Gulskjegg

Thanks for the clarification, James. If we are lucky we will have our N-400 interview within 4 months of filing. Things are pretty quiet here in Montana...I hope.

I thought that once you filed for N-400, your I-751 file was moved to your local office? Can anyone verify that?

Consider yourselves lucky. In 12+ months we have gotten zip nadda nothing on our I-751 in Nebraska. It seems it will take at least another 6 months to complete.

We will be filing the N-400 in May, thus putting that 6 months to good use and stripping Nebraska of the ability to ruin our lives and further.

I'm totally in agreement. I told my wife the other day that we would probably be millionaires were it not for us standing around twiddling our thumbs, waiting for USCIS to give us final and permanent freedom. In this case, an American passport for my wife. It is, as you say, a "guilty till proven innocent" scenario and most likely in violation of the 1st Amendment of the Constitution guaranteeing freedom to associate, and the 5th Amendment right to travel freely.

Lets face it, we live in a dictatorship.

Thanks for the replies, guys! From the timeline in the first response, we should expect some sort of letter within 2-3 months? Thats moving at lightspeed for USCIS.

As far as the green card issue, we have already come to an agreement with the local office to have her passport stamped. I will bring the memo so that we get a full year, not 3 or 6 months.

Thanks again guys.

After filing the I-751 mt wife was issued a letter extending her "green card" another year. Does USCIS send any kind of letter to the applicant stating naturalization is in process? Since her current letter of extension expires in May of 2008, and we have no gotten her 10-year green card, we have not proof she is "legal". I do hope USCIS sends something, anything, that will cover the gap.

Thanks in advance!

The N-400 section seems pretty quiet, actually. Mostly administrative questions. The form itself seems pretty straightforward as well. The main hurdle is the $700 filing. But if paying that money helps me rid my life of Nebraska, I'm all for it.

Not to bust any stones, but has anyone been over to the N-400 forum? I have, and I don't see any of the hand wringing, screaming, and people running around with their hair on fire like I do here in this forum. Myself included, of course.

Perhaps thats the attitude USCIS wants to foster? Marginalize I-751s to force everyone into N-400? They get two piles of cash from us, plus more potential cannon fodder. For the USCIS its a win/win scenario. The only losers are us!

Anyhow, we can apply for N-400 in a few weeks, and we will do so. If for no other reason then Nebraska loses our file to the local office. I have found the locals to be semi-kinda-sorta reasonable and almost competent so far. Nebraska on the other hand, they should all be fired and trained monkey shipped in to replace them. The monkeys could not possibly do any worse then the current crop of "pay-us-to-ruin-your-life" clowns.

I will answer from my own personal perspective. First, having a green card limits travel to a large degree. And for my wife and I, its all about freedom to travel. As I said before, my wife would like to attend a college right across the border in Alberta, Canada. She has access to military spouse educational benefits, but Canada will not give her a study permit without the legal right to stay or return to America during and after her schooling. That aside, we would like to take 6 months off in Ukraine, or check out the job market in Japan or even Germany. I am a disabled veteran, we have no children yet, and 14 years in the military gave me a nomadic urge. My wife, having spent her whole life in one town, is likewise inclined to see the world.

That being said, we have to take into account the actions and behavior of the USCIS. The USCIS could, and would, gleefully strip my wife of her green card and deport her over the slightest of mistakes. This in light of the USCIS being utterly unable to keep to even the simplest of timelines, answer queries honestly, demonstrate consistency, or treat citizens with anything remotely resembling respect or compassion.

Thus, the USCIS has defined itself as a tyrant of the worst sort. I am used to this, as I spent years wrestling the Department of Veterans Affairs over my pension. If having my wife apply for naturalization gives her a passport and the ability to travel abroad, once and for all, then were going for it. I have reviewed the N-400 form, and it looks pretty simple. Chances are, our I-751 will take 18 months to process. Why not put the extra 6 months to good use?

Given the choice between the two, and the timeframe being virtually identical, we choose the passport over the green card. Sure, the cost is an extra $700, but if after paying you never have to deal with USCIS again, its a bargain.

Oh well. I guess we are at the point where it cant hurt to file the N-400. Processing times for Nebraska I-751 are reported to be as long as 18 months, maybe even more. Since we are already at 12 month, and we could possibly be made to wait a further 6 months, we might as well put that time to good use. I do look forward to the day my wife gets her passport...this way we can go anywhere we want, for as long as we want.

Thanks for all the input, folks.

By district office you mean local state office of the USCIS? For us this would be Helena, Montana? As opposed to Nebraska Service Center? I guess this would make sense. I can only hope the local folks would be more responsive, maybe.

Kathryn, thanks so much for the reply. It does sounds pretty logical. I was just worried that, in typical USCIS fashion, they would get my N-400 and promptly heave my I-751 into the trash bin. I wish there was some sort of way to actually verify that putting the N-400 in does actually boost your I-751 processing. Be it in a USCIS memo or on a USCIS webpage somewhere.

Great point about stacking up the voters for the 2008 elections, I had not even considered that but its totally in line with what we have come to expect. Thanks again for the input!

First off, I did Recruiting and Retention Command support for a few years. You would be bonkers to trust a recruiter, let alone trust one with your kids life. Also, I was one of those "weekend warriors" for 14 years and served in Iraq. I held my own and them some while assigned to the 1st Infantry Division. My battle wounds are no less then yours...if you have them.

The day you sign on the dotted line, you have effectively written a blank check to the U.S. Gov't that has a price up to and including your life. The kid that had his foot crushed in basic training is every bit the honored veteran as the grizzled 20-year-letter guy with multiple combat tours.

Anyhow, if "all Nebraska I-751's were shipped to California" what was the effective date? My wife and I have passed our 12 month mark already (March 3rd, 2007), so does that mean OUR file is now in California? And how the hell can we tell? My wifes letter of extension expires this coming May, and if we don't have a 10-year green card by then, I will appeal to my senator.

My heart goes out to you on the passport issue. Thats an angle I had never considered. Both my wife and I updated our passports soon after arriving in America, so we are set for the moment. I cant imagine what it would be like having a dependent (victim?) to have to take into account.

Finally, lets all give the 35 odd million illegal Mexicans a hearty THANKS for jumping the fence, clogging the USCIS in their bit for "amnesty", and shoving aside us law abiding citizens/taxpayers. Don't ever change, guys!

We are very close to my wife being able to file for naturalization. If we do so, will they throw her 10 year green card out the window? Anyone know if there is any adverse effect otherwise? Maybe a confirmation letter extending her out another year? If anyone know, please post. If not, Ill take a shot at the naturalization forum.

My filing date was 6 months before his, I guess I should panic.

Dont feel bad, my wife and I just passed our 12 month wait date. We are going to wait for the next USCIS online update, and hope our date is covered. If not, I plan to stop by to see my senator. We have heard rumor that N-400 processing takes about 6 months, so after waiting a year whats another 6 months? So many of our plans have been parked or abandoned altogether due to the spectacular incompetence of the USCIS.

Carolyn basically nailed it. When we got her biometrics appointment letter, we were required to show up 48 hours later in Helena. Only problem is, we had packed up the car and were leaving for Canada for a few months vacation the day we got the letter. Granted, the two points to consider were it took the letter 3 odd weeks to get from Nebraska to Montana, and the lady at the USCIS said that we could have called and rescheduled the appointment if it was that much of a problem.

We want this whole thing to be over with, as was also stated. Our filing date was just about to come up on the webpage, but instead of seeing our date, NSC fell back to 2006. I have been planning on taking a program at a college in Canada for about a year now. Its 1/3 the price of the local American college and the curriculum is much better. But, we cant go anywhere for any length of time. We have called the USCIS people and begged them to phone us should any appointments come up. That way I could at least check the answering machine each day, but I would be insane to put my faith and trust these people. They would ruin our entire lives and still sleep well at night.

My wife has not seen her family in almost 3 years, and that isn't healthy. Being military myself, I am used to traveling when where and as long as I feel. For us, this is a prison without a fence. In perfect Orwellian fashion. I just hope we get her 10 year GC before years end. I think since we are more then 12 months, we can put in a service request, as well as stopping by to see our senator.

Well, we have spoken with the USCIC people here in Montana. They said we can simply mail in her passport, they put a stamp extending another year, then mail it back. As far as naturalization, we have grown very weary of the fear and restrictions regarding "green card" holders. We have been virtual prisoners here in America, terrified to go anywhere for fear of missing a letter demanding we show up 300 miles away within 24 hours, or face deportation. 35 million illegal Mexicans running around America murdering raping and pillaging, but they make me the disabled veteran jump through 500 flaming hoops? God forbid the USCIS keep you informed via email, so that you could plan accordingly. We would love to take off for Ukraine for the summer or head north to Canada for spring. But for those without an American passport, thats impossible. Once she gets her naturalization and passport, we can go anywhere we want for as long as we want. We would also like to have someone monitoring our case, thus allowing us to travel overseas with confidence.

If anyone knows a decent lawyer, let me know.

We are officially outside the 12 month "normal processing" window for I-751, Nebraska of course. We are giving consideration to filing for naturalization as well, as she will be eligible in about 2 months.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

From an article regarding service members and USCIS processing dated 10/1/2005.

(17) U.S. DEP'T OF ARMY, REG. 27-3, THE ARMY LEGAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM para. 3-5(0 (21 Feb.1996) [hereinafter AR 27-3]. All service member applications are processed through the USCIS Nebraska field office, where a staff of thirteen processes the entire caseload.

Could be the 13 member team is set aside for military only, but considering we have hundreds of thousands deployed, its still critical understaffing. Then you stop and wonder, maybe the entire Nebraska service center is a mere 13 people. Would certainly explain the delays.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-140709848.html

Hi all.

Please add us to the list. Our dates are as follows.

March 6th, 2007 USCIS Nebraska receives our I-751 request. Notice of Action (1 year extension letter dated the same)

April 5th, 2007 Biometrics (Helena, MT local office) and FBI background check (we were told FBI cleared within 10 minutes).

Havn't heard anything since biometrics. We monitor the USCIS updates closely. When we saw Nebraska actually move back into 2006, we began scanning the internet for more info. That led us here.

Some food for thought, if I may. For those that ponder a trip to your local congressman or senator let me quote from the Duseldorf, Germany "COMMUNIST RULES FOR REVOLUTION", circa 1919.

Rule #5) Destroy the people's faith in their natural leaders by holding the latter up to contempt, ridicule and disgrace.

I found out after serving 14 years in the U.S. Army that when it comes to politicians, it all boils down to one thing. Silence equals consent. My own gov't fought me harder then the Iraqi army did when I filed for a veterans pension due to "work related injuries" sustained during Operation Desert Storm. The actions (or lack thereof) of our "leaders" can only be described as contemptible, ridiculous, and disgraceful when we see how our wounded troops are treated when they return home.

And as far as the performance of the Nebraska service center, or more specifically the performance of its staff, let me make pull another rule from the same.

Rule #7) By encouraging government extravagance, destroy it's credit, produce years of inflation with rising prices and general discontent.

So we have extravagantly paid (in comparison to actual work accomplished) gov't workers creating little more then, from what I can see on this forum, discontent. We not only have to pay taxes, but also fees for all this misery.

Final note. For those that wonder why on earth the FBI takes so long to process background checks, read this article.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...27/MN181034.DTL

Hint: FBI adding thousands of anti-war protestors to its bloated "terror database". Seems the FBI is too busy playing step-and-fetch to politicians to actually, you know, do their job?