STO Overland

One swallow doesn’t make it summer

There’s a maturity needed to be.married. It’s not like seeing the latest TV in Best Buy and insisting on throwing out the old one so to buy the new one. My wife lost her equally paid job during covid and that put us under immense pressure but the situation brought us closer and not me looking for a new partner. She needed me to be there for her during that low period of her life more than anytime of our marriage. Do what you need to do to make your marriage financially happy: buy or rent a cheaper home, switch energy suppliers, cut back on unnecessary spending, do whatever. In the long run, when she’s ready to work again you’ll both be glad you did. Oh yeah, nice touch bringing in an immigration question to what is essentially a relationship issue.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/immigration/article/houston-immigrants-citizenship-ceremony-17708238.php

I’m sure I read somewhere that the 90 days prior to your anniversary stemmed from the old days where it would take the USCIS or rather it’s predecessor 90 days or 3 months from you filing your application for them to interview you. Hence filing 90 days prior would then taken you just over your 3rd or 5th anniversary and thus you naturalize as soon as possible. Going by that logic today, Houston should allow us to file 18-24 months prior to our anniversary 🤪 in answer to your question, you will not be interviewed prior to your anniversary date of receiving your GC (resident since date)

https://www.cato.org/blog/topics/92 Interesting way of breaking it down

The smallest county in Texas is Rockwall County. It has one municipal court and two district courts. It would need emailing the clerks of both district courts. Look for the district courts. anyway, some have said not to bother. YMMV.

Texas makes available online the entire history. Maybe visiting the AZ DOT office, you would be able to pull your entire record but… if you intend to disclose that you have had a citation then there is no need to confirm that you have citation with the AZ or CA DOT. You already know that you have had one. If you decide to disclose the citation, it’s proving that you’ve paid the ticket what the USCIS cares about. If you know the county where the offense took place, research ALL the municipal courts within that county and email them. Clerk’s email address are freely available online. good luck

The question states “Have you ever been arrested, cited, or detained by a law enforcement officer (including any and all immigration officials or the U.S. armed forces) for any reason?”. A speeding ticket is a citation. Your call whether you want to say or not and the consequence of not saying but the USCIS find out. I had the same situation from the same period (2003). In 2020, I was able to pull my entire drivers record which listed the citation (only to confirm that my record was complete). I then researched all the courts in the area where the offense took place (there are 6 courts within that county) and emailed the clerk for each court with details of my drivers license and the date of the infraction. All of them came back within a few days including the one that handled my citation and payment. They sent me confirmation of the payment via email which I included in my N400 application. During my interview, the IO had already pulled my drivers record and had it in front of her together with the court confirmation of my payment. She told me that they often pull drivers records to look for other infractions such as DUI and ALWAYS delve deeper depending how the applicant answered the citation question versus what they (USCIS) find with simple check of drivers records.

So, how did it go?

Nothing to contribute other than wishing for the best for your mum.

Congratulations to you both. I was just wondering if your wife’s interview had passed then saw your signature time line. Great news for Christmas and the New Year.

Congratulations on your good news. I’m sincerely happy that someone is one step closer to finishing their immigration journey. Let’s hope your N400 is 30 days or less. If anything, posting this video on the same thread in which you’ve read some of the comments is rubbing salt into the wounds for those folks who have been waiting years to remove conditions. Just IMHO.

Paging @Crazy Cat For his K1 v CR1

My USC spouse and i work in an multi international industry and as such we have worked in several countries. Not once during these years of marriage, were we ever interested in myself applying for a GC and we even came back to the US in 2013 with me on a L1A It wasn’t until the industry was going through a downturn and was laying off many people that we realized that by me not having a GC was putting our family unit at risk if I, as the expensive expat, were to be laid off and sent back to the UK. That’s the only reason why we applied for AOS. Going for N400 just seemed the natural next step, not having to worry about applying for renewal every ten years, ease of travel, potential change in laws. Now that I’m a citizen, we will not change our plans. We don’t plan on retiring in the US and will head somewhere south of the border. Having a US passport will make future decisions easier. re: ease of giving up a GC versus a PP. I would like to say if this is something that crosses anyone’s mind as a pro or con, then you’re definitely not ready to apply for your N400..

Personally, I'd bring it up now since you have all the documentations rather than kick the can down the road to the N400 interview and then be asked why you hadn't said anything at the beginning of your immigration journey.

From a fellow Mr & Mrs Kidd, congratulations.

Good luck to your wife and Happy Veteran’s Day to your good self

I wonder how Michele and Adam are doing today? I hope they’re good. 🤷🏽‍♂️

In my humble view of your circumstance: is going for your citizenship a “want” or a “need”. If you need the citizenship for a job which only citizens can apply for then by all means submit your application whilst remaining aware of the extra USCIS scrutiny as highlighted by others. Your “need” will help you be creative to convince USCIS of your application validity. If it’s just a want then save your $725 for your studies and wait until the 5 years are up when the application should sail through. good luck in your studies and in your decision.

“You also should not fail to report social media accounts on your application. If this is discovered, it could result in being denied entry to the U.S. based on immigration fraud.“ from: https://www.justia.com/immigration/social-media-and-visa-applications/

We have experienced a couple of periods as a married couple (and about a dozen when we were dating as we lived in different States) where we have had to say "goodbye" at the airport and wondered when we'd next see each other. We always knew that we'd see each other but the same time, our departures brought a sense of foreboding that neither of us enjoyed. In our business (oilfield), it is expected by our Company and by ourselves that we will need to spend time overseas and that would mean time apart. The first time as a married couple, my wife was 3 months pregnant, and our company wouldn't let her move with me to Scotland until a replacement had been sought and brought into place. Tears were flowing at New Orleans airport that day as there were many unknowns as to when she could make it over. The second time, our second kid was only 5 weeks old when I had to depart for my new assignment in India but because my wife was on maternity leave, her work visa was not going to be ready any time soon so instead she stayed home to clear up our UK affairs including selling our home, cars, etc etc before departing for the US to await the visa and to spend some quality time with her family and the kids. My wife is a trooper. Tough as nails. Took everything in her stride but I am going off in a tangent. Both times were extremely hard, sure there was such a thing as video calls back in 2006 but pictures were scratchy, and it was a waste of time. The second time we had facetime, and we would try to facetime as often as we could however the time differences between the US and India made it difficult combined with me traveling around the country and the region for ongoing business. All this led to the uncertainty of when we would ever see each other. I would often wonder on lonely trips around India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh if what I was doing was actually worth this. It always is when looking back. I can't explain the feelings that went through us during these periods, but the uncertainty of when I was going to not only see my wife but also our kids was gut wrenching. You couldn't even discuss it with your colleagues because the majority go through the same process when you work in the oil patch and if you ever bring it up, you can see it in their eyes "yeah, so...happens to us all. Dry your eyes, son", even though just under the skin, they're dreading their next move. And they're right in their thinking because it happens, and I suspect you will get a similar thinking on a message board like visajourney.com. I couldn't even bring it up with my dad because if I did, he would hash out the same story that we always got from him about him and mum moving to South Africa at 21 & 20 and me being 2 months old: how his mum, or my nan was unsure for almost 8 months if her son, daughter-in-law and her first grandson were still alive because a departing plane, two in front of ours, had crashed on takeoff (you can look it up, Heathrow airport crash 1972). Even my dad didn't know about the crash until he read nan's letter. Nan didn't know if we were on it and only after receiving a confirmation return of letter could she sigh a sense of relief: I guess communications to South Africa weren't as good as today, even 2006 scratchy video call would have made my nan happy. "Dry your eyes, son" I'm guessing my dad is going to say. Everything will work out

Welcome to this thing called the “internet”. Which isn’t worth getting upset over some pixels on a computer screen. good luck with your application.

https://visaguide.world/visa-free-countries/green-card-holders/#where-can-green-card-holders-travel-without-a-visa 👆🏼worth a gander…

Sigh. After reading your other posts, what else is so important that you are so bothered about waiting for the oath ceremony to start ?

Thank you for the reminder!