Thanks and Here's My Story

[It's me 1]

Dear VJers,

A note to thank you for all the support, help and encouragement I have received on here. It helped so much to come and vent my frustrations and also try and help people out. Good luck to everybody on their journey to become a US citizen. It's an awesome feeling standing there and taking that oath. Here is my story if you care to read it.....

My journey started on July 31st 2008 and ended 9 months later on April 30th 2009. It was journey of much frustration and waiting. The first part of the journey started great, got letter in the mail, then received the bio letter....I had a little calendar that I plotted out when things should be received. HA! serves me right trying to predict how the USCIS works. I thought I had them down to a science... Boy was I wrong. The other July peeps were getting their interview letters and I was still waiting, alas came a letter in the mail 2 months later, woah...It was YELLOW. I looked at it and said uh huh something must be wrong. Opened it up to find that they wanted a whole bunch of documents...that's it no interview letter...I shook the envelope a couple of times, may be it was stuck in there.. Nope nothing fell out. So I said maybe I should ready the letter again, I must have missed the part of when my interview date was....sigh...there was no date. So I called them up explained to them that I had received this letter, and no interview letter yet..what's going on? Don't worry they said, you'll get it in the mail soon, just make sure you get your documents soon.

Well one of my Docs required was a letter from the SSS. Ouch....did not know about them until I applied for financial aid for school. So figured I'd call them, they stated to write a nice long letter explaining why I did not register with them and send in SUPPORT DOCUMENTATION...shiiii... Ok so I sent them this nice long letter, and all documents. Cool another thing to wait for.... It's Late October now...no letter...no interview letter, the last thing I did with the USCIS was August 28th. Called the SSS up asked them...PLEASE GIVE ME A STATUS...give me something....anything....so she checked and checked and checked....woohoo...SSS accepted my letter, let me know it was not my fault and that I got a number. SWEET!!! She gave me my number over the phone and I was thrilled. Oh...in the mean time I contacted my Senators office....just to see if they could do anything.......They sucked....heck the guy who was in charge of my file never really contacted me. I emailed him 5 times NOTHING!!! Annoying....Oh and I called the USCIS every other week. I was extremely bored between classes and they told me to call them if I had any questions...figured I'd make good use of my tax dollars .

Ahhh November comes along...woohoo... Interview letter......XCITED!!!! December 8th interview date....AWESOME!. Did my interview and passed, I/O stated err 2 weeks to a month before you get your oath letter. REALLY!! That soon. AWESOME!! I skipped out of the office. December flew by...and so did Jan and Feb and March...called the USCIS a bunch of times, went to the office too. It's 25 mins away. heard a whole bunch of stories, your file is approved to, your file has gone into re verification, to your file is siting on the supervisors desk to get signed off on, to we cannot put an inquire into it, because it under normal time frame. WHATS normal to the USCIS I wondered. LOL. I laugh now....I was super PO'd back then. So I had my wife bug the other Senators office, no help there either. They stated June or July I would get my oath..JUNE OR JULY!!! Are they nuts....I have things to do. So I made my wife push the Senators office harder...she stated she would try and see if they can rush it. LOL....TRY..TRY? REALLY...

So I called the USCIS up, DEMANDED to speak with somebody who knew what the heck was going. Sorry sir they stated , we can file a request to find out why St Paul is so slow. Go ahead I said....1 week later an email comes back, states you have been approved and should be getting your oath letter soon...WOOHOO... Letter came a few days later, and I was sworn in on April 30th. I AM NOW AN AMERICAN CITIZEN :dance:

Moral of my story: Don't give up, push as hard as you can, it might upset some people, but push harder.

Praise God! Congratulations!

[KyngSilva 0]

Thanks everybody. I have not done my passport yet, as somebody asked. I had to send my certificate in for a job I am applying for so, as soon as that is done, I'm on my way =)

[sakura888 0]

I'm glad you're done with this whole thing my friend. Here I am, still waiting for my oath letter after a month and a half. We both filed in July 2008 and it seems like I'm the only one left from the batch without citizenship yet. Oh well, time to practice more patience...

Congratulations to you my friend! And I wish you goodluck on your upcoming career as a govt employee! Wooohooo!

[KyngSilva 0]

Thanks Sak.....I test with them on June 6th....Another loooooooooong process

[Ilona 0]

Hey, King Sylva!

Congratulations!))) I am sooo happy for you! Just reading your letter made me frustrated and brought back bad memories of the time I felt helpless too! But all is well when it ends well! So,enjoy your freedom and independence!