people who are waiting for oath ------- fairfax virginia

[Arlington 5]

I did try to schedule an infopass appointment but cancelled it a day before because my husband emailed the senator's office & got a response. Jut today I got the notice for my oath taking ceremony. Looks like the senator's office called USCIS on the same day because my notice was dated the day after. Thanks everyone for the insights, to those that are still waiting for oath - the email/call to the senator's office seem to help a lot.

Congratulations! When is it?

[kenk3z 0]

I thought I would update all of you on my wife's N-400 application status, since her successful interview on May 24th 2012.

This has turned into a much longer wait for an oath ceremony than we expected. It has my wife upset because she thinks something is wrong. Most of her friends (from her home country) have gone through the N-400 citizenship process much quicker than her.

The first thing that happened was a request by E-Mail to complete a "name change" form. This form has USCIS Form N-XXX on it. No official form number, and you can't find it anywhere to download. The request came from the person I believe was my wife's case officer at the interview. She stated that when a USCIS supervisor conducted a review of the overall N-400 package, the supervisor required this "name change" form. The E-Mail provided the form, explained how to complete it, and suggested scanning it and returning by E-Mail or Fax. We ultimately were able to get a fax confirmed as received by this officer.

I don't know why a name change form is required anyway. But here is the situation. Let's say my wife's maiden (unmarried) name is "Alpha Bravo" with no middle name. I am "Charlie Delta". In my area of the country, it is relatively common for the wife to use her maiden name as her new middle name upon marriage. So all her documentation since marriage, including all USCIS applications, has used the name "Alpha Bravo Delta". Her Green Card was issued with "Alpha Bravo Delta" shown. This seemed perfectly normal to me and we did this all along so that my wife would have the traditional three names most people have in the USA. According to this USCIS supervisor, the USA will only recognize my wife as "Alpha Delta" with no legal middle name. We want the middle name so the "name change" form was completed and sent back.

About a month later, my wife received a Request For Evidence (RFE) with these same forms. It seemed pretty obvious that somewhere along the way a determination was made that a fax was not suitable. This was sent back well ahead of the early August RFE deadline. In fact I sent this RFE information back three different ways and from three different post offices. I was motivated to do this because when you send a USPS Certified Letter to the USCIS Fairfax Virginia address, the post office delivers the letter to a Department of Homeland Security location apparently inside Washington DC (a different zip code). So I thought the letter had been mis-routed and sent it again. Same result.

Well, here it is nearly October and nothing - no change in status to be scheduled for an Oath Ceremony.

I told my wife that I think her application is still in process due to the name change form. We all can read opinions here that a name change prompts another FBI name check, and that the name change form has to be processed through a federal court. I also told my wife that if the RFE information had not been received, we would have received a notification of application termination from USCIS.

What I hope to pass along to others reading here is to be aware of the "name change" issue going on at USCIS, particularly at Fairfax. The Case Officers are working to different rules or requirements than the Supervisors reviewing the N-400s. If you have anything resembling the "name change" that I describe above in your N-400 application, discuss it (firmly) with your Case Officer at the interview and get the "name change" form completed while you are there at USCIS.

Unfortunately this form is not available (as far as I can tell) for download so it cannot be sent in with the N-400. Even within USCIS it is called Form N-XXX. But handling this at the interview will save the time that it would otherwise take to process it as an RFE.

[Arlington 5]

So all her documentation since marriage, including all USCIS applications, has used the name "Alpha Bravo Delta". Her Green Card was issued with "Alpha Bravo Delta" shown. This seemed perfectly normal to me and we did this all along so that my wife would have the traditional three names most people have in the USA. According to this USCIS supervisor, the USA will only recognize my wife as "Alpha Delta" with no legal middle name.

I find this rather bizarre! First, I'm not sure how your wife got her green card in her married name. My understanding was that all the applications and the green card would be under the same name that is on her foreign passport. Did she change her name on the foreign passport? (As I've discussed before in other postings, such a name change is extraordinarily hard to do in my wife's home country--one is always named the same as on one's birth certificate.) At U.S. border inspection stations, I have observed that they check both the foreign passport and the green card and I was under the impression that the names should match. Second, the supervisor made what I hope is an incorrect statement. We also asked for "Alpha Bravo Delta" with "Bravo" (her current last name) as middle name. No questions at all were raised. We will see on Thursday whether and how our request was fulfilled, but I fully anticipate that it will. If the Secretary of State can have it that way, why can't my wife?

[Arlington 5]

By the way, my wife got her new name as requested. "Alpha Bravo Delta" as kenk3z put it. Or as in "Hillary Rodham Clinton."

[kenk3z 0]

Hello Arlington,

My wife came to the USA on a fiance visa that was (of course) applied for and granted in her maiden name. When you come into the country on a fiance visa, the rule is that you must either get married or leave within 90 days. We married within that 90 days and the local county marriage certificate shows the maiden name and new married name. The name in her home country passport has never been changed from her maiden name.

From the time of marriage on, every application we have made to USCIS uses her full married name. Her adopted married name of "Alpha Bravo Delta" is on her current 10-year green card. All her other documents like Social Security card and state driver's license show her full married name. Doing things this way is discussed in the other forums here as the easiest way to establish a female immigrant's new identity in the USA in the situation where they marry shortly upon entering the country. The married name is legal, and establishing all the ID documents in this name eliminates the need to change anything later.

So even though USCIS clearly knows my wife's full name and has used it on their own identification documents - for the purpose of the naturalization document she needs a name change form to use the full "Alpha Bravo Delta". I certainly don't mind the extra piece of paper, it's the excessive time delay to the naturalization process that I think is unnecessary. If the USCIS case officers were trained properly, they would catch this in the interview process, or even earlier when the N-400 is first received. This really should be taken care of as a document to attach to the N-400, or at the latest as a document to fill out during the interview. But USCIS does not make Form N-XXX available to the public. It's like a "secret" USCIS form that hits you by surprise.

Another way to avoid the name change issue at naturalization is for the immigrant to continue to use their "old" middle name if they have one. In some situations I can see where this might be the most desireable choice anyway. In my wife's case where she had no middle name from her home country, the name change process is worth it to us.

Because my wife has her home country passport in her maiden name and her green card in her married name, when we travel overseas she also carries her marriage license to tie the two documents together. At the time of her last trip, she also had a stamp in her passport from her embassy (in the USA) that explained that she is married and has the married name of "Alpha Bravo Delta". This was included when she applied for a new passport, but all they did was stamp in an extension to her old passport at the embassy. She has since renewed her passport again and received a new passport in her maiden name with no such stamp. During our travel we had no problems with this chain of documentation - home country passport, USA green card, and marriage license. The only catch is that the plane tickets MUST match the passport.

kenk3z

[greencardorbust 0]

Hi all,

Has anyone got an update on if Fairfax offers same-day oaths? We're Virginia residents and she has her interview Nov 2 (Friday morning) at 8:30 AM. It's really important to us that she gets same-day if at all possible (she's going to try to modify her application tomorrow so that she no longer requests a name change, just to streamline things) - she hasn't seen her parents in 3 years because it was difficult to travel to her home country as an LPR rather than simply a US citizen, and we've got a free frequent flyer ticket if she can get citizenship within a few days of her interview....

Anyway, an update on their policy would be lovely! Thanks in advance for any help from someone "in the know."

Michael

[DCINDC 0]

Hi all,

Has anyone got an update on if Fairfax offers same-day oaths? We're Virginia residents and she has her interview Nov 2 (Friday morning) at 8:30 AM. It's really important to us that she gets same-day if at all possible

Anyway, an update on their policy would be lovely! Thanks in advance for any help from someone "in the know."

Michael

Hi Michael,

FWIW, I did and passed my USC interview @ Fairfax office last Thursday (09/27) at 0900 and they neither offered me same-day oath nor gave me an oath ceremony date on the spot. All the IO said was to expect something in the mail - no estimated time given. I had read on some threads that some folks were offered same-day oaths. Additionally, I had a friend go in for her interview about a month before and she was given the oath ceremony appointment date/time/place on the spot, so I'm not sure what's up. I just hope I get something in the mail soon enough for me to register to vote.

[greencardorbust 0]

Hi Michael,

FWIW, I did and passed my USC interview @ Fairfax office last Thursday (09/27) at 0900 and they neither offered me same-day oath nor gave me an oath ceremony date on the spot. All the IO said was to expect something in the mail - no estimated time given. I had read on some threads that some folks were offered same-day oaths. Additionally, I had a friend go in for her interview about a month before and she was given the oath ceremony appointment date/time/place on the spot, so I'm not sure what's up. I just hope I get something in the mail soon enough for me to register to vote.

Hi DCINDC,

Thanks so much for the info! This is good (but sad) to know. Can you give me a few extra details?

1) Was your friend also at the Fairfax office (I assume she was, just making sure)?

2) Can you tell me what time of day her interview was?

3) We think my wife is a near-perfect candidate - was here for high school and college, our fiance visa went 100% smoothly, she speaks perfect english, never in trouble with the law, etc. So my question–if you don't mind my asking–is whether you'd consider yourself the same kind of candidate (no red flags in your immigration history, everything went well in the interview, etc. etc.) or is your record more "spotty"? Same question re: your friend. I'm asking so that I can better guess how likely she is to not get a same-day oath. In other words, if you tell me you're a "perfect candidate" too, then that makes me think it's pretty likely she won't get a same-day oath.

Sorry to ask such personal questions! It's just that we want to see her parents for Christmas and were REALLY hoping to book travel with her new documents, not her old, but flights are going up in price and getter scarcer. So we only want to wait to book the ticket if we think she has a decent chance (say, 50% or more) of getting a same-day.

Thanks so much! And I still would really like to hear from anyone else with a recent interview/oath story from the Fairfax office.

[DCINDC 0]

Hi Michael

1) Yep, same office

2) Her interview was at 1pm

3) Absolutely no red flags. I've been a GC holder for 9 years. No divorces. English is my primary language (since birth). I went to college here. Clean records and full tax history. As mentioned in another thread, my interview did not take more than 10 minutes (I believe it was closer to 5 minutes actually).

It may actually be down to a luck of the draw. I believe my io may not be as senior in rank as my friend's io. He appeared rather young to a point I felt a little awkward adressing him as 'sir'. I'm not sure if this holds true, just a casual assumption.

In any event, I received a text message saying I've been put in line for ceremony scheduling on 10/05 but I have not received the actual letter in the mail. The last text I received (for interview scheduling) came 1 day after I received my interview letter.

GL with your wife's interview.

[DCINDC 0]

Just to update the thread...

I got my N-445 Notice of Naturalization Oath Ceremony in the mail today (10/23/12).

Just to recap, I had my USC interview at Fairfax on 09/27/12.

My Oath ceremony is to be on 11/14/12 at Arlington National Cemetery.

Bummed I didn't get a same day ceremony but I'm excited to have my ceremony done at Arlington Cemetery.

[Arlington 5]

Just to update the thread...

I got my N-445 Notice of Naturalization Oath Ceremony in the mail today (10/23/12).

Just to recap, I had my USC interview at Fairfax on 09/27/12.

My Oath ceremony is to be on 11/14/12 at Arlington National Cemetery.

Bummed I didn't get a same day ceremony but I'm excited to have my ceremony done at Arlington Cemetery.

Congratulations! Sounds like a Veteran's Day tie-in. Probably will be at Memorial Amphitheater. What a treat!

[DCINDC 0]

Congratulations! Sounds like a Veteran's Day tie-in. Probably will be at Memorial Amphitheater. What a treat!

Thanks Arlington...actually and specifically, it'll be at the Women in Military Service in America Memorial at the Arlington Cemetery. I'm excited and I don't know what to expect. I tried looking up past ceremonies at the Arlington Cemetery and I couldn't find any info on this venue other than they held the first 1 here (Arlington Cemetery) in 2008 and it was described as "historic".

I also was thinking it'll be a tie in with Veteran's Day.

[Arlington 5]

Thanks Arlington...actually and specifically, it'll be at the Women in Military Service in America Memorial at the Arlington Cemetery. I'm excited and I don't know what to expect. I tried looking up past ceremonies at the Arlington Cemetery and I couldn't find any info on this venue other than they held the first 1 here (Arlington Cemetery) in 2008 and it was described as "historic".

I also was thinking it'll be a tie in with Veteran's Day.

Interesting . . . I didn't think there was much room inside that part (as I recall, it is just a long hallway). Maybe it is going to be outside?