sachinky

If you are already in the US, I be happy to give you my phone number and we can be friends.

If you are still in Germany, I'd be willing to give you my Skype address and we can still be friends.

Hope this doesn't sound too creepy - you do seem like you're in a terrible situation and just need to talk.

Honestly, it depends on which part of India you're visiting. The bigger, more cosmopolitan cities - you should be okay. There will be staring. You have to get used to it. It drove my husband batty. I reasoned with him that it's not every day they see a "ginger giant." He towers well over 6 feet, so he did stick out like a sore thumb while we were there. He was there for about 2 weeks and we didn't have any adverse reactions. But we mostly stuck to posh restaurants, movie theaters, malls etc. I generally advise white women not to travel alone - it simply isn't worth the risk. Dress modestly and attract as little attention as possible - which can be hard sometime. Maybe other AA women who've traveled to India can chime in? You might hear some racist remarks but honestly, it's hard for me to tell. I also do apologize on behalf of my former fellow country men. It is rather embarrassing.

With a denied K1, this is going to be an uphill battle for you, to put it quite bluntly. It seems that there's an age gap - how significant is it? How'd you two meet? What consulate are you going through? The Dilli Embassy is quite tough.

My husband and I spoke to a lawyer before getting married and he suggested that since U.S. immigration would be involved at some point, it would be best to do things as properly as possible and to avoid any hiccups, we registered via the Special Marriage Act. No issues whatsoever.

I do agree with the comments stated above - I know they allow "conversion to Hinduism" under the Hindu Marriage Act but really, religiously speaking, there is no converting to Hinduism. You are either born a Hindu or you're not. You cannot become one. Hinduism, unlike other major world religions, does not believe in proselytizing.

Any updates from the newer filers?

And I am officially a U.S. citizen! Ceremony was quite lovely. 164 oath-takers from 44 countries. Took around 2 hours. I was asked to report at 8:30 am and it started promptly at 10:00 am. I was far more emotional than I thought I would be and got quite weepy at several points. Good luck to everybody - may your journey come to an end soon.

My oath is tomorrow. Can I bring a couple of friends along? My husband will be going as well.

Congrats to the newly minted US citizens - how long did your oath take (from check in to completion of the ceremony)? Thanks.

A September filer just popping in to ask just how long the oath ceremony takes? My letter says to report at 8:30 am - just wondering how long to take off work that day.

Thanks.

Does anyone know how long the oath ceremony takes? Mine says to report at 8:30. Just wondering how long I should take off work?

Oath ceremony scheduled for 12/20/13 - totally wasn't expecting one till next month. Lucky because I am scheduled to fly out on the 21st to visit my in-laws for Christmas!

Damn, that was quick!

Hahaa, I offered to show her extra bank statements and tax returns but she said no. The only thing she asked me was for my driver's license and as it happened, I had left that in my purse with Mr. Sachinky in the lobby. :|

Just checked my status online, it's been updated to reflect that my oath ceremony notification has been mailed out!

Thanks you guys!!

My naturalization interview lasted about twenty-five minutes, it was a little bit over an hour wait time included. We got there a little before eight and I was back at work by nine-fifteen. After a cursory fingerprinting and check in, we had to wait a bit till my name was called.

The interview went well, the female blonde officer was incredibly nice and put me at ease right from the beginning. She was pleasant and courteous and joked a lot. She asked me the regular "are you a Communist?" "Are you a terrorist?" "Are you a polygamist?" type questions, followed by the civics questions - I got the first six right and so she put an end to it.

Questions asked were:

What does the Cabinet do?

What did the Declaration of Independence do?

How many Supreme Court justices are there?

How many years is a US Senator elected for?

Who takes over in case the President and the Vice President are unable to fulfill their obligations?

Name one branch of the government.

She also threw in "what is Einstein's famous theory?" in the middle of that and I answered before I realized she just kidding. She took out my approval notice and said she was so confident that I'd ace it that she'd already signed it and kept it ready. And I was proud just like any good History geek would be.

Then I had to read and write a sentence to demonstrate English proficiency. And that was it!

I was amazed to see my file on her desk - enormous - and actually asked her, "is that all mine?" and she laughed and said it was because I immigrated through marriage. Thinking back to those awful CR-1 visa waiting days, it is definitely heartening to know that it hadn't just disappeared into a huge black hole and that someone ( in fact several people) had gone over it quite carefully. The case of the missing wedding DVD was also uncovered as it turned out Mr. Sachinky had submitted that with my original petition.

She returned all my pictures and said she recognized "the ginger from the pictures in the waiting room." She asked me how my marriage was doing and if we planned on having any children.

I will say that my impression of USCIS has gone up several notches based on (what is hopefully) my last interaction with them. The lady told me a bit about herself, she used to work in the immigrant visa section in the middle East and she said it was awful. She said how being lied to her face day after day was numbing and how she'd cry in the bathroom for hours at the state of humanity.

She gave me her personal number and told me to call her so that we could schedule a field trip for the school kids (I teach kindergarten at a private academy). She said that she wanted them to see a positive aspect of immigration - how often they are portrayed poorly in the media for one screw up despite getting a hundred things right. I said most people recognize that they have a hard job and given the number of people who are trying to abuse the system, the scrutiny is understandable.

She commended me for being thorough and prepared and truth be told, navigating the US immigration system (mostly on my own) is something I am quite proud of. Special mention must be made of visajourney.com without which I wouldn't have been nearly as successful.

Had my interview this morning. I was approved. The whole thing was very smooth and the IO was incredibly nice. Took a total of 25 minutes. Wait time was about an hour.

Will post a more detailed review once I get out of work.

Did you also receive a text message/email?

No, but I didn't sign up for that.

https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/Dashboard/CaseStatus/BucketDescriptions.do#5

Just saw this on USCIS: Many offices schedule approved applicants for the oath ceremony on the same day as the day of the interview. Please check the local office profile page on our website to determine if the office where you will be interviewed schedules same day oath ceremonies.

http://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-uscis-office/field-offices/california-santa-ana-field-office

My local office is Santa Ana. It's page states: The Santa Ana Field Office conducts Judicial Ceremonies once per month. This office does not conduct same-day naturalization ceremonies.

Thanks - looks like ABQ doesn't either.

Is there a way to find out if my field office gives the oath on the same day?

Just received my interview letter. It's scheduled for December 3, 2013.

Could someone please update my dates? I don't want to mess it up.

In-line: October 18

Interview letter: October 24 (update on USCIS website)

Interview Date: Still waiting for the physical letter in the mail.

Just checked the USCIS website:

On October 18, 2013, your N400, APPLICATION FOR NATURALIZATION was placed in line for interview scheduling.

Yay! I am so excited.

My biometrics has been scheduled for Wednesday 10-16-2013 at 10AM.

Could somebody input my information please? I was eligible on 2/20/13 - they received my packet on 9/23, my check was cashed 9/26 and my NOA date is 9/25/13.

Oh, mine was sent to Texas lockbox.

My field office is Albuquerque, NM.

My packet will be going out tomorrow morning. Have been procrastinating on this for a while so it feels good to have sorted it all out. Hope this last stage is smooth and worry-free. Good luck to all. Will post once check is deposited.

I'm sorry but ####### is "East India?" If you mean just India (the giant land mass in South Asia), then say so!

I think they should get rid of it, but then the problem becomes if your name isn't white sounding, you won't get hired. If you think about it, we didn't ask for it.

But funnily enough Indians seem to have no problem getting hired with their long-###, weird sounding Indian names. (Yes, I am one).

Paranormal Activity 4.

5/10

Pretty meh, I had no idea what was going on anyway.

Star Trek: Into The Darkness

8/10

I actually enjoyed this waaay more than I thought I would. Mr. Sachinky LOVED it.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel




Superb.

I read the novel and need to still finish the film. Even though I keep hearing that the film is ten fold better.