N400 filers at Minneapolis,MN

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

25 minutes ago, marcusa said:

  poor Minnesotans! not just the horrible long winter and snow storms!...totally agree!

 

The winters and the snow are nice.  They are a lot better than the mosquitos, yellow jackets, and hornets that come with summer.

[marcusa 31]

just share another applicant from my home country processed at Indianapolis field office.   Interview scheduled only 3 weeks after FP. ... makes me feel so bad about myself.

• 02/03/2018  e-filed.
• 02/08/2018  Biometrics appointment scheduled.
• 03/01/2018  Biometrics reviewed.
• 03/23/2018  Interview scheduled.
• 05/02/2018  interview day with approval onsite.

 

 

[marcusa 31]

 

i read this argument from another immigration forum,

 

that one of the main reasons for the slowest processing at Minnesota is because MN has the largest number of refugees across the country. Nearly 40 percent of Minnesota’s refugees are from Somalia,20 percent are from Myanmar.like 2017 , the MN government had accepted 2500 new refugees,. when possible assigned to areas where they have friends or relatives. The Minnesota Department of Human Services says that in 2015, more than 90 percent of the state’s refugees said they had ties to Minnesota before arrival. this is like rolling the snowball game.

 

those refugees are going to apply for US citizen as well.  , refugees are required by law to apply for a green card one year after resettlement in the United States. The green card is a 10-year (renewable) document that offers almost all the benefits. their citizenship processing are expedited as well . They can apply for citizenship four years later (not five, as the five-year count for refugees starts on the day of arrival.""   The Contracting States shall as far as possible facilitate the assimilation and naturalization of refugees. They shall, in particular, make every effort to expedite naturalization proceedings and to reduce as far as possible the charges and costs of such proceedings."   Refugees are granted faster processing with fee waived by the law. they are granted green card and citizen so easily. they have superior faster privileges than people who are working hard to earn bachelor's/master/PHD degrees in the U.S., looking for jobs and H1B, spend tons of money and effort for EB2,EB1 approval... people who study hard,work hard, pay tax ,who make this country greater however dont get treated fairly.  

 

 image you are ling up for hours for the grand opening to buy iphone X. However, surprisely there are group of people cutting in the line and each of them  buy 2-3 devices. by the time its your turn finally, the product is sold out. the apple staff say, they are refugees with privileges. ..

 

this is a terrible feeling when happens to you in terms of immigration rule.  People dont complain if this applies to active duty military applicants as they sacrifice to protect this country and make American safer. they deserve the expedited privilege. 

 

 

Edited May 4, 2018 by marcusa

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

51 minutes ago, marcusa said:

just share another applicant from my home country processed at Indianapolis field office.   Interview scheduled only 3 weeks after FP. ... makes me feel so bad about myself.

•  

 

Chin up.  You know it is going to take more than a year, maybe bank on 20 months.  Then, if it takes less time, be happy about it.

 

No use in comparing ourselves to others, it will only lead to frustration.

 

Wanna be angry at someone?  Choose LSS, they are the ones creating immigrant ghettos in the region rather than allowing a natural diversification.  

[travelfairy 22]

1 hour ago, marcusa said:

just share another applicant from my home country processed at Indianapolis field office.   Interview scheduled only 3 weeks after FP. ... makes me feel so bad about myself.

• 02/03/2018  e-filed.
• 02/08/2018  Biometrics appointment scheduled.
• 03/01/2018  Biometrics reviewed.
• 03/23/2018  Interview scheduled.
• 05/02/2018  interview day with approval onsite.

 

Yeah, but they have to live in Indiana.  I'll take the extra wait & stay in Minnesota!!

[travelfairy 22]

1 hour ago, marcusa said:

 

i read this argument from another immigration forum,

 

that one of the main reasons for the slowest processing at Minnesota is because MN has the largest number of refugees across the country. Nearly 40 percent of Minnesota’s refugees are from Somalia,20 percent are from Myanmar.like 2017 , the MN government had accepted 2500 new refugees,. when possible assigned to areas where they have friends or relatives. The Minnesota Department of Human Services says that in 2015, more than 90 percent of the state’s refugees said they had ties to Minnesota before arrival. this is like rolling the snowball game.

 

those refugees are going to apply for US citizen as well.  , refugees are required by law to apply for a green card one year after resettlement in the United States. The green card is a 10-year (renewable) document that offers almost all the benefits. their citizenship processing are expedited as well . They can apply for citizenship four years later (not five, as the five-year count for refugees starts on the day of arrival.""   The Contracting States shall as far as possible facilitate the assimilation and naturalization of refugees. They shall, in particular, make every effort to expedite naturalization proceedings and to reduce as far as possible the charges and costs of such proceedings."   Refugees are granted faster processing with fee waived by the law. they are granted green card and citizen so easily. they have superior faster privileges than people who are working hard to earn bachelor's/master/PHD degrees in the U.S., looking for jobs and H1B, spend tons of money and effort for EB2,EB1 approval... people who study hard,work hard, pay tax ,who make this country greater however dont get treated fairly.  

 

 image you are ling up for hours for the grand opening to buy iphone X. However, surprisely there are group of people cutting in the line and each of them  buy 2-3 devices. by the time its your turn finally, the product is sold out. the apple staff say, they are refugees with privileges. ..

 

this is a terrible feeling when happens to you in terms of immigration rule.  People dont complain if this applies to active duty military applicants as they sacrifice to protect this country and make American safer. they deserve the expedited privilege. 

 

 

It might be a good idea to check the veracity of your data/sources before spreading rumors from other forums.

 

1, MN doesn't have the largest number of refugees across the country.  Between 2001-2016, MN took in approx 40k refugees.  This was considerably less than CA, FL, NY & TX (102k, 46k, 54k, 82k), and only slightly more than AZ, MI & WA (39k, 38k, 40k)

(Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/by-numbers-united-states-refugees-180962487/)

 

If you're calculating as a % of population, we don't even fit into the top 10 for 2016 (Source: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/12/06/just-10-states-resettled-more-than-half-of-recent-refugees-to-u-s/), though we did have the most in 2005 by this method, and they were from Laos.  

 

2. Moving to where friends and family are is not a refugee thing, it's an immigrant thing.  Having a strong support system enables faster societal integration, and having people help give you tips on living in a new country, getting a job, babysitting your kids and a host of other benefits that makes new arrivals independent earlier and less reliant on government services.  I would have loved a support system when I moved to MN, and if I had a choice of where to go in the US when I moved here, it would have been a state with more Australians.

 

3.  According to USCIS, only people who have served in the US Armed Forces can waive the naturalization fee (Source: https://www.uscis.gov/files/form/attachments.pdf)  

 

4. Not everybody has to wait 5 years for naturalization. People who have been married to US citizens only have to wait 3. (Source: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/article/chapter4.pdf) 

 

5. The comment about people who "study hard, work hard, pay tax etc etc.. however don't get treated fairly" is disengenous, as it implies that refugees aren't studying hard, working hard and paying taxes.  in fact, the unemployment rate for foreign born US residents - including refugees - is actually lower than that for native born residents. (Source: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/forbrn.pdf).

 

6. The analogy to the iPhone X queue is a false equivalence. Standing in line for a new phone is nothing like applying for US citizenship. US citizenship isn't limited like iPhones are. It's cheaper (the iPHone X costs more the $725) and we are going about our daily business of working, and raising our families whilst we wait.  

 

There aren't many downsides to a long wait.  We can't vote or donate to political campaigns, but we've never had that right in the US so we're not being denied anything we're accustomed to.  The only real difficulty would be if we died, our estate wouldn't be eligible for the tax free threshold, and if our spouse died, we wouldn't be entitled - as non-citizens-  to receive their pension.  Of course if your estate would be hurt by the removal of the tax free threshold, then you should have your assets in a trust anyway that would protect it from this issue.  

 

The only difference between the refugees and other immigrants like myself (5-6 years on an L1 intra-company transfer, then marriage to a US citizen) and others on this forum, is that they came from a much shittier environment than we did and didn't have access to the same opportunities that many of us have had.

 

For example, I grew up in the middle class suburbs of Australia.  Even though my father died when I was very young, and my mother was on government benefits, I was able to get an excellent and relatively free education as it was something the Australian government paid for.  I had access to fresh food, clothes, clean & running water, sanitary products and a great labor market, as well as affordable public transport to get to my job.

 

It was safe to work around my suburbs at night.  My classmates weren't recruited as child soldiers.  Neither I nor my friends were raped by the "opposition" side, though they may have had voting leaflets thrust into their hands.  There weren't open sewers in the street.  My school had all the supplies we needed and highly educated, dedicated teachers.  I wasn't married off at the age of 11. I wasn't pregnant at 12.  My brother didn't have to go and fight for our suburb.  I never needed an escort to get around for my own safety.  I didn't miss school because I was menstruating and didn't have anything to protect my clothing.

 

I never had to pack my belongings into a suitcase and walk to another city to escape violence. I didn't live in a tent for several years, waiting to move to a safe country.  My suburb wasn't destroyed by mudslides, earthquakes, or hurricanes.  I didn't have to beg for food, or prostitute myself to stay alive.  

 

My upbringing was safe, and it was very easy to get the education and career that led me to the US.  Even though we were poor, it was privileged compared to what some of these refugees are going through.

 

Overall, the numbers do not support that refugee privileges are the reason behind our long wait, and even if they did, I certainly wouldn't begrudge people who have lived through hell to get a little bit of goodness come their way, given all the relative luck and privilege I have had in my life so far.

 

 

 

[Filya 4]

To all Minnesota filers,

 

USCIS MN N-400s processing pace slowed down again in 2018Q1, fourth quarter in row. Despite of lesser number of filed applications, backlog grew 500 apps, reaching 15672 apps.

With current pace of 1850 apps/quarter simple math tells that current ETA to process a N-400 is about 34 months.

 

Enjoy living in the Slow Bold North

 

On 5/4/2018 at 2:25 PM, travelfairy said:

It was safe to work around my suburbs at night.  My classmates weren't recruited as child soldiers.  Neither I nor my friends were raped by the "opposition" side, though they may have had voting leaflets thrust into their hands.  There weren't open sewers in the street.  My school had all the supplies we needed and highly educated, dedicated teachers.  I wasn't married off at the age of 11. I wasn't pregnant at 12.  My brother didn't have to go and fight for our suburb.  I never needed an escort to get around for my own safety.  I didn't miss school because I was menstruating and didn't have anything to protect my clothing.

It is so neat to read stories about poor pregnant 12y girls that have enough money for airplane ticket to the U.S. and are smart enough to pass B-2 qualification. 

[marcusa 31]

USCIS Military and Non-Military Naturalization Form N-400 Performance Data (Fiscal Year 2018, 1st Qtr) (PDF, 241 KB)
Data as of December 31, 2017
Published May 1, 2018

 

last quarter of 2017. we had only 1642 approved, 15672 pending,  2882 new applications.  209 denied.  VERY VERY SLOW...

Compare the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2017, i dont see much difference of approval.

 

Edited May 9, 2018 by marcusa

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

I thought that they were training some new staff or that it would pick up after they moved offices, but apparently not.  

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

On 5/4/2018 at 2:25 PM, travelfairy said:

It might be a good idea to check the veracity of your data/sources before spreading rumors from other forums.

 

Overall, the numbers do not support that refugee privileges are the reason behind our long wait, and even if they did, I certainly wouldn't begrudge people who have lived through hell to get a little bit of goodness come their way, given all the relative luck and privilege I have had in my life so far.

 

 

 

 

I'm glad you are so privileged.  Don't think your views necessarily reflect those of ordinary Minnesotans, but you are entitled to them.  My own grandmother was a refugee and quite frankly one of the nastiest women I've ever met.   Just because someone has suffered doesn't make them more entitled to certain benefits or a better candidate for things like naturalization.  

 

Frankly, I'd prefer we didn't give visas to anyone who allowed their children to undergo FGM, but we do, and last time I checked that was way more than the majority of parents in certain MENA countries that we are discussing here.  Anyone who could be complicit in the mutilation of a little girl doesn't belong in this country.

 

 

[travelfairy 22]

40 minutes ago, N-o-l-a said:

Frankly, I'd prefer we didn't give visas to anyone who allowed their children to undergo FGM, but we do, and last time I checked that was way more than the majority of parents in certain MENA countries that we are discussing here.  Anyone who could be complicit in the mutilation of a little girl doesn't belong in this country.

 

 

 

Does this apply to those who circumcise their baby boys too?

[travelfairy 22]

49 minutes ago, N-o-l-a said:

I thought that they were training some new staff or that it would pick up after they moved offices, but apparently not.  

Maybe they are using an IT system built by the same people that did MNLARS. 

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

.

Edited May 9, 2018 by N-o-l-a

[marcusa 31]

2 hours ago, N-o-l-a said:

I thought that they were training some new staff or that it would pick up after they moved offices, but apparently not.  

i also saw followups from people who passed the interview at Mpls office saying that the Mpls field office started to have new staff watching the interview process and they are taking training. Hope this is something  good related to the fact that,after moving up to a fancy modern office building at Mpls downtown,  the Mpls field office is working on things to recruit more staff, train them and eventually speed up the N400 processing .  it definitely takes a while (months to up a year) before new staffs are qualified to work independently on reviewing N400 cases. 

but i still think it's totally a stupid decision at the first place to have Mpls field office to cover 3.5 states for the N400 applications. 

[marcusa 31]

where to ask if the background check is cleared or not ?  USCIS hotline ,or the  info with local office ?