ale07

Finally got my interview scheduled for Nov 17th at the Sacramento Office.

Finally got my interview scheduled for Nov 17th at the Sacramento Office.

Sacramento office here and I haven't gotten any updates apart from the extension letter.

Wife just got her Naturalization Certificate mailed back to her today after applying for her passport in early May 2023. Immigration is a rap now, done book closed visa journey over!!!

Got an appt at the passport agency yesterday and passport was printed in 2 hrs!!! When I picked it up they returned the naturalization certificate with passport.  
 
Journey is finally over! 

Just one final update in our journey - 
 
My husband applied for his U.S. passport on 5/25. The status updated to "In process" on 5/31. Yesterday, it changed to "Approved" and today it is out for delivery, per the tracking number.
 
We paid for expedited service and faster shipping, and it's been exactly 7 weeks since we submitted the application. 

Hi! I filed N400 online today and got a notice about biometrics reuse. I have a pending I-751 as well.

Same here. Welcome to the 5-7 month wait

Hi! I filed N400 online today and got a notice about biometrics reuse. I have a pending I-751 as well.

I actually just got a notification that interview will be in January! Totally unexpected but yeah it’s about 5 months for me.

Welcome to the thread!

The  IO (btw apparently USCIS uses the term ISO: immigration services officer) who posted this works N-400 cases. 
 
Insights I got from the Q/A portion of the post:
 
* Turnover among ISOs is high mostly because of bad managers: they micro manage and emphasize punishment for getting something meaningless  wrong versus reward for getting 99 percent of meaningful stuff right. 
 
* Marriage based N-400 cases with evidence showing both names on the accounts plus photos are the easiest cases to approve. The lack of such evidence is a high indication of fraud. 
 
* ISOs at field offices (FODs - field office directorates) get the N-400 case a day before the interview 
 
* the service centers process online N-400 cases faster than paper N-400 cases 
 
* at FODs, the least experienced ISOs prefer online N-400s, and the veteran ISOs prefer paper.  Given the high turnover of ISOs; and given the previous point, it is clear that online N-400 is better.  I will be the first to admit that this goes against my own oft posted biases (due to the high rate of errors with online N-400s).  
 
* This ISO will sometimes  RFE applicants who didn’t bring     bring the spouse’s evidence of U.S. and citizenship that the interview letter told them to bring 
 
* At N-400 interviews, this ISO occasionally reveals fraud with employment based green cards. This ISO was cagey about what triggers suspicion of fraud but volunteered that getting a EB gc for one type  of role such as researcher and then working 20 years say a cook raise suspicion of fraud. Immediately changing employers after getting the gc also triggers fraud but the ISO wasn’t willing to say how long a gc holder should stay with an employer. However (and this was new information for me) a mitigating factor can be if the employee worked for the sponsoring employer for years before the gc was issued, even if the employee resigned immediately after. This ISO advised people to retain records of employment with the sponsoring employer and have these ready for the N-400 interview 

* Waivers are reviewed and approved by committees  of ISOs. They are the among the most time consuming cases and approval is determined by a vote of the committee members. For me the takeaway was that USCIS is trying hard to avoid arbitrary decisions by a single individual that could mistakenly ruin lives.  In a sense for waivers USCIS seems to be splitting the burden of proof between applicant and USCIS, which is cool.  
 
* Managers pressure ISOs to make fast decisions on cases after interviews. I was surprised by this because we read so often about seemingly straightforward cases waiting months for a decision.  
 
* ISOs don’t get pick cases because if they did most was avoid the obviously difficult cases 
 
* This ISO admitted that there was bad blood between USCIS and CBP
 
* Some ISO roles  at USCIS require secret or even too secret security clearance 
 
* USCIS does look at all fraud tips and will stay with them until resolved. When I think how many divorces there are in general I am staggered by how much time USCIS must be spending on fraud reports by jilted petitioners.  
 
* Unsolicited evidence is looked at and can be helpful to an ISO and thus the case.   This went against everything I had believed since 2017 when I did my own N-400. Until today my knee jerk reaction was to wait for an RFE when there were errors found after the fact.  Now I believe the better course is to fix all the errors as soon as they are discovered. 
 
* most rogue ISOs (ISOs who abuse discretion) will transfer to CBP, ICE, and TSA
 
* INS and the early USCIS had the philosophy that every case is denial until the applicant changed their mind. The new philosophy is approve as many cases as possible. However some ISOs are still around from the old philosophy. So this accounts for why between two cases with thin evidence that are exactly the same, one gets approved fast as the other drags out: draw an old school ISO that case will go slow. 
 
* ISO1s obviously  get assigned the easier forms to work on. What surprised me is that N-400 is considered an easier form. You are more likely to draw an inexperienced ISO1 for an N-400 than an ISO2 who is in a higher pay grade. This explains why I see so many reports of N-400 interviews going off the rails. 
 
* This ISO does believe what many of U.S. has suspected: at NBC, cases filed before or during Covid are not getting as much priority as new cases. Regardless this ISO’s experience is that within FODs, the Covid backlog doesn’t get worked on except during non interview days. 
 
* We all understand that USCIS being fee based is underfunded because the fees have not increased (especially with double digit inflation). This ISO had a great idea: Congress should appropriate the money to fund USCIS, and in turn the fees USCIS collects should be sent back to Congress to be spent on what Congress sees fit. This way Congress would control the fees versus USCIS trying to raise them and then getting slapped down by a federal judge.  
 
* As is generally known, burden of proof falls on the applicant and not USCIS. What was new information for me was that most of the time the standard of proof required is merely “preponderance of evidence”(same level as civil suits in the U.S.). When fraud or crime are suspected the higher standard, “clear and convincing” is used. Rarely is the highest standard, “beyond a reasonable doubt” used such as  when s supervisor or lawyer are  involved. 
 
* cheating on N-400 civics tests happens more often than you’d think.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

We had a combo interview in Sacramento last May with just a n400 invitation. You will likely have a combo interview, not a 100% sure but more likely than not. 
Be prepared to do the i751 and n400 interviews together at the appointment, bring updated evidence and your spouse. 
 
Good luck.

This is your definitive study guide for the civics test, R ma'am:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/382775-mrs-t-b-the-citizenship-test/

I’m WAC too, no update since august which was my bio appointment. I’ll probably file citizenship by the end of January or first week of February, just gathering more evidences. 

Hi, it's been a while. No updates so far. I was checking processing times for the California Service Center, and it says 80% of the cases are completed within 14 months so hopefully by May we can be done with this. I will probably apply for Naturalization later this year too.

Definitely more Canadian cats than Mexican cats get to visit ..

We got approved! Long story short--
 
Shortly after we got the notice for interview on August 30, we got a second notice for August 25. My partner called USCIS and they told him to appear August 25, so we did. The appointment was set for 6:45 AM.
 
A couple with their lawyer was ahead of us, and I think they did a stokes interview. They called the husband and wife in separately. At 8:40AM, they were still not done interviewing and the interviewer asked us the time of our interview. It turns out the August 30th date was correct, but they were able to accommodate us to interview today since it was USCIS that told us to come in on August 25th. We were finally seen at around 9:40AM, and our interview finished at 10:50ish.
 
The officer said she would approve our application pending some background checks, and then we were on our way! If we don't receive my partner's new green card in 180 days, we're supposed to call in.
 
Yay!

Quick update: I got a mail today stating that they reuse my bio before. WAC 3/3.

Received letter today 07/18 stating that biometrics were waived and reused from AOS.

Sure, so far:
Delivered: 3/1/22
Text with receipt number and check cashed: 3/3/22
Receipt letter on mail: 03/07

I got my receipt on the mail this past Monday (03/07). Starts with WAC. 

Hi, there is an existing thread here 
 

Hi,
 
Mailed through FedEx on Feb 28, received March 1st. Today (3/3) I got a text with the case receipt# saying Official Receipt Notice (I-797) to follow in mail. I paid with personal check, but I have not seen the funds being withdrawn yet.