

I read someone's account of being asked for the photos at the Buffalo field office, which is where I did my interview two weeks ago.  They didn't ask for photos.  They did take one of me at check in, and scanned my fingerprints, but I assumed that was just to check that I matched the biometrics they took at my bio appointment.

5 hours ago, NewYorker14 said:

Hey! So I was on another website and I saw some filers were saying that their estimated wait time was changed to "We are taking longer than expected to process your case. You do not need to do anything at this time." instead of having the usual months left. I checked my status and it said the same thing, it no longer has estimated case completion is in "8 months". What about you? I am freaking out right now. 

I don't have too much faith in that wait time estimator.  Last week mine said estimated completion time- 5 months, even though my oath ceremony is a month from today.  And I just went and checked and it has changed from 5 months to "We are taking longer..."   So take it with a grain of salt, maybe.

21 minutes ago, GoodbyeGirl said:

What happened next? Curious to know what what time the oath ceremony really is!  

 

 

USCIS called me yesterday to tell me they had made a mistake on my letter and that the ceremony was at 9:30 am.  So glad I checked with the Museum otherwise I would have shown up after the event was over!

So another example of USCIS can't get their $#it together...

My Oath was scheduled for March 26 at 1 pm at the George Eastman Museum.  I happen to know the director of special events at the museum so I reached out to him to find out more about what goes on and some logistics.  He said "Oh yes we do it twice a year it's really cool but they're really bad about communications.  You show up at 8:30...".  Wait.  8:30?  My ceremony is at 1 pm.  "No, that's impossible they're always morning events."  He checked the museum schedule and confirmed it's a morning booking, reached out to the judge who also confirmed he is booked for a morning ceremony. The judge is going to contact USCIS to see what's going on. Wouldn't that have been fun to show up to the ceremony to find out it had already transpired earlier in the day?

12 minutes ago, GoodbyeGirl said:

That's really useful, thanks for explaining. I'm trying to prepare as much as possible for my interview on 12 March, and your experience could come in handy.  

 

What did you have to write? 

 

 

George Washington was the first President.

Quote

 

1 hour ago, GoodbyeGirl said:

It doesn't sound like a barrel of a laughs but at least it was quick! Congratulations on passing   Not long now before you'll be a citizen and can say goodbye to immigration.  Woo-hoo!

 

What made it awkward when you had to write the sentence on the iPad?

Thank you!  There was a stylus but you couldn't touch the screen with your hand at all and I wasn't able to write like that so I just used my fingertip but the screen is mounted like a tv so the angle is weird.  Also a bit weird is that my online account was changed to "Approved, we have placed you in line waiting for an Oath date" but I have my letter in hand already.  I guess the system is just slow to reflect reality.

Had my interview in Buffalo yesterday.  Was scheduled for 2:45, I showed up a bit early, got checked (they took a photo and fingerprints at checkin) and waited in a nearly empty room. At about 2:40 I was called by a cold, distant and unsmiling officer.  She swore me in, asked me to read a sentence off a mounted iPad.  She then asked me to write a sentence on the ipad, which was awkward, then asked the six civics questions.  She went through my name, address, employer and marital status, and then asked me some of the yes/no questions from the application.  She then had me read and sign the Oath of Allegiance on the ipad, then handed over my Oath Letter and approval notice which had been sitting on her desk the whole time.  It was so casually done I didn't realize it was over at first.  I was back in my car at 2:54, my oath date is March 26.

I needed to reschedule my n-400 interview- on the interview letter there is an address to which you send your request with any applicable backup documents, and give them a date after which you would be available, if applicable.  They rescheduled my interview the same day they received my letter, and gave me an appointment two days after I got back to the US.  

I figured I would share my experience with a request to reschedule my naturalization interview as there are a number of horror stories floating around.  I filed October 28 2018, did my biometrics on November 23 and received my interview notification on January 2.  As I had feared, my date, February 6, fell during a cruise I had booked to celebrate my husband's 40th birthday- no way we were going to lose around $5,000 and cancel his birthday for an interview, so despite the warnings I had read I decided to reschedule.  I printed out the letter that had posted to my USCIS account, and though earlier versions of the letter were specific about mailing the original back, this letter said only "if for any reason you can not keep this appointment, return this letter immediately to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office address listed above with your explanation and a request for a new appointment".  Instead of waiting for the original to come in the mail I sent back the copy I printed out with a copy of the confirmation of the cruise and copies of our plane tickets, and a brief letter explaining the situation.  I sent it certified mail with subject "Request to Reschedule N400 Interview" on the outside of the envelope, and it went to the Buffalo field office.  I have to say that my two previous experiences at the Buffalo office were both excellent so I was hopeful for a good result.  It was received on Monday January 7th.  The next morning I got the notification of and action being taken on my case- the tracker app said that on January 7th (the same day they received the request) I had been scheduled for an interview.  Later that evening two letters posted to my account- one saying my original interview had been descheduled, and another saying I had been scheduled for an interview on February 14th, two days after we will return from the cruise. So in all, a painless process which made me feel a whole lot better about our situation.  Of course, caseloads are different at the various offices and YMMV.

Update on my request to reschedule- original interview date was February 6, they immediately rescheduled me once they got my request, new date is February 14.  

Looks like there has been a lot of good news lately for people!  I filed on October 28, did biometrics on November 23, was scheduled for a February 6 interview on Jan. 2 but had to sent in a request to reschedule which made me nervous based on the horror stories I've read here.  I sent in the request to Buffalo on Friday Jan. 4, it was received yesterday (Monday Jan. 7) and this morning I got a notice that on January 7 they already rescheduled my interview.  I'll post back when the new date posts to my account. 

23 minutes ago, gregcrs2 said:

Oh no!  When did you file your N-400?   

October 28 2018.  I was pleased with how quickly this was going (my I-751 was approved two weeks after I did the n-400), sad to have hit this speed bump.

Damn.  Interview scheduled for February 6 but I'll be on a cruise.  Have to reschedule

14 minutes ago, Greencardchicago said:

What city? Hopefully I won't get an interview now cause I am planning a trip too. 

Buffalo, NY.

Just got a text that my interview has been scheduled.  I'm going to be out of the country for a few weeks- hope it doesn't conflict...