N400 filers at Minneapolis,MN

[Filya 4]

What a beautiful lawsuit I've found! There are few organizations that have balls strong enough to sue USCIS for N-400 delays: “Defendant’s extreme vetting of naturalization applications and delays in the processing of these applications denies thousands of lawful permanent residents the opportunity to more fully participate in civic life and to vote in important upcoming elections”. Unfortunately, they have waited too long to file the lawsuit.

 

https://www.courthousenews.com/feds-sued-over-citizenship-processing-backlog/

https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Citizenship-backlog-COMPLAINT.pdf

https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/25667222/Coalition_for_Humane_Immigrant_Rights_et_al_v_United_States_Citizenship_and_Immigration_Services

[henryhe 0]

My interview will at 12/06/2018!

[Filya 4]

Good news everyone!

USCIS just published updated processing times. We are sixth office now from the bottom (were second) with 15.5 months min and 21.5 months max processing times!

[marcusa 31]

for those who are going to have interview or finished already, you are welcome and encouraged to share your interview experiment. Best of luck!

Edited November 7, 2018 by marcusa

[marcusa 31]

12 hours ago, henryhe said:

My interview will at 12/06/2018!

big congrats!

[coralee 0]

Hello all. I just had the interview this morning and wanted to update you with my experience.

 

My appointment time was 9:45am, so I debated between leaving right at the end tail of the rush hour vs. leaving very early to get to the downtown before the rush hour.

I found that the office is right around the block from the central library, so I decided to go in early and have coffee at the Dunn Bros until my appointment time.

I parked at the library parking - which is far cheaper than other parking and very nice, in my opinion - but it may mean a bit more walk (2-3 min?) than the parking lot right across the office building.  I had my breakfast and coffee as planned, and left the library building at 9am. It was 9:06 when I arrived at the office building. 

 

I am applying for citizenship with 5+ years of being a permanent resident, so I prepared for 5 years' worth of tax transcripts, marriage certificate (I am married to a US citizen), employment verification documents (appointment letter, paystubs, W2), some evidence of asset (home mortgage document, property tax statement), and a copy of the green card, just in case.

 

The building is nice. I went up to the 7th floor, and there is a security check similar to what we see at an airport. The reception desk was right behind the security.

The receptionist checked me in and took my picture and index fingerprints for both hands. I received a number to be called after checking in.

As soon as I sat down to wait (for up to 1hr or more I thought), my number was called. So my interview began at least 30 minutes before the scheduled time.

The officer was very nice and the interview went very fast and smoothly.

He basically asked all the N-400 form questions verbally and verified the information. And then gave me one sentence to read and write. And the anticipated civic test. He did not even ask for the tax transcripts but made a copy of my marriage certificate.

 

One hiccup I had was the passport photos. I did not think I'd need the photos because I can't apply for the passport today anyways.

It turned out, because I wanted to change my official name, they need two passport photos.

So with all that, I got another form that basically says to supply two photos with signature. 

 

The officer suggested to go to nearby CVS to get the photos and drop them off today instead of mailing them in. I wanted to be done with it so I decided to do that.

I was out the door by 9:40am.. and it was the beginning of a long adventure of taking passport photos from that point. 

Long story short, I was able to finally take the photos at a Fedex office (as nearest CVS was in Target and they did not do photos, and Walgreen did not have anyone to take the photo until this afternoon) and drop the photos off back at the office. Hopefully, the officer will update the file with this soon.

 

While I did not receive the final approval because of the photos today, the officer said the oath will be in about 1-2 months on the way out. So I will have to wait for the letter again.

So those who will have the interview soon and also asked for name change, bring 2 passport photos with you so that you can save the trouble.

 

Good luck all! 

[BruceW 13]

thanks Coralee, good summary. Any trick civics questions?

[coralee 0]

7 minutes ago, BruceW said:

thanks Coralee, good summary. Any trick civics questions?

They were straight from the 100 questions, so not so much to be able to call any trick.

these are the questions I got:

 

- why did the colonists come to America

- when the president can't serve, who will be the president

- name one right from the first amendment

- describe one amendment to right to vote

- who is in charge of the executive branch

- during the cold war, what was the main concern of the US

[marcusa 31]

4 hours ago, coralee said:

Hello all. I just had the interview this morning and wanted to update you with my experience.

Good luck all! 

1

big congrats! thank you for sharing your interview experience, very valuable  to future applicants!

[GoBig 25]

July filers and September filers are moving forward 

 

[Filya 4]

Question for all that are done with all this: are wait times on myaccount.uscis.dhs.gov ("Estimated wait time", "Estimated case completion time") reliable?

[marcusa 31]

4 hours ago, Filya said:

Question for all that are done with all this: are wait times on myaccount.uscis.dhs.gov ("Estimated wait time", "Estimated case completion time") reliable?

Not reliable at all.  Individual case is different

[BruceW 13]

On 11/13/2018 at 11:48 AM, Filya said:

Question for all that are done with all this: are wait times on myaccount.uscis.dhs.gov ("Estimated wait time", "Estimated case completion time") reliable?

my gut feeling is this:

The numbers they quote when you look at generic processing times are currently 15.5 to 21.5 months. When you read the fine print these numbers relate to 15.5 months for 50% processed and 21.5 months for 93% processed. But I guess you need to see the generic processing times when you applied, not the current time. But lots of other factors come into play. So I think they take the 93% time, so as to quote you the "worst case".  Its now 21.5 months but a while back it was longer.

 

So with any luck you will do around the 50% mark plus or minus, and better than what they quoted in myUSCIS. Also, I suspect this includes not just to the interview but the oath as well. From the spreadsheet, it looks like most people we are tracking are getting an interview letter around 12 months from their fingerprints (~13 months from applying) and another 1.5 months to interview and add another 1 to 1.5 months for court/oath date, so I guess 15.5 months is not so far out.

 

Good luck, I hope you are in the lower 50%.

[coralee 0]

After a long week of no response after my interview, finally received a message that my case was updated and now I am in line for oath ceremony scheduling.

Hopefully I can finish up this long process in 2018.

[GoBig 25]

On 11/19/2018 at 3:14 PM, coralee said:

After a long week of no response after my interview, finally received a message that my case was updated and now I am in line for oath ceremony scheduling.

Hopefully I can finish up this long process in 2018.

big congrats!