I-751 August 2016 Filers

[Zombie69 363]

21 minutes ago, Name O Boy said:

There is one applicant in May-2016 thread and her I-751 is pending until now and she got her Naturalization Oath ceremony letter a week or 2 weeks ago. This a perfect example to get some idea and as far as I remember she is a CSC(I-751) filer.  

I assume she filed 400 while 751 was pending? A friend of mine who is a VSC filer who just got his 751 approval just last month with a pending 400, but he got lucky at his field office, he got an instant interview the next day, and their 751 was approved right on the spot after the interview, probably an exception. This CSC May filer obviously didn't wait that long for the 400 interview, that is good news for people in my situation, she could be an anomaly too. It took her 1 year and 5 months to get both 751 and 400 approved. For a combined case, that is pretty damn fast.

Edited October 6, 2017 by Zombie69

[guvnor 1]

just came from getting 1 year extension stamped. Situation is very dire for Aug filers. He said another 6 months is very likely to adjudicate on Aug filers which means apx 20 months for 751 which is absurd, and sheer abuse of power. He also suggested not to apply for N400 while 751 is pending. Over all the wait is not even close to be over folks. Sorry. 

[dnp2014 44]

17 minutes ago, guvnor said:

just came from getting 1 year extension stamped. Situation is very dire for Aug filers. He said another 6 months is very likely to adjudicate on Aug filers which means apx 20 months for 751 which is absurd, and sheer abuse of power. He also suggested not to apply for N400 while 751 is pending. Over all the wait is not even close to be over folks. Sorry. 

Did they take your expired GC & Letter ? 

[nightingalejules 678]

1 hour ago, guvnor said:

just came from getting 1 year extension stamped. Situation is very dire for Aug filers. He said another 6 months is very likely to adjudicate on Aug filers which means apx 20 months for 751 which is absurd, and sheer abuse of power. He also suggested not to apply for N400 while 751 is pending. Over all the wait is not even close to be over folks. Sorry. 

I know we're not supposed to talk about N-400 on this thread... but I just have to mention that one of the most annoying parts of this process taking so long is that we should have been in a position to have citizenship in time to vote in the mid-term elections (and maybe elect some people who would actually allocate more funding to allow a sufficiency of officers to start to wade through this backlog). Now we (most likely) won't - especially if we're being told not to apply for citizenship while I-751 is pending. SOOOOOOOOOO tired of being stuck in limbo.

Incidentally, though, when I got my I-551 stamp, the officer told me to go ahead and send in N400 whenever I qualified to do so. So, again, contradictory advice, even from actual USCIS officers (and I never trust anything that comes from the call center).

[Zombie69 363]

4 hours ago, nightingalejules said:

I know we're not supposed to talk about N-400 on this thread... but I just have to mention that one of the most annoying parts of this process taking so long is that we should have been in a position to have citizenship in time to vote in the mid-term elections (and maybe elect some people who would actually allocate more funding to allow a sufficiency of officers to start to wade through this backlog). Now we (most likely) won't - especially if we're being told not to apply for citizenship while I-751 is pending. SOOOOOOOOOO tired of being stuck in limbo.

Incidentally, though, when I got my I-551 stamp, the officer told me to go ahead and send in N400 whenever I qualified to do so. So, again, contradictory advice, even from actual USCIS officers (and I never trust anything that comes from the call center).

Every officer has a different story. The adjudication manual clearly says it is ok to apply for 400 while 751 is pending. One officer told me I would hear from them by mid Sept l. One said late Sept, none of which was true. I agree, you can not trust what the call center tells you. Only the adjudicators at field offices know what is going on, we can only speculate. Just have to wait it out. 

Edited October 7, 2017 by Zombie69

[Name O Boy 511]

23 minutes ago, Zombie69 said:

Every officer has a different story. The adjudication manual clearly says it is ok to apply for 400 while 751 is pending. One officer told me I would hear from them by mid Sept l. One said late Sept, none of which was true. I agree, you can not trust what the call center tells you. Only the adjudicators at field offices know what is going on, we can only speculate. Just have to wait it out. 

I remember when they told you that you are going to hear something about your case in September  Honestly I was happy for you and it was a surprise for you too hhahahaaaaa because I know you are keeping your hopes pretty low. It is a dilemma you can't trust what the employees of USCIS tells you. Well, since looking to everyone who filed before me kinda taught me to be extra patient and don't expect anything under a year. You gotta wait, wait and wait. Honestly I am looking forward to file for N-400 when I would be eligible in few months and don't have that much of excitement for I-751 because of this freaking long wait and unpredictable USCIS processing. 

Edited October 7, 2017 by Name O Boy

[Zombie69 363]

1 hour ago, Name O Boy said:

I remember when they told you that you are going to hear something about your case in September  Honestly I was happy for you and it was a surprise for you too hhahahaaaaa because I know you are keeping your hopes pretty low. It is a dilemma you can't trust what the employees of USCIS tells you. Well, since looking to everyone who filed before me kinda taught me to be extra patient and don't expect anything under a year. You gotta wait, wait and wait. Honestly I am looking forward to file for N-400 when I would be eligible in few months and don't have that much of excitement for I-751 because of this freaking long wait and unpredictable USCIS processing. 

Exactly, as a matter of fact, I talked to an immigration officer again this morning, and it was a waste of time. I told the officer if it would help if I gave him the reference number given to me by another nicer immigration officer, he rejected it and said I am out of processing times, just have to wait it out like I did not know already. Anyway, applying for 400 while being eligible would be the right thing to do if your ultimate goal is citizenship, but if you are not in a hurry, then just wait for 751 indefinately. It is just too bad, CSC this year is really screwed up, and we are out of luck to be in this year. My friend got his 751 last year, it took him 10 months. 

[Romerican423 1]

We have been out of the country for 4 months attending to family business in my wife's country. We filed August 10th 2016. Her one year extension letter expires in November which we will not be able to return at that time. I have two questions.

 

1 - can my wife get an extension letter at our embassy since it will take well over the one year extension she recieved?

 

2 - considering we still have a place of residence in the US, will being out of the country for more than 6 months but  less than a year revoke her green card, even though she lives there over the two years required to get her 10 year residency.  She currently has the 2 year green card and one year stamp which expires November 2nd.

 

 

[Zombie69 363]

From the approvals of July filers(close to 40 percent, please keep going CSC!) and some left overs among June filers' final approvals(technodude from June filing group for example, he just got approved 3 days ago) .It seems to me that it is currently taking about 1 year and 3.5 month  ish to process CSC filers in average, so if that is the case. It is not far away for us, optimistically speaking. But for August filers who have also applied for 400 and myself included, whether we will be delayed to combine with 400 down the road still remains unclear. Wish this were over already. Good luck to those of you/us who are still waiting. Fingers crossed. 

Edited October 8, 2017 by Zombie69

[nightingalejules 678]

5 hours ago, Romerican423 said:

We have been out of the country for 4 months attending to family business in my wife's country. We filed August 10th 2016. Her one year extension letter expires in November which we will not be able to return at that time. I have two questions.

1 - can my wife get an extension letter at our embassy since it will take well over the one year extension she recieved?

 

I'm not sure... but you'd better contact your embassy immediately, because if they can't do it, your wife will HAVE TO return to the US before her extension (letter or) stamp expires. If she doesn't, she runs the risk of not being permitted to re-enter the US. She must have a valid greencard/stamp/letter to be readmitted to the US.

 

2 - considering we still have a place of residence in the US, will being out of the country for more than 6 months but  less than a year revoke her green card, even though she lives there over the two years required to get her 10 year residency.  She currently has the 2 year green card and one year stamp which expires November 2nd.

 

She will likely face closer scrutiny at POE when she returns after such a long absence, but will likely not lose permanent resident status unless she's been gone over a year. However, (and I can't stress this enough) she MUST have a valid I-551 document (card, stamp or letter) when she reaches POE.

 

I know it would be a lot of money and a giant nuisance to fly her back to the US before the 2nd to get a new stamp. But weigh that against the cost and nuisance of having to leave her in her home country and re-apply for IR-1, if she is not admitted to the US because she doesn't have a valid document.

 

For those who might come after, searching for this information before they leave the country for an extended trip: 

 

*** Make sure that your greencard/stamp/letter will be valid for longer than you're planning to be absent from the US. If it isn't, make an InfoPass appointment before you leave and get a stamp. If it's going to be longer than 6mo, you might as well apply for a re-entry permit as well. It's not technically required if you're going to be gone for less than a year, but it can't hurt! *** 

 

Good luck!

 

 

[Romerican423 1]

3 hours ago, nightingalejules said:

1 - can my wife get an extension letter at our embassy since it will take well over the one year extension she recieved?

 

I'm not sure... but you'd better contact your embassy immediately, because if they can't do it, your wife will HAVE TO return to the US before her extension (letter or) stamp expires. If she doesn't, she runs the risk of not being permitted to re-enter the US. She must have a valid greencard/stamp/letter to be readmitted to the US.

 

2 - considering we still have a place of residence in the US, will being out of the country for more than 6 months but  less than a year revoke her green card, even though she lives there over the two years required to get her 10 year residency.  She currently has the 2 year green card and one year stamp which expires November 2nd.

 

She will likely face closer scrutiny at POE when she returns after such a long absence, but will likely not lose permanent resident status unless she's been gone over a year. However, (and I can't stress this enough) she MUST have a valid I-551 document (card, stamp or letter) when she reaches POE.

 

I know it would be a lot of money and a giant nuisance to fly her back to the US before the 2nd to get a new stamp. But weigh that against the cost and nuisance of having to leave her in her home country and re-apply for IR-1, if she is not admitted to the US because she doesn't have a valid document.

 

For those who might come after, searching for this information before they leave the country for an extended trip: 

 

*** Make sure that your greencard/stamp/letter will be valid for longer than you're planning to be absent from the US. If it isn't, make an InfoPass appointment before you leave and get a stamp. If it's going to be longer than 6mo, you might as well apply for a re-entry permit as well. It's not technically required if you're going to be gone for less than a year, but it can't hurt! *** 

 

Good luck!

 

 

Thank you.

 

In the event we need to stay and her 10 year green card is issued in January or February which would be well under one year we would have been abroad will it cause any problems other than being gone for 8 months and explaining to cbp?

[hellfyre 9]

I am sharing my experience from my infopass appointment in Dallas, 3 days ago.

 

1. My conditional GC expired more than a month ago but I didn't need a stamp as I was not traveling.  I-751 is pending with a NOA date of Aug 29, 2016.  Since then I booked some international travel as well as relocated so I needed some proof of residency to show to get an updated license and be able to travel.

 

2. My i-751 case is at CSC.  The infopass officer was excellent and told me that my I-751 is on hold because my N-400 was submitted and is moving faster.  My i751 case was assigned to an officer at CSC but my i751 application was put on hold as NBC requested my files for N-400 interview.   Please don't read too much into the 'assigned to an officer' because all that could mean is that an officer had a ton of files to process, one of which was mine.

 

3.  I did my fingerprints for N-400 on 7/24/2017 and since 7/29 my case is in the Miami (NOR office code..) office waiting for scheduling my N-400 interview.  My closest N-400 interview office is San Antonio.   From looking at other N-400 cases it looks like the San Antonio office has around 6 months lag from NOA date so I should hear about N-400 sometime this year.  I haven't received any notices about being in-line for interview but that is what the infopass officer told me.

 

4. The infopass officer was not able to tell me if the N-400 and i-751 will be processed at the same time at my local USCIS office.  [I see dual application path this as saving myself a few months on N-400 processing and am not stressed out about it.]

 

4.  I got an i-551 stamp for 12 months and my conditional GC card was not taken away.  The officer stamped my passport and returned my expired GC card.  [Experience is different from others who got the stamp at other times or other offices]

 

In hindsight should I have waited to apply for N-400... NO.  The end goal is to complete N-400. 

Hope this information is helpful to others who have questions about N-400 + i751 dual apps pending.

[Nikkosan 127]

Just now, hellfyre said:

 

In hindsight should I have waited to apply for N-400... NO.  The end goal is to complete N-400. 

Hope this information is helpful to others who have questions about N-400 + i751 dual apps pending.

Absolutely!

 

Thanks for taking the time to share this with us.

[Zombie69 363]

1 hour ago, hellfyre said:

I am sharing my experience from my infopass appointment in Dallas, 3 days ago.

 

1. My conditional GC expired more than a month ago but I didn't need a stamp as I was not traveling.  I-751 is pending with a NOA date of Aug 29, 2016.  Since then I booked some international travel as well as relocated so I needed some proof of residency to show to get an updated license and be able to travel.

 

2. My i-751 case is at CSC.  The infopass officer was excellent and told me that my I-751 is on hold because my N-400 was submitted and is moving faster.  My i751 case was assigned to an officer at CSC but my i751 application was put on hold as NBC requested my files for N-400 interview.   Please don't read too much into the 'assigned to an officer' because all that could mean is that an officer had a ton of files to process, one of which was mine.

 

3.  I did my fingerprints for N-400 on 7/24/2017 and since 7/29 my case is in the Miami (NOR office code..) office waiting for scheduling my N-400 interview.  My closest N-400 interview office is San Antonio.   From looking at other N-400 cases it looks like the San Antonio office has around 6 months lag from NOA date so I should hear about N-400 sometime this year.  I haven't received any notices about being in-line for interview but that is what the infopass officer told me.

 

4. The infopass officer was not able to tell me if the N-400 and i-751 will be processed at the same time at my local USCIS office.  [I see dual application path this as saving myself a few months on N-400 processing and am not stressed out about it.]

 

4.  I got an i-551 stamp for 12 months and my conditional GC card was not taken away.  The officer stamped my passport and returned my expired GC card.  [Experience is different from others who got the stamp at other times or other offices]

 

In hindsight should I have waited to apply for N-400... NO.  The end goal is to complete N-400. 

Hope this information is helpful to others who have questions about N-400 + i751 dual apps pending.

That makes sense, I guess I should be ready for the possibility that I may not hear from USCIS soon about my 751 and just look at the bigger picture because like you, my ultimate goal is 400 as well. Thanks for sharing. Hopefully it is true that 400 is moving faster as a result of dual applications! As a matter of fact, one of the immigration officers i talked to on the phone a few months ago said the same thing too, he said my 751 was delayed because USCIS is processing my 400. However, the thing is I still take what he said with a grain of salt, but i wonder an info pass appointment officer is more accurate than a tier 2 immigration officer on the phone?

Edited October 9, 2017 by Zombie69

[guvnor 1]

23 minutes ago, Zombie69 said:

That makes sense, I guess I should be ready for the possibility that I may not hear from USCIS soon about my 751 and just look at the bigger picture because like you, my ultimate goal is 400 as well. Thanks for sharing. Hopefully it is true that 400 is moving faster as a result of dual applications! As a matter of fact, one of the immigration officers i talked to on the phone a few months ago said the same thing too, he said my 751 was delayed because USCIS is processing my 400. However, the thing is I still take what he said with a grain of salt, but i wonder an info pass appointment officer is more accurate than a tier 2 immigration officer on the phone?

I would not trust anything USCIS says. Its so pathetic as there is no over sight on their operations. Hope President Trump considers privatizing the operations aspect of this bureau. My officer at info pass is so clueless that he has no idea what DOS case id is. I asked him USCIS website promoted that to self identify and he told me to reach out to state.gov to get that. He also told me that they are so backed up its not even funny. over all I am not trying to paint a grim picture, but it does appear we have to wait another 6 months which is so ridiculous.