UpstateNYer

Okay, here is my final post for reaching my destination after an awfully longggggggg journey.

As I posted last week, I received a call from the Syracuse office and was informed my oath ceremony would be Friday, 9/25, at 10 in their office. I also received a letter from them.
 

However, a couple of days later, I accidentally found a different notice with a different location in my online account. So I called the 800 number. The tier 1 officer told me she was seeing that I should be going to somewhere in Buffalo. I told her I have never been to that office and both my fingerprints and interview were with the Syracuse office. She then transferred me to tier 2. Tier 2 officer congratulated me and assured me that I should go to the address showing online.

Somehow my guts told me to go the Syracuse field office. So I did but gave myself extra 30mins just in case. Once I arrived at their office, it got confirmed I went to the right place.

The ceremony was scheduled at 10 and there were 4 of us. One woman barely speaks English and didn’t bring a translator so we waited for about 20-30 mins for them to get her settled.

The ceremony itself was only 1 minute maybe. An officer led the process. He told us his name, then asked us to stand up, raise our right hand, and read after him. After the oath he handed us the documents and we were told to leave. 

I received the oath notice from the field office during the weekend. Just as what I was told by phone, it says the ceremony will be held in their office but the date was wrong - it was the day they called me.

Today the notice finally showed up in my online account which has the correct date but with a different location.

I called the 800# and the lady answered my call said she was seeing Buffalo, not even Syracuse. Now I am waiting for the tier 2 officer to call me. My guess would be a disconnection on their end - the letter I received from the field office has my new name but the online one still shows the old one.

Just received a call from Syracuse office and was informed that my name change request has been approved and my oath will be Friday 9/25!

1 hour ago, Luis562 said:

CONGRATZ!!!!!!!! WHERE DID YOU FILED?

Syracuse NY

Just realized it is September 1st and I need to start my study now.

For those finished your interviews already, did you bring your tax forms with you? I know it is not listed on the notice letter but heard people talk about that and wanted to be prepared. TIA.

24 minutes ago, Amadia said:

I updated you guys on the sheet  

I updated mine. The interview will be on 9/10.

7 minutes ago, PhillyNatz said:

Congratulations, what was ( and is) the estimate case completion time for you

Thanks. The est time disappeared around beginning of March. I don’t recall exactly when but it was something like it is taking us longer than normal since May?

Exactly 200 days after fingerprint taken, my interview was scheduled on 8/7. 
dont know the date yet as nothing showed up in the Document tab.

On 8/3/2020 at 3:06 PM, zzmr_qzz said:

yeah, mine changed since June,  

Mine changed some March if I can trust my memory.

13 hours ago, Masidd00 said:

Nice to see people becoming citizens here! Is anyone still waiting for an interview? My wife completed her biometric Jan 17 and we still haven’t heard anything. I guess this is normal? A lot of you got thru the process so fast. I’m near the Chicago office if that helps. 

My timeline is close to yours and haven’t got any info about interview. Syracuse NY office. My boss started her application a little bit later than me but got her interview last week. She thought the oath would be scheduled for a later time but now they changed it to the same day of the interview.

I am still waiting for interview appointment to be scheduled but I know a Jan filer, same office, has her interview rescheduled right after 4th of July. Her orig appt was end of March. 

19 hours ago, Giovanna024 said:

You can set up the notifications so you can receive any update about USCIS ans your case. 

I did but only received one notification  since my submission. This also happened to me last year when I applied extension for my mother. During that whole process we didn’t received any update other than the acknowledgement of the application was received. Very strange.

23 hours ago, Giovanna024 said:

Dont you have updstes directly from USCIS?!?! Text messages or emails notifications? 

No I haven’t got any update

On 4/13/2020 at 11:50 PM, soso723 said:

Thanks for sharing! I got it back too, it says "we are taking longer than expected to process your case". In my opinion, this means they will truly open on May 3!

I hope you are right as mine shows the same. But I am in NY...

9 hours ago, Valor said:

I'm still waiting for my interview to be scheduled. 

Same here. At least they got theirs scheduled. I don’t even know when mine will be

11 minutes ago, soso723 said:

We still have not figured out why the estimates were removed. Could it be the coronavirus? They shut down the USCIS office in Washington state, apparently. That's where a lot of cases occurred. In Florida, 2 people died. Could they be freezing all case processing if the pandemic gets worse? Would oath ceremonies be postponed indefinitely? This is turning into some of my worst fears.

I did ask the agent this question as well. He was saying something like the estimates were not accurate at the first place so maybe they got taken down for improvement. Not sure whether I should buy it.

The H1 applications are coming in soon, plus the coronavirus, who knows what’s gonna happen next. Fingers crossed.

27 minutes ago, Cécy said:

I realized that processing times likely depend not only on your field office, but also the agent in charge of it.

i applied at the end of October, and I’ve seen several people with the same field office getting interview, and even take the oath, before I even got my invitation to one (happening this week!!)

This process definitely takes patience.

Thank you, Cécy. Experience for someone who has been through similar situation definitely help!

56 minutes ago, Amadia said:

I would contact USCIS on Monday very early in the AM and inquire on the delay or if they have any type of update for you. Be upfront and let them know that you personally know people who filed after you did but got scheduled for interview before you did.

Thanks, Amadia. I actually did call them yesterday afternoon and was able to talk with an agent. Unfortunately the info I got was not useful. Basically what he was saying was some officer processes cases quicker and some slow; and some cases take longer and some don’t. All he could tell me was my case was still under review. Sigh.

Okay, now I am really worried what is going on. My coworker just told me they applied after me, did their fingerprints in Feb and got their interview scheduled at end of March. Same office.

8 hours ago, Amadia said:

I think the "estimated times" have disappeared because of the exposé that was done on the H1B visa issue where USCIS made over 2.39 billion dollars for premium processing that takes 15 business days as opposed to 9-15 months for normal processing. Scrutiny arose on the other visa categories and the fact that people file applications and pay their fees, but are forced to wait around while others who file afterwards get scheduled for interviews before others.

 

So, not a system glitch.

That’s why I said I hope it’s a glitch. I’m afraid there is some story behind it, H1B related or not.

1 minute ago, gregcrs2 said:

Just checked ours, and all estimated times have disappeared!

I hope it’s just a system glitch

Both est times disappear in my account. Am I the only one has this issue?

19 hours ago, soso723 said:

Let's remind ourselves how estimates are given. Each field office reports 2 numbers. The first number is the time by which 50 percent of the applications are processed (median time) and the second number is the time it takes to process 90 percent of the applications. The estimate is then 90 percent of the first number plus ten percent of the second number. For example: If the first number is 6 months and the second number is 10 months, then estimate=0.9*6+0.1*10=6.4 months. Indeed, these estimates are to be taken with a grain of salt.

For my case, the numbers were 1 and 4mons. 0.9*1+0.1*4=1.3. Far off.

Last week they added 5 days to my est time to next step and today they added anther 7 days. 😖

dunno how comes my previous coworkers were able to get theirs done in 3 months.