A110

I filed for N400 March 1st 2024 out of NYC. I also applied for ROC in November 2022; there is no movement on either except the generic biometric notice for N400 and the obvious extensions on green cards. Is this normal?

19 hours ago, US2UK said:

Thank you. Since filing we have:

- taken 2x beach trips

- filed 2x joint taxes again (late filed for 2022, and filed 2023) 

- renewed car insurance docs 

- have 7 months additional joint bank statements 

- started new joint AT&T account for our phones 

- have lease agreement showing we lived together for additional 7 months 

- photos from trips, holidays, birthdays, hanging out with friends. 

 

Hopefully that is enough. 

 

Of course I’m hoping the divorce goes as smoothly as possible, but am not sure what to expect given his existing behavior. I’ll just have to hope for the best. 

I'm pretty sure you can cough up some more evidence if you think about it for a few days. I even included the Amtrack tickets we took to Philly for a day trip. As long as it has both your names and you did it together I would include it.

The only advice I can give is to sit down and think of all the documents that will support your case and make redundant copies of them. Assuming you filed for ROC last summer collect everything from that period up to now. If possible have a copy of the original ROC package too. Bank statements, joint documents, tax, photos and everything else that you can think of. Hell even this months bank statements should be included. Since you may be emotionally not in a good place I'll make a list:

1. All joint bank account transactions between you two (Venmo)
2. 401K+ Joint Insurance
3. Utility Bills
4. Travel logs and itineraries 
5. Tax 
6. Children birth certificate (if you have any)
7. Apartment lease
8. Joint mortgage
9. Joint car plans
10. Photos (ideally showing you amongst friends,family or travelling)
11. Joint gym plans?

There is a lot of info on timing and such and I am no expert but this is what I think could help you the most in case your first I751 gets denied and you have to refile again. As a side note and friendly advice it may be best to be more friendly in the divorce and not have a nasty angry man chasing you down. (while it may seem far fetched there are a few stories here and there of ex spouses getting super nasty)

I am a November 2022 filer, filed for N400 on March 1st, no updates.......

While the denial can indeed be very frustrating, there is no downside in keeping up the fight. 

Lol,someone should have a guideline for the titles of this threads ......

24 minutes ago, Fe.Ta said:

I want to acknowledge that this is a legitimate concern.  Also, I am sure the issue of delays includes the president/elected party as one of the factors - but not THE factor (regardless of where you stand, believe in, and what media portrays for either side).  Unfortunately, as you stated, without any politics, presidents, etc., there is no "hard truth" as to why USCIS does and acts a certain way.

For example, our K1 visa application was submitted in November 2018 - while Trump was president.  By June 2019 my husband was already living with me in USA.  Now, COVID happened and that caused delays, but I am sure there has to be other factors - besides a pandemic and politics/president - for a K1 visa to now take almost as long as a CR1 back in the day (1.5 to 2 years).

All that to say, USCIS is its own mess - as @TBoneTX stated.  We just have to wait or make additional decisions such as applying for citizenship, WoM, etc.

The only real difference of Trump vs Biden is allocation of USCIS resources and maybe extra scrutiny. Both of those factors will increase the wait times exponentially. 

4 minutes ago, OldUser said:

Fun fact: my I-485 took quicker under Trump than I-485s take nowadays under Biden. I'm by no means a Trump supporter. I just think no matter who's in power there's objective reasons why immigration is slowing down. It's simply the amount of people seeking immigration benefit (think asylum seekers, family reunions). And there hasn't been any changes in immigration system to support this demand.

I agree, the backlog is the real issue here, that said the 10-20 % difference in the agency policy under Trump will create maybe an additional 60-70% (if not more) wait times in the first two years and then maybe 10 year processing time by 2028 just because of the huge backlog .

This is not a political debate or trying to say who is better. That being said I speculate I751 cases to almost take 5-6 years easily if Trump is elected.

USCIS resources are going to be directed to ICE and such and less on clearing backlogs, but the amouunt of cases are gonna remain the same. Backlog from Biden is gonna carry over to Trump and I751 being so low priority I would not be surprised if they just don't touch the cases for the first 3-4 years and now that I think the actual processing time could get exponential quickly and maybe taking as long as 9-10 years for simple cases. 

Most people gave very good answers, I just give my 2 cents.

I don't think this is an issue as long as there is enough evidence all together. The separate bank accounts thing is common and you don't have to worry as long as you can provide other documents showing comingling of finances like joint tax returns, beneficiary 401K, Joint Investment Account and such. It's more about the holistic picture than each piece of evidence by itself.Basically if you lack in one area try to compensate in the other area. That said the joint account is a "Quality" Evidence and you can't replace it with like 100 pictures thinking they will provide the same effect.

Personally me and my wife did have joint accounts that were not "Active" but I provided joint saving account with significant amount, a joint mortgage, 401K stuff.

15 minutes ago, MichaelJuan.198 said:

Hi there,

 

I have two questions for you today. 

 

1) i want to submits tact returns for 751. Should we do tact returns or W2? which one is best? my taxt returns are very long.

 

2) in the future when we get the extension letter, is it safe to travel with this letter? are people generally welcomed back?

 

Thank you!

Please change the title of the post

Based on my observation there are two forms of "denial":

1. They keep denying/ or making the process take long in the hope that they will tire you out.Usually these are like the majority of the denials.
2. They have very concrete evidence that the marriage was a sham and deny based on that knowing the judge will also vote in favor of the marriage being a sham. 

Most people who have plenty of evidence and are/were legit couples fall into category one as category 2 is usually for more organized stuff where a lawyer tried to organize something or it was part of a major scam/operation.The only caveat is sometimes people in category 1 end up in an interview and say too much or get nervous and say something stupid which will push the officer into category 2. That being said unless there is very explict evidence the whole thing was a sham the denial becomes a question of how much you are willing to dispute it and provide evidence to prove the agency wrong.

The only thing I would add to your list of documents is ID's showing you live together. 

1 hour ago, Fe.Ta said:

I didn't say the N400 would delay it.  I was saying that the 751 would delay the N400.
 

Honestly, it is a 50/50 chance - as usual.

I do not state my point of view as absolute truth.

My only concern is that during a move, my case could NOT be as readily available as it was before.  Thus, to get the physical case transferred over to my local office (because it is pending at the time I file N400), is probably going to take longer than what is normally taking for others when they submit the N400 with a pending 751.  A N400 case will not get approved with a pending 751.  Thus, if they can't find the file, the case will linger until they do.

I hear you, I just think the N400 might give it a nudge.

I am going to file N400, honestly don't think N400 would delay the process, if it's taking 33-35 months now, it would probably be 50 month by next year around this time so not sure how N400 would "Delay" anything.

47 minutes ago, OldUser said:

By the way, @A110 make sure to watch today's episode of Immigration Show on YouTube. First caller.

 

Somebody with pending I-751 filed for N-400. They got to combo interview. Because of small evidence (and past history), IO ran a stokes interview by separating couple. US citizen was scared into withdrawing I-751. 

 

It's unlikely this happens to you, but you need to have mental capacity to deal with immigration. I wouldn't take immigration lightly. Maybe waiting for I-751 to be approved without interview is a viable option if you're not in a rush to naturalize.

Valid point. I will probably start collecting stuff and submit a pile of quality documents. Maybe not today but a month later, thank you.

2 hours ago, mam521 said:

USCIS burnout is real.  

 

The upside is if you do apply and can get the combo interview, you're done.  Don't have to do it again, put the stuff in a box and don't look at it again.  Get your passport, live free.  

 

I did just above the minimum.  The required documents, DL for each of us to show we live together, mortgage agreement, recent car purchase agreement, health and car insurance docs, boarding passes for a very recent trip and zero issues.  For the most part, these are more "on the daily" type documents that are readily available and don't require super brain power to remember (unlike all the addresses I'd lived at from the age of 16 that I needed for my DS-260).   The N-400 isn't nearly as invasive, even based on marriage, than other parts of the process.  3 months, start to finish for me.  

 

Yeah, I may just submit DL, Lease as proof of joint residence, bank statements, tax returns and joint investment account and a recent international trip. Probably won't bother with the 401K, Mortgage stuff and photos on everything. I will provide enough to show we are happily married and co living but won't go over board this time. 

13 minutes ago, Jamdie said:

I found it was better to just get all the docs sorted. It took up an evening, but it was worth it. From filing N400 to citizenship, I was done in 3 months. 
 

The interview itself was straight forward as the Officer already had everything to hand. I took copies of literally everything just in case, but didn’t even open my folder in the end. 
 

Obviously every case is different, but I have friends who applied before me with bare minimum, and they’re still waiting. 

For I751 I understand that sending more quality stuff may make a difference, but for N400 given that they will interview you I don't know. I may bite the bullet and send random stuff like bank accounts and house lease but nowhere as complete as my I751.

40 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

It's 100 questions.  All 100.  

Yeah, I honestly don't think I would have a problem in that regard.

50 minutes ago, OldUser said:

IMHO you need mental bandwidth to deal with N-400 and immigration. If you're not ready, I would hold off. Just an opinion. For N-400 you need to learn civics questions, for example. That requires mental bandwidth.

Not trying to be insensetive or anything but I don't think I'd have a problem with those questions as they can be studied passively and memorizing 100-120 questions like that is not something I fear, I can just spend like 15 minutes a day. Just not in the mood for collecting all the info, printing, organizing, etc. 

32 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

My wife filed the N400 with just the minimum required evidence also with a fairly hefty I751 in process.  She was approved in a little more than 5 months for both.  You only need the required evidence to submit the N400 and get the clock moving.  If filing online, you can upload the "Interview Evidence" later, or if filing by mail, just collect the information for the interview.

 

Good Luck!

Yeah, the info like bank statements and leases are obviously available, I just don't have the mental bandwidth to gather them, just wanna send maybe a lease, ID's and taxes.

So right now I have just hit my 3 year mark and am planning to file for N400. We filed a pretty heavy I751 but being in potomac case is still just in accepted mode. Right now I am very busy with work and can't really spend that much time to pack our docs for the last year, since we probably will get a combo interview can i file N400 with just the bare minimum (wifes passport, ID's, Tax returns and such) and bring the other supporting docs to the interview? How much do these additional docs help?

We have joint bank accounts,lease,investment account, trips, photos and such but honestly I have so much work stuff going on I can't see myself collecting all of it and making a huge doc and such and also think payting a lawyer 2K or whatever is a waste of money.

The whole idea behid evidence that most people don't seem to be understanding is NOT to prove the bona fide aspect of your marriage but make it harder for sham marriages to get green cards. There is no real way for an officer who has 10 other things including (just like the rest of us) on their mind to sit through and learn about each unique case short of putting people in a lie detector machine. Thus in order to prevent fraud cases they raise the bar for everyone else with the evidence because it takes a while and a lot of trust for a fraud case to build evidence together. This throws away most easy fraud cases and the rest remaining are usually friends trying to help each other and such (not talking about crime rings arranging marriages and what not). 

Going back to your original question such evidence helps given that you actually had a legitimate marriage ceremony and for a non bonafide case it would take much of effort to do that.

I don't know if my point helped, but it does put into perspective why there is a need for evidence.

On 6/30/2023 at 4:27 PM, Rocio0010 said:

Not sure what you mean… your name is in the forms, so how would a name on the mandamus be any different?

Ah, I meant a public record of me vs USCIS kinda thing

16 minutes ago, JB&JP said:

616 days since they receved my package. No fingerprints (we've got the letter that they'll use old ones) and we've receved two  extension letters. 

Why no N400?

43 minutes ago, DPP123 said:

854 days since they received my package.  We did fingerprints and have received three extension letters.  Still waiting and can't make an inquiry for a few more months.  

I am assuming you have not filed for N400.