luv2teach77

Hi everyone,

I've just discovered this thread but wanted to report that I applied for my first US passport on March 1st, the same day I attended my naturalization ceremony.  I applied at my local post office, standard service. I was told most applications were taking 4-6 weeks.

I received email notification that they had received my application March, 5th.  My check was cashed on March 7th.  This morning I checked the status and it just said it was being processed.  This afternoon I got another email saying processing is complete and my passport should be delivered by March, 18th !!  If that turns out to be true, I'm highly impressed they were able to turn around a new passport in under 3 weeks from the date of application.

I'll try and work out how to get my info into the official timeline later.  

Just wanted to provide a recent update !!

Thanks,

Mark

I think I bought along 3 years of tax returns, my UK birth certificate, our marriage certificate and current and expired passports.  I don't think she asked to see any of it.

While this may be possible, be aware that the burden of proof is on her that she isn't abusing the tourist visa process.  If she can't show substantial ties to her home country, she could be denied another tourist visa.  A better option may be for her to return to Korea for a couple months and then visit you again. It is allowed for her to visit you even after the I-129F is approved and returning for a couple of months would probably look better in the eyes of the CBP officers when she tries to re-enter the US again.  Remember, she will have to attend her interview at the US embassy / consulate in her home country at the end of the process anyway so she won't be able to remain in the US for the whole time anyway !!

Best of luck !!

Mark

18 minutes ago, HB05 said:

It’s ok ,just wanna have an idea so if u fill late December and u just got ur interview so we’re looking at 11 months and that’s a lot from what I read ,they said it average 5 to 8 months 

thanks 

Like everything immigration related, potential timelines are very elastic.  Priority dates are pretty rigid from an adjudication point of view and the USCIS stays pretty tight lipped until you reach or exceed that date.  Everything else is pretty fluid and the best plan is to not expect anything to go per the advertised guidelines.  I engaged my local congressman as I approached my priority date but can't be sure if that sped anything up or not.

Good luck !!

Mark

42 minutes ago, HB05 said:

Thanks for sharing and congrats 

st Luis is my field office and I’ll be sending my application next week,just wanna know how long it took you from the date they received your app till the interview date

thank you

I'm not 100% sure when the St. Louis office received my file.  My online status didn't update between my biometrics being scheduled and receiving my interview notice in the mail.  I submitted my N-400 paperwork in late December, 2016 and just had my interview this week.  I can't be any more specific with the St. Louis part of the timeline than that I'm afraid.

At my interview yesterday I was told that I needed to bring the following to the oath ceremony...

1) My current Green Card (Which would get turned in after the ceremony)

2) My Illinois drivers license

3) My oath ceremony invite

I don't think I was told to bring anything else.

Thanks,

Mark

Out of the blue I finally received my I-797C showing my interview is scheduled for November 6th in St. Louis.  My online case status hasn't been updated since my biometrics appointment in January and I've received no email or text updates.

Guess I better start studying for the civics test now !!

Hope you all hear something soon !!

Mark

7 minutes ago, Going through said:

If you wish to travel outside of the US, you will need to file for a renewal of your GC though, since you didn't take advantage of the free stamp on your passport extending the validity of your green card before it expired.

My green card hasn't expired yet (March, 2018).  How do people get the stamp in their passport ?

Hello,

My 10 year green card expires in March of 2018.  I sent off my N-400 citizenship application in December of 2016 but so far have not been given any indication of when I may be interviewed.  

Based on information I've gathered from the USCIS website, it sounds like I do not need to seek any kind of renewal of my green card based on the fact that I applied for citizenship over 6 months before my card was due to expire.  

Can someone confirm if the image I captured from the automated assistant on the USCIS website is providing accurate information.  

I do not relish the idea of having to file an I-90 (with an associated $455 filing fee plus an $85 biometrics fee) just because the USCIS can't pull it's finger out !!

Thanks in advance,

Mark

Just now, Going through said:

The condition of the K1 visa is that you must marry within 90 days.  There is no condition of when you must apply for AOS after your marriage.  It is preferred and encouraged by USCIS that you file the AOS almost immediately after marriage (and before the visa expiry), but there is no legal requirement to do so under a specific time period, and no visa condition of a specific timeline to follow for filing the AOS.

I stand corrected (it's been a long time I went through AOS).  I thought that (as I did) the AOS paperwork was supposed to be filed before the 90 day expiration of the K-1 Visa.  Either way, I'd assume she is long past any grace period for adjusting her status and that the process of adjusting now, and eventually applying for her citizenship, will be far less straightforward that it once would have been !!

19 minutes ago, cyberfx1024 said:

No, since she is here now and married to a USC she can still do AOS and it will be forgiven. She came here under the K1 visa and IF she married to that petitioner and still married to him then she is fine. Do not spread false assumptions. 

Where is the documented proof of this being an approved path to citizenship ?  She never became a legal permanent resident due to never filing her AOS paperwork after marrying her Fiance.  Once those 90 days were up after entering the US on her K-1, and she failed to file her AOS paperwork, she is seen as having failed to meet the conditions of the visa and would be considered out of status and liable to deportation proceedings from that point.  The fact that she got married is incidental.  She remained in the US illegally and apparently worked illegally too which will not work in her favor.

Just a quick update.  I decided to reach out to my congressman's office in the hope that they can at least determine that there is no reason for the apparent holdup in my case besides the sheer volume of cases being processed.

I contacted his office last week, signed a privacy act release on Thursday and sent them copies of any and all notices related my case along with a detailed timeline of events.  I received a call from one of his staff this morning confirming a couple of details.  She said she would be reaching out to my local office today to try and get a status update.

I made it very clear when contacting them that I'm not requesting an expedite or to be processed out of order, I'm merely looking for some concrete information on where exactly my application is at in the process.  Hopefully I'll hear something back from them this week.

Thanks,

Mark

Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I thought I had read before that applying for a visa such as the CR-1 could lead to the cancellation of any tourist visas.  

Additionally, it will likely be frowned upon if your girlfriend spends more time in the US than she does in her home country.  Failure to provide evidence of strong ties to your home country, or appearing to be abusing a tourist visa by stringing multiple long visits together with only short periods of time out of the US, could result in your girlfriend being denied entry or having her tourist visa revoked.  

Edited to add:... Marrying in the US and adjusting her status while still in the US on a tourist visa is a risky business which could easily be perceived by the authorities (and quite rightly so) as visa fraud.  With multiple long visits to the states already, it would be hard to prove that there was no intent to marry when she last entered on her tourist visa.  Failure to convince the USCIS that the marriage was entered into with no prior planning could result in being barred from future entry, even via legal visa related routes.

You should plan for some extended time apart during this process, whichever path you choose.

1 minute ago, casualuser said:

As of today my wife's case has been updated from fingerprint appointment scheduled (Apr 12) to "in-line". My case number which is just next to her is still in fingerprint appointment scheduled, that is: in the freezer.

 

Out of a few cases around our numbers about 50% of them have moved from fingerprint to in-line today. Interesting thing is that the only cases that did not move were those that had any pending or completed service requests. My case has a service request placed a week ago and it hasn't moved.

 

It appears that the applicants who really care (or are impatient) are more suspicious and require further background checks...

I didn't place a service request for my case until it had been sitting for almost 7 months with no movement.  Based on that I'm not sure that service requests automatically mean further delays.  I felt mine was pretty delayed already.

4 minutes ago, casualuser said:

At some point it makes sense to hire a lawyer and start a legal action against USCIS. I heard that it does miracles with almost 100% reliability and almost immediately. But I thought 4 months is reasonable amount of time to initiate a service request and other inquiries. I am in Raleigh field office and they report processing times of January 9th as of June 30th, so USCIS will not have this usual excuse that their processing time is within normal range with this field office. Soon, I can place another request that my application is not within normal processing, harass ombudsman and in 2018 I could file a case in federal court if nothing happens. Still, I hope something will happen.

I have no intention of throwing any more money at this process than I already have.  I'll contact my state representatives before considering legal action.  Besides the annoyance of no updates, I'm not reliant on citizenship for anything in my near future so have the luxury of being able to wait it out.  I know that nothing immigration related ever sticks to rigid timelines so I'm gonna sit and wait for now.

2 minutes ago, casualuser said:

I placed Service Request myself, since I am in "Fingerprints Scheduled" for 4 months now. I think it can help if the case is somehow forgotten or missed, but if there is something more serious, like pending background check, then it won't help much.

I've been at that point almost 9 months and it's just over 8 months since my biometrics appointment !!

5 minutes ago, cybermax said:

Could you please let me know how can you "put  a service request"?

My case is still in Fingerprint since 01/30. I'm so depressed.

Go here https://egov.uscis.gov/e-Request/Intro.do and fill out the information requested.  You are probably in a similar situation to most of us in this thread.  I selected the option "Did not receive notice by mail" which isn't 100% accurate but allowed me to get the service request submitted.  Anecdotal evidence on this site shows that whatever date they say they will get a response to you by, is largely useless and it may take much longer for them to respond.

Once it's submitted, it will show up under the parent case (in my case my N400 application).  As you can see, my service request hasn't been updated since the day it was submitted (July 26th).

23 minutes ago, Going through said:

There are instructions on the letter as to what you need to do should you have to reschedule your interview....follow those instructions.  

Per the response above, the notice will have instructions on what to do in order to reschedule the appointment.

If it was 8/22/2017 you already missed it.

Just now, Happytobe said:

Hubby is FINALLY In-Line for his interview!!!! WOO-HOOOOOO!!!!!!!   I'm hoping the rest of you get great news soon!!!

That's great news !!  Congratulations.

1 minute ago, Happytobe said:

we didn't think we were missing a notice either, and had the same motivation as you.... but come to find out, there was a notice we didn't receive... Why, we don't know, but... I have done some advanced searches on here to see if others have had issues like ours with the biometrics, and there were more than I thought there would be... we were expecting the  "you are within normal processing times" response, so although it's frustrating that his case was suspended and there was returned mail to USCIS, I'm thankful we made the inquiry... you never know

Interesting !!... just out of curiosity, did you try an Infopass appointment before resorting to opening a service request ?  I attended an infopass appointment in mid July and was told everything was in order and that there was nothing specific delaying it.  I then read about people opening service requests so figured it couldn't hurt.

Just now, Happytobe said:

yeah, I think we were originally told July 9th (ish) and it took until August 12th (ish)  I've seen the responses vary so much, it's unbelievable! Hoping we all get out of the limbo so very soon!

I'm not expecting much from mine.  I am not missing a notice except one that says I've moved on in the process.  I was just hoping that someone actually looking into my case would maybe help get it unstuck.  We'll see. 

16 minutes ago, Happytobe said:

It took an extra month for them to respond to ours from the "predicted date" they gave us.  Hopefully, you'll get some kind of useful answer! fingers crossed

My service request (Submitted July 26th) said I'd get a response by August 17th.  I'm still waiting