Coco&Kitten

Guys, if I can give you all my piece of advise: do NOT waste your money on writ of mandamus or whatever.  You already spent a bunch trying to get the citizenship! 
I waited almost 10 months after my interview for a decision to be made (if you scroll a few pages back you'll see my story).  It wasn't till I wrote my Senator that my case was unstuck.  I was so frustrated also from waiting and waiting, worst experience of my life (and my case was easy).  I was even on the local news when my case was finally approved after months of waiting, I can tell you they (USCIS) were quite embarrassed from having held it for so long.
So, write to your Senator, Representative, whoever can intervene and make these people at USCIS do THEIR job!!  The lawyers can not do much and I doubt a mandamus is the answer to this problem.  They are still riding the COVID wave and blaming it on not enough personal, blah blah blah, it is time to get back to work, make them do their job.  Send the Senators, they take it seriously then.

Guys, if I can give you all my piece of advise: do NOT waste your money on writ of mandamus or whatever.  You already spent a bunch trying to get the citizenship! 
I waited almost 10 months after my interview for a decision to be made (if you scroll a few pages back you'll see my story).  It wasn't till I wrote my Senator that my case was unstuck.  I was so frustrated also from waiting and waiting, worst experience of my life (and my case was easy).  I was even on the local news when my case was finally approved after months of waiting, I can tell you they (USCIS) were quite embarrassed from having held it for so long.
So, write to your Senator, Representative, whoever can intervene and make these people at USCIS do THEIR job!!  The lawyers can not do much and I doubt a mandamus is the answer to this problem.  They are still riding the COVID wave and blaming it on not enough personal, blah blah blah, it is time to get back to work, make them do their job.  Send the Senators, they take it seriously then.

Guys, if I can give you all my piece of advise: do NOT waste your money on writ of mandamus or whatever.  You already spent a bunch trying to get the citizenship! 
I waited almost 10 months after my interview for a decision to be made (if you scroll a few pages back you'll see my story).  It wasn't till I wrote my Senator that my case was unstuck.  I was so frustrated also from waiting and waiting, worst experience of my life (and my case was easy).  I was even on the local news when my case was finally approved after months of waiting, I can tell you they (USCIS) were quite embarrassed from having held it for so long.
So, write to your Senator, Representative, whoever can intervene and make these people at USCIS do THEIR job!!  The lawyers can not do much and I doubt a mandamus is the answer to this problem.  They are still riding the COVID wave and blaming it on not enough personal, blah blah blah, it is time to get back to work, make them do their job.  Send the Senators, they take it seriously then.

Congratulations!! Your wait was worthy.  I waited a little over 9 months, it seems Denver is far behind schedule!

Finally went in for my Oath ceremony.
It was for 10.15am. Went through security at 9.55am. I was asked to go the second floor where the oath ceremony was going to be held. Handed my paperwork with a form I got in the mail to the officer who was checking in everyone. There were about 20-25 people. You were allowed to get one family member with you. Remember to bring your old green cards or any cards/ letters sent to you by USCIS throughout your journey. You will be surrendering all your old cards at the time of checking in.  Bring your supporting documents if anything changed or happened between your interview and oath ceremony day. I had travelled internationally between that time  so I took a copy of my ticket. The officer asked me the dates of travel and I gave it to her.
She checked me in and asked me to go in the hall and take a seat. My husband accompanied me.
It was a pretty smooth process. They showed us a short video then asked us to stand up and repeat the Oath of allegiance after her. She then called each one of us by name and handed us our naturalization certificates. You were allowed to take pictures through out the process. She showed us another short video at the end of the ceremony. The whole process took about an hour and 15-20 mins total from checking in to end of the ceremony. I was out by 11.10am.
I had taken an appointment for passport 2 weeks in advance and went straight there after my oath ceremony to get my passport. You need a proof of travel which I had, within 2 weeks in order to get an appointment to get expedited same day passport. 
Tip: As soon as you get your oath ceremony date, book your passport and driver's license appointment date as well. You will need an appointment to submit your passport application even if you are submitting through normal processing time. You can apply for an expedited passport if you are traveling sometime soon. Please check the website and do your thorough research.
Remember you cannot travel international if you don't have your passport coz the officer will take your green card and you wont have any document to come back in the country unless you have your passport. So if you are not traveling international for 6-8 week from your oath ceremony date then you are fine to get a regular appointment. 
Happy to answer any question and help in any way I can. 
Good to luck to all of you. Stay patient. You will get to enjoy this day very soon. I waited almost 8 months after my interview. So hold tight just little bit more. 

Congratulations!!!  I am sure the FOIA helped, that could be the trick to get all these cases pending.  Your experience will help others here who are still waiting for positive news.
Enjoy the ceremony!

So happy or you. Finally!! You waited too long. Thank you for sharing. 

Today, on 2-22-22 I had one of the most memorable days in my life.  I am finally a US citizen!! 
I also had the pleasure to meet our Senator in person!

Congratulations!  It is always nice to see cases moving along after such a long time of uncertainty and wait 🙂
 

It was a 2 line e-mail.  I told them USCIS needed my A-file and wondered if they had transferred it, gave them my number, no receipt number.  But I never got an answer, so not sure if that is what helped or not.  In the meantime the Senator's office was also doing their inquiries.

I should have said some jobs are closed to non citizens and if an employer checks your number and it comes out as non citizen ,  u  may loose  a job offer without knowing why
 
. When you are hired for a job, your employer can enter your SSN into a U.S. Department of Homeland Security web-based system, E-Verify, to determine your eligibility to work in the United States. If your record has not been updated, this may impact the information your employer receives about your work eligibility
 
 

Another option is take the oath and then apply immediately for a passport at an expedited Agency.  If you have 3 weeks between oath and travel I think that would be doable.

Congratulations! 

I applied for my USA passport on the 9th of January and it was received by the passport authorities on the 13th of January.  Applied for normal delivery
and the passport was received 16 days later.  There is not the need to pay extra for faster processing times. Currently they are quoting 8 to 11 weeks for normal processing 
and 2 to  5 weeks for expedited processing.  Obviously they have caught up on the backlog and are processing the passports rather quickly. Best...

I kept my other country passport next to me, filled exactly what is there for US Passport application.
Passport Card is more valuable as its not just an ID but its a FEDERAL ID (highest value of Identification across the world), you get it for just thirty bucks. Go for it while filing your US passport.

Today, on 2-22-22 I had one of the most memorable days in my life.  I am finally a US citizen!! 
I also had the pleasure to meet our Senator in person!

I would contact the Senator or Congressman and let them inquiry for you, USCIS is supposed to reply back to them in 30 days (even if you are within normal processing times).  At least you will know why your case is stuck.

So, it is February again, it has been a year!
Anybody else waiting for interviews or decisions to be made yet?

I see you are in Colorado.  Before abandoning your application contact Senator Bennet, they were able to find out why my case was stuck. 
23 months is too long to wait!

Woowwwwww congratulation again, im soo glad for you Coco, in less than 2 weeks you will be oficially a US citizen!!!   
 
And yes, I'm using your timeline to track mines, lol lol. I think I should get the online notification by the end of next wait. And because I requested a name change, my oath must be judicial, and before covid they were doing judicial ceremony once a week only, so my calculation is that my ceremony will be in late March, but lets see.

Congratulation, I am so happy for you!!!

Finally some news: after more than 9 months waiting for a decision to be made, they finally approved my case and I am in line for oath ceremony. 
 
I will never know exactly what caused the delay, maybe the A-file was stuck at the FRC, maybe my case was forgotten.  I had just put a second inquiry to my Senator two weeks ago, not sure either if that is what got it updated.  Maybe it was just timing, someone said here once: you just have to be patient, YES, I think I have been.  Each case is different, patience is the key.
 
Anyway, this thread in particular has somehow kept me from going insane at a times, so thank you all for your updates and encouragements.  I will keep checking on here and wishing everyone else waiting good luck, you will get there.

Wow, CONGRATULATIONS!!! Very happy to hear the good news, yeah it seems that sooner or later (in your case much later) they finally get to the decision.
Yes, I got my oath ceremony notice yesterday for Feb 22nd, funny that it is going to be on 2-22-22, a date I will never forget 🙂
I have not received the mail letter yet, just the on-line notification.  So, I would suspect yours will come in the next few days.

more news on this page: after a little bit over 2 years since I applied and after exactly one year and 10 days after my interview USCIS finally approved my case and I am in line for oath ceremony.  Like @Coco&Kitten. By the way did you got your Oath ceremoy date yet? I want to know how long do they take to let you know the date.
 
I will never know what exactly delayed my case  either...other than USCIS is understaff and the pandemic made things worse. I don't know if the last inquiry made in december helped me, there is no way to know really and like @Coco&Kitten said PATIENCE IS KEY!!!  I still cannot believe this process is almost over. I am going to keep updating about the oath ceremony (if that is still relevent.)
 
I really loved this community, y'all helped me TREMENDOUSLY to not feel alone in this process. 

Congratulations must be super happy your done with uscis