I want to update my status with you guys about passport application. It has been a great experience with help from this very Seattle N-400 post. It took exactly 4 weeks for the State of Department to issue the passport, and 3 days for priority mail to arrive Seattle from AZ.

I had the interview at 12:15pm and same day oath on 4/7/2021, and left the Tukwila USCIS building around 2pm. Drove to the UPS store in South Center to make extra copies of my Certificate of Naturalization (10 cents a photocopy). Arrived Bellevue USPS around 2:45pm. 

The awesome post office passport guy looked at me and knew that I was a walk-in. 3:15pm, he eventually took my application, certificate of naturalization and checks ($110 passport book fee + $60 expedition + $35 USPS fee), after checking my WA driver license and the certificate. (I didn't pay for the next day priority mail cuz I knew the priority mail would be very fast.)

Tips:

a. fill out your passport application at home and double check if you want the book to have regular pages or 51 pages.

b. remember to make photocopies of your signed Certificate of Naturalization

c. register to vote with King County link or your local county (county level reg is good for federal, state, county and city elections.)

Anybody who interviewed for IR1 or CR1 (including IR2 etc) in Guangzhou from last July  (2020) to present? I know Guangzhou has been doing limited number of IR1 CR1 interviews slowly. July 2020 - IV Issuances by FSC or Place of Birth and Visa Class. Can you share how much delay you got due to COVID-19? We just got upgraded from F2A (blocked by Trump) to IR1 yesterday and very look forward to having Guangzhou schedule an interview in near future. Thanks!

11 hours ago, ChinaViaChicago said:

So we have gotten all the documents for my wife's green card. The issue is that in China where she has lived for the last 7 years, they require a passport for the criminal check but my wife lost hers in 2018 and got a new one.  They will not give you a criminal check for a passport you don't have and they don't have a system where previous passports are stored.  They told her that when she went today.   So they can only give her a criminal check from 2018-now because she lost the her previous passport.  Is this going to screw everything up?

Is your wife Chinese (mainland) and resides in Mainland China for the last 7 years? 

• Chinese in China, she wanna look up her entry/exit records in the police department branch (not the police station in a community). They use her national ID number to look up all entry/exit records. In the records there, it shows every passport / permits used to enter and exit China for however many years she'd request.

1. Not Chinese in China, you will need to find out the passport number from the immigration department in the issuing country.

Anybody who interviewed for IR1 or CR1 (including IR2 etc) in Guangzhou from last July  (2020) to present? I know Guangzhou has been doing limited number of IR1 CR1 interviews slowly. July 2020 - IV Issuances by FSC or Place of Birth and Visa Class. Can you share how much delay you got due to COVID-19? We just got upgraded from F2A (blocked by Trump) to IR1 today and very look forwarding to having Guangzhou schedule an interview in near future. Thanks!

On 1/28/2021 at 11:32 AM, OLDYES79 said:

Hi everybody and hope you are having a safe new year.

 

I need advice please. My wife is a Chinese citizen. We applied for CR1 and received NOA1 back in Aug 2020. My wife had a pre-existing B2, which we risked for her to come to the US at end of Oct 2020. Fortunately she was allowed through with an I-94 valid until April 2021. We are happily staying secluded in Louisiana together. Thank you for all the advice on that BTW!

 

We had return tickets for her return at the end of Feb 2021. A month ago, American airlines cancelled our flight. When we tried to rebook, we were told all flights until May 1 is either booked solid or cancelled. We called back every other day and nothings changed. There are some weird travel agencies we tried to book with, but the requirement to board Chinese airlines to China requires submitting negative COVID tests to the Chinese consulate in Houston. However, the Chinese consulate in Houston has been closed for months and they are not answering any calls.

 

Basically, we believe that my wife will be stuck here past the April deadline. We consulted around, including from USCIS, and received many suggestions. This is where we need some advice. From what we gathered, here are our 2 possible options that seem to make the most sense. 

 

Option 1: Apply for I-539 visa extension, which is suppose to extend validity date by up to 6 more months. Even if the I-94 expires during the I-539 pending process, we were told my wife would be safe from any problems.

 

Option 2: Apply for I-485 change of status. Similar to the I-539, the expiration date for her I-94 will not be a concern during the I-485 pending status. We would also be concurrently submitting a I-131 so that she can travel outside the US if necessary. 

 

I also want to share that my wife doesn't have a job that is forcing her to return to China and she is financially stable in China as well. We are trying to avoid any delays to our spouse visa/GC process but we gotta do something now. I would appreciate any advice or insight anyone can provide. Thank you.

Did you guys end up go to China or file I-539 and do AOS?

For a 6 month tourism visa, you just need to get out of the US before the deadline, i.e. don't have to go to China. UAE (Dubai really) / Turkey  / Ukraine are good places to land cuz the Chinese passport doesn't need a visa.

30 minutes ago, MGMA said:

I am same time like you @kamus. It's giving me 25 days. That would be very promising, I would love it lol. I think @GiannaGigi is correct about this. They seem to be trying to improve their messaging. Not sure if this should mean much for us. I will be optimistic and hope to hear from them within the 25 days lol.

 

Senior people in the forum @JFH @ReasonableOrange8 @nikgon @Shivoham help us. Did you see this in your cases?

I think they do have a new UI. Somebody reported yesterday the website was down with HTTP 500 error? That might have been the upgrade in progress.

Before the UI changed, I did have a countdown counter. When it counted to 0, it became "We are taking longer than expected blah blah".

When I logged in just now, my case was closed.

43 minutes ago, MGMA said:

@ReasonableOrange8 Did you have ab interview today? Any updates? 

Yes! Passed the first 6 civics questions, took the Oath of Allegiance and received the Certificate of Naturalization. I wanna thanks all great members in this post for helping me!

I walked in 1 minute before the scheduled time. Spent probably 5 minutes lining up and checking in. Then waited upstairs for 5 minutes before going in the interview. There was a room with 6 cubicles. Zoom interview lasted for 15 minutes. Another wait for X minutes. Oath lasted for 5 minutes. Walked out after 1 hour 15 minutes.

57 minutes ago, JFH said:

I made a copy of mine because they keep the original and send it to the passport service. You’ll get the original back just after you get your passport. But in the meantime it’s good to have a copy of the certificate. 

So tips for photocopying: do not go to Walgreens nearby they don't do copying. Go to UPS in South Center.

Regarding to applying for a first-time passport. Do I need to submit a photocopy of the Certificate of Naturalization and driver license? (translates to Fedex office/UPS trip before heading to the Post Office?)

Just now, JFH said:

Home and done!

 

I had a same-day oath so I am now a USC. 
 

Good luck to everyone else still waiting.

Congratulations! Btw what civics questions did you get asked?

11 hours ago, MGMA said:

Congratulations! That's very exciting. 

They just posted the letter online for interview date -- 04/07/2021. 

Just logged in my USCIS and saw an update! Will update when I got an interview date.

1 hour ago, JFH said:

It's been many months since I had my biometrics done and I am trying to remember if you have to pay for the parking at USCIS in Tukwila. I seem to recall that I had to pay when I went for biometrics. Anyone know if that's the case? And do they take cards? I never carry cash and the closest ATM that doesn't charge me a fee is 75 miles away in Olympia. 

You pay $7 with card when you drive through the parking gate. (In 2019) edited: maybe not... google says cash only.  But you can call republic parking to find out they manage that parking lot 

On 2/28/2021 at 2:03 PM, MGMA said:

OMG, I never know about issues using foreigner passport. I might be actually be in the same position in the summer while waiting for my interview/ passport, and thought I can travel with my home country passport. Do you know if you can reschedule the interview if it came while traveling? I heard rescheduling the interview could cause some trouble. 

Can one who just gets naturalized apply for first time a US passport outside US? (Go international travel, say home country, and apply the US passport at embassy/consulate there.)

I saw a link about "Apply Outside the United States" in dept of state's website. 

9 hours ago, Shivoham said:

uuggghhh!    I was supposed to have interview today, but it didn't happen. I went there and they said the will reschedule my interview (hopefully within a month) because i had an international travel within last 14 days. I showed them my covid negative report post travel but that didn't help. 

 

Did they find out or you filled out some form of international travel history?

9 hours ago, JFH said:

Ha ha! I was the same with my I-130 wait too. Thank you for the birthday wishes.

 

Update: Interview has been scheduled for March 22.

Congrats! Its exciting to know that there are 8 interviews in March. Way more interviews than previous months. Mine is projecting in mid-April

About name change — can I first get a name change in court now, then get my naturalization certificate in old name after a passed interview? In other words, can I apply a passport in new name using old name on certificate and new name on court document?

I filed in October 2019 and fingerprinted in November 2019. Was thinking I should have gotten an interview date in January 2021. But from the N400 timeline it looks like a few people who filed in July 2019 just got interview dates in January 2021. Sigh, are we looking at a 3 month delay in the Seattle's office?