Waiting4GC

I just found this topic. I love Top Chef and I have been hoping for the last 4 weeks or so that Lisa would get kicked off. I don't know how she has managed to always be at the bottom and somehow not get eliminated. She is got the worse attitude (At least what the producers are showing us). I think that the top 3 were Richard, Stephanie and Dale. At least out of my three top choices 2 of them are in the final and I am really hoping that Stephanie will win. I actually think she will win because there has never been a Top Chef woman and there maybe some pressure for Bravo to have a woman winning this year.

Probably not a bad idea to block it out. But keep in mind when you send USCIS your payment, if you choose a person check, it has your account number at the bottom anyway. The check does get processed quicker and sent back to the bank (or you if you still get your canceled checks in your statements).

That`s a good point.

By the way I just called USCIS and of course the person on the phone said that if I block it out they have the right to request more information or do further checking, why decided to block it out. I told him I don`t feel safe sending such of information. He said: You can always mail it with return recipt and the other recipts they have in the post office to be safer. Well my point was ones it arrives there and travelling till there, so it sounded like they are safe worry about the post office. And if you block it out they will consider this I am hiding something.

I always blocked all bank account / IRA accounts / Savings / Beneficiaries account numbers from anything I have ever sent to USCIS and I never had a problem due to this. My suggestion is that you do block the account numbers. There is no need for them to have that information.

I "was" waiting for a Green Card when I joined the forum. I am no longer waiting for anything but still giving my opinion to people who may want to take it.

Check this forum out. The first sticky talks about going to court to force adjudication.

http://www.immigrationportal.com/forumdisplay.php?f=18

I actually never received my 10 year green card. For some reason my I751 was not approved until I had the citizenship interview. The officer at the time told me that I would probably would not get the 10 year green card before the Oath Ceremony and that is how it actually happened. The day of the oath ceremony I gave the Judge my expired 2 year green card and in exchange I received the citizenship certificate.

Asking the same question over and over is not going to give you the answer you want. Interview date depends on your local office and NY is probably one of the busiest ones. You are just going to have to wait until the timeline given in your NOA expires. Lets say the NOA said that you should have your interview approximately 365 days from your priority date, then that means that you need to start wondering around November of 2008 what is the problem with your case and right now has only been 6 months. You can still travel outside of the US as long as you don't go over the time that you are required to have for continuos residency (I can't remember how many months / days it is mentioned in the guidelines for citizenship).

Again, it all depends on your LOCAL office. Some people on this forum waited a year or more and some people got it within 6 months. Just be patient.

When I went for my interview at the Cleveland location, all the men that were waiting to be interviewed (4) did not wear ties or jackets. Some of them were actually sloppy IMO. I think you want to portrait the right image: not too casual but not too dressy either. As other suggested a nice pair of pants ( no jeans) and a nice shirt should do it. Also, as an FYI, IMO some of the officers looked too casual so a suit or tie could be a tad too formal but whatever your hubby feels comfortable with.

I'm asking because last time we were at the Cleveland office to get Tom's stamp, we were in jeans and looked like scruffs but everyone else in the waiting room was really dressed up (all the guys I saw had suits on). I can't remember what we wore to the AOS interview.

Now that I remember there were some people wearing suits but they looked to be the lawyers going with their clients as they were explaining how things were going to go down to the people sitting next to them. Business Casual should do for the interview.

When I went for my interview at the Cleveland location, all the men that were waiting to be interviewed (4) did not wear ties or jackets. Some of them were actually sloppy IMO. I think you want to portrait the right image: not too casual but not too dressy either. As other suggested a nice pair of pants ( no jeans) and a nice shirt should do it. Also, as an FYI, IMO some of the officers looked too casual so a suit or tie could be a tad too formal but whatever your hubby feels comfortable with.

I wore black slacks and a nice top. As long as you are not too casual you should be OK (first impressions are always very important)

Hi everybody. I just wanted to let all of those interested know that applying for a US passport doesn't take that long. I got my certificate of citizenship on May 2. On May 6, I went to the application center to submit my passport application and today I got my new american passport in the mail. I was really surprised to get it this fast since they told me it would take between 4-6 weeks but it only took 2 weeks. My certificate of citizenship was not with the passport but in the brochure that came with it said that it will be mailed separetely. Hopefully I will get my certificate soon.

Maybe that rush from last year blamed on the many people that thought they needed passports to drive either into Canada or Mexico when they only needed a passport if taking the airlines. Guess terrorists only travel by air. As a born US citizen paying premium service, took them 3 1/2 months to issue a passport.

I wondered about these hundreds of places on the web that promise quick US passports, but avoided them, went to my local clerk of court that is certified by the DHS and applied there. Lots of places on the web today to get ripped off.

I don't know why people would wanna go to these third party handlers and pay an additional fee to get the passport appl submitted. Can they actually get it expedited? I mean, do they have somebody on the inside that can do the work faster for them? I think that if I was in a rush I would had used the states expedite service but it looks like now it is not worth it to pay a premium for this service since it seems like the turnaround is 2 -3 weeks. Maybe it will change when we get closer to the summer and the processing will slow down to the usual 4 - 6 weeks so take advantage now.

also i forgot to mention that... on n-400 form page 5 , Question G, "how many times has your current spouse been married?" ... if my husband has only one marriage (current marriage w/ me), and has never been marrieage before.. so in the box should we type 1 or 0??

It should be 1 since he married you.

Hi everybody. I just wanted to let all of those interested know that applying for a US passport doesn't take that long. I got my certificate of citizenship on May 2. On May 6, I went to the application center to submit my passport application and today I got my new american passport in the mail. I was really surprised to get it this fast since they told me it would take between 4-6 weeks but it only took 2 weeks. My certificate of citizenship was not with the passport but in the brochure that came with it said that it will be mailed separetely. Hopefully I will get my certificate soon.

Also...On the DS-230 they ask for my husband's parents' birthdays. When we sent in that info on the I-130 back in July we had to guess on the year because we couldn't get in touch with his parents to ask (no phones) and we had to turn in the paperwork before the rates for the I-130 went up. Now they are asking for the birthdates again. Should we find out the CORRECT years or just write what we had before so that it is consistant? Does the info. about his parents really matter?

Also, we have a problem with my husband's military service. He has his certificate of duty etc. but it has the wrong birthday on it because when he was 15 he wanted to do his military service so his parents signed that he was 18 and old enough to join the army. Now his military records say he is 3 years older than he really is. Any ideas on what to do about this? Does anyone know what year it stopped being mandatory for Paraguayans to serve in the military? If we say he never went, would they find out that he had? Should we just use his certificate as is and figure out how to explain the birthdate later? It has his picture and thumb print so it will be easy to prove that it was him, just with the wrong birthdate.

Hi, I just found out that by clicking on the country in the profile thing I could see who else was applying for that country and I noticed that your husband is from Paraguay. I am also from Paraguay and has been in the US for almost 9 years now. I was just granted the American Citizenship in May so I am really happy to be done with USCIS.

I can't help you with any of the K1 VISA questions you have but I can give my 2 cents in the above questions.

In my case, I don't think it really matter my parent's birthdates but I am not sure how if they check this in Paraguay or BS AS. My sugestion will be to put the date given in the I-130 because one thing is for sure and that is that they compare all paper work sumitted for consistency.

I am 32 and I know that the military service has always been mandatory unless you had a reason to not serve. I don't think you should lie about him never been registered and just try to explain the situation. In Paraguay is very very easy to have mistakes done by the government offices so I would say that it is easier to try and explain that a mistake was made on their part.

Good luck with everything.

Congratulations! From the interview date to oath ceremony it took about 2 months so your husband may be a citizen by September if they keep the same timeline as mine. The officers at the Cleveland office seem to be nice (At least the one that took care of me was very nice). Good luck with the interview.

When I went for my interview, the officer also mentioned that everything looked OK and that there was one more check to be done before the Oath could be granted. When I asked about it (I thought it was the FBI name check) she said that it was a LOCAL background check they needed to do and that it was going to take 1-2 days to complete. It could be the samething your friend is referring to and it should not add any major delays to the case.

I think that when one becomes a US Citizen, the person is FREE from USCIS and his / her rights are the same as a born US CITIZEN.

Congratulations Tena! 129 People is a lot! We only had 77 in Cleveland and it took approx 2 hours. Now make sure you make several copies of your certificate, update your social security status and anything else (driver's license, etc) and then you can mail your certificate for the passpot application. I applied yesterday and I should have my passport in 4 to 5 weeks. Again, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

OK guys my big day is tomorrow and I am starting to be very anxious about it...wish me luck!

Good luck. You will be fine and everything will be over in no time.

Just make copies of the returns you filed in the last 3 years. This is what I did and it wasn't a problem at all. I took my copies to the interview in case they wanted to see them but that didn't happen. They don't need to be notarized or certified.

My husband is from Argentina. He doesn't consider himself Latino or Hispanic, he is white and that is how he put it on the application. I'm sure he will say in the future that he is Argentine with U.S. Citizenship.

I used to go to Argentine every other summer for a month when I lived in Paraguay. My family would alternate between the Brazilian and Argentine beaches. Sometimes we would go to Punta del Este in Uruguay.

Good luck in your upcoming interview.

I was just referring to the questions asked on the N-400, my wife is from South America of German/Spanish decent, medium brown hair, green eyes, very pale skin color and she does sunburn very easily.

My sister is interested in genealogy and did some tracing, we are Italian, French, Spanish, German, Polish, and Russian and since the Vikings invaded Sicily, some of that too. But my grandfather whose surname I have is from Northern Italy that was all French speaking at the time so our surname is Italian with a French influence. Ha, wonder at times if my mom played around, I am about a foot taller than my male relatives, light brown hair, blue eyes, and I really tan nice, but have to do it carefully, as will also burn. I can really fake a good Italian, southern, and British accent. Military listed me as a Caucasian, but I understand that is no longer in use.

At a dog show, I would be classified as a mutt, had a world class Shepherd male that I would get $3,000.00 for in stud fees, ha, I would be lucky to get a nickel if that much.

Have dated just about every race of woman, or nationality, that was never important to me, you either hit it off or you don't, never believed in soulmates until I met my wife. Ha, thou shalt not covet they neighbors wife, but is it okay that I covet my own?

My point is that this is America and race nor nationality should not be an issue, but it is, just read the N-400 application, so who is making this subject an issue? The political scene in this so called melting pot is sure making an issue out of it and those that are, should be very ashamed of themselves. Just like to see somebody leading this country that isn't a cheat, a liar, and a crook. That should really be the major issue.

I am with you on this one NickD.

Good luck with your Journey.

You could call the Court House to see when they schedule Oaths during the year and in that way you can estimate when you may get your Oath Ceremony.

Ok, this is a silly question and it is not my intent to offend anybody with this question. I know that getting the citizenship is a tough and long journey but when you are asked what nationality you are from.... What will be your answer?

I know I don't look like the typical caucasian american, when somebody looks at me the first thing they probably notice is that I may not be from here as I look more latino than anything else so I will feel weird saying that I am american and it actually just happened last night that we met knew people and they asked my nationality and I said I am "Paraguayan", then my hubby corrected and said no, she is American now...

So how will you answer this? I know that when filling out forms I will choose American, but it doesn't come naturally when I answer that question.

nationality means ur race when people ask u. they dont mean if u have an american passport or not..u look mexcican u should say im mexican. if ur born in the USA u say mexican american. other then that ur not american cuz america is not a RACE its a state with diff races all together.its the land of immigrants no one is american..even if ur white or black i dont care what u say u r not american u cant change ur race to saying ur american just cus u lived here 100 years ur still from somewhere else who came as an immigrant and lived here then forgot ur background..china india africa those r the countries that actually belong to one race..u cant live in china 100 years then say HEY IM CHINESE cuz u cant change ur face to fit in china just cuz u lived there 100 years..i hope u get what im saying cuz alot of people 4get who they r,,yeah america is nice and all u must be proud ur in a super power country but if someone told me im american by race i would think they r cheezy and a wannaBe and have forgotten their background.

Race and Nationality ARE NOT the same thing. One more thing I want to say is that not because people come from SouthAmerica they automatically look Mexican (Mexico is not even in the South American continent). In this case, the nationality of the person will be Mexican / Mexican-American and the race will be Hispanic/Latino. Also, Africa is not a Country but a Continent.

I will answer "I am a dual citizen, originally from Canada".

Cassie and everybody else how has given a similar answer, I think you are right. I just need to get used to it. Thanks for the replies.

Congratulations! It has certainly been a long journey. Now all you have to do is celebrate!!

Ok, this is a silly question and it is not my intent to offend anybody with this question. I know that getting the citizenship is a tough and long journey but when you are asked what nationality you are from.... What will be your answer?

I know I don't look like the typical caucasian american, when somebody looks at me the first thing they probably notice is that I may not be from here as I look more latino than anything else so I will feel weird saying that I am american and it actually just happened last night that we met knew people and they asked my nationality and I said I am "Paraguayan", then my hubby corrected and said no, she is American now...

So how will you answer this? I know that when filling out forms I will choose American, but it doesn't come naturally when I answer that question.