N400 filers at Minneapolis,MN

[ricky22 6]

Hey Folks, Is it me or does the spreadsheet seem all jumbled up?

[corvusheart 163]

We got his oath ceremony date! June 24th at St Paul River Centre!

[Prince2togo 11]

11 hours ago, corvusheart said:

We got his oath ceremony date! June 24th at St Paul River Centre!

Congrats,  how long after interview day?

[corvusheart 163]

48 minutes ago, Prince2togo said:

Congrats,  how long after interview day?

Interview day was March 5th. But we had a RFE slow our case down.

[dadNdave 1]

Are there any South Dakotans on here?  Does anyone know if SD is flowing about the same, slower or faster than average? 

 

Thanks guys!

[vjmember1234 23]

On 5/29/2019 at 7:01 AM, Prince2togo said:

I just check my status interview is scheduled for my wife and I.

Now waiting for the letter for the date

did you get date for your interview?
@ricky22 did you hear anything about your interview?

[k_man 1]

Alright gang.. my interview is in 2 days.. wish me luck.. any last minute advice? Do i need to take this year's tax returns? I also moved and bought a new house (change of address application already done and completed).. do I need to take anything related to that?

Edited June 3, 2019 by k_man

[JuMi14656 3]

Does anybody have their oath ceremony on 6/20 at the USCIS office in Minneapolis? I haven't seen anything in the spreadsheet. Thanks!

[corvusheart 163]

For the ceremony I know you're supposed to dress up. Does that mean friends and family as well? And how much should my husband dress up : formal dress (dress shirt and dress pants) or suit?

[Prince2togo 11]

46 minutes ago, vjmember1234 said:

did you get date for your interview?
@ricky22 did you hear anything about your interview?

No letter yet, hopefully today or tomorrow 

[Prince2togo 11]

Our interview date is on July 3rd.

My wife is in afternoon and I m schedule in the morning, can we go both in the morning?

[Citizendan 8]

7 minutes ago, Prince2togo said:

Our interview date is on July 3rd.

My wife is in afternoon and I m schedule in the morning, can we go both in the morning?

 

Congrats. if both of you go in the morning, she will have to wait till her time in the afternoon

 

[Prince2togo 11]

48 minutes ago, Citizendan said:

 

Congrats. if both of you go in the morning, she will have to wait till her time in the afternoon

 

Thanks, i ll have to take the whole day off 

 

[Abracadabra 0]

This forum helped me a lot. So, sharing my experience hoping it helps somebody.

 

The below is our (myself and my wife) experience. I do realize experiences can be different. So, please no negative push backs about anything. Treat this as information. If you like it, use it. If you don't like it, ignore it.

 

We both are employment based green card holders. Applied based on the 5 year rule. Our PD is 07/09/2018 and we had our interviews today at Minneapolis field office.

 

Security check was standard airport stuff. They looked at our ids and the interview letters. The asked to empty pockets and put in the bin. Hand bags and carry bags are scanned. Didn't ask shoes to be removed. Asked to remove the belt.

 

My interview was an hour later compared to my wife. But it seems the same IO got both the interviews assigned to her. So she called me in as soon as my wife's interview was wrapped up. She mentioned that she didn't want us to keep waiting there. In fact, she waited till I checked-in to call my wife in. My wife originally checked-in and was waiting for her number to be called up. We had a 4 year old child with us, so I delayed my checking-in. I originally wanted to check-in after my wife 's interview is concluded. So that one of us could be with our child at the waiting area. It appeared like she got informed about my check-in via some alert mechanism and then she came to fetch my wife.

 

We parked at Central Library for about 3 hours. We were in that office for about 1 1/2 hours. We had lunch too after our interviews. It costed us $6 for the parking.

 

My questions are below. My wife mentioned she got some tough questions. She doesn't remember the list but she was able to answer the first 6 of them.

 

1) Who is the president?

2) Who is the vice-president?

3) What are the two ways an american citizen can participate in the american democracy?

4) Who is the president during world war I?

5) What is the selective service age?

6) How many justices on the supreme court?

 

I submitted minimal documentation during the online submission. Nothing more than the required stuff. No financial documents (pay checks, w2, Income Tax Returns, Mortgage/escrow statements, checking statements etc) were submitted. No additional documentation (rental agreements, utility bills) was submitted. For both of us, the only documents I uploaded are kid birth certificate, marriage certificate and green card images.

 

Since I submitted the applications online, we were forced to make some changes to the application. The online application doesn't accurately capture some of the answers clearly. So, the IO had to make to changes. We were asked to verify them and sign the IPAD to reflect those changes.

 

I had to amend Question 23 to include my driving violations. I had two driving tickets (fines of about $165 each, one speeding and the one is about illegal turn) from 2010 which I failed to include in my original application. I didn't think it was necessary to do that at that time. But it is needed in my case, probably in all cases. A speeding ticket of driving 55 mph on a 30 mph road is a conviction if you just accept the ticket and pay the fine. I took the driving history document from DMV. One of the tickets fell off my history but the other one (speeding) stayed on. She made those changes. She took a peek at that document and gave it back to me.

 

I had a peculiar issue. My experience could be a helpful guidance for anybody having this kind of issue, that is why mentioning it. Few months before I got my green card, we did international travel. By that time my GC background check was completed and I was in line to be assigned a GC once it is available. The incident was about a rice bag. My wife packed a rice bag in our luggage and I didn't know that. I completed the customs forms as if we are not carrying any rice. Rice is a prohibited item as per CBP. When the customs asked us if we are carrying any rice, I told her no. She basically pulled us aside and was about to give a ticket with fine. We told that officer that it was me who completed the customs form and I was the one who replied to her not knowing that my wife packed that rice bag. We kind of convinced her that it was an innocent mistake. She let us go waiving the fine and informed us that we will be some kind of watch list forever. My N400 application had that agricultural warning on it. The IO mentioned that it was a good thing I mentioned it during the interview. Well, she didn't finish that sentence about the negative consequences. She amended the Question 23 answer to include that. Long story short - if you have had any kind of encounter with law enforcement; mention it at the interview. If you don't mention it and if the application is tagged with such warnings, you could potentially have negative consequences. My wife literally fought with me about this. She was against mentioning about this at the interview but I convinced her it is the right thing to do, play it safe. I am glad I did that. My wife felt no need to mention about it because we were let go with just a warning and no fine involved.

 

We carried lot of documentation (IRS tax receipts, w2, pay checks and so on). The IO didn't look at none of it. I actually asked her that. She said, if we need anything from you; you will get an RFE.

 

She approved both our applications on the spot, at end of each interview, and she said we might get our oath scheduled in the first week of August.

[Prince2togo 11]

5 minutes ago, Abracadabra said:

This forum helped me a lot. So, sharing my experience hoping it helps somebody.

 

The below is our (myself and my wife) experience. I do realize experiences can be different. So, please no negative push backs about anything. Treat this as information. If you like it, use it. If you don't like it, ignore it.

 

We both are employment based green card holders. Applied based on the 5 year rule. Our PD is 07/09/2018 and we had our interviews today at Minneapolis field office.

 

Security check was standard airport stuff. They looked at our ids and the interview letters. The asked to empty pockets and put in the bin. Hand bags and carry bags are scanned. Didn't ask shoes to be removed. Asked to remove the belt.

 

My interview was an hour later compared to my wife. But it seems the same IO got both the interviews assigned to her. So she called me in as soon as my wife's interview was wrapped up. She mentioned that she didn't want us to keep waiting there. In fact, she waited till I checked-in to call my wife in. My wife originally checked-in and was waiting for her number to be called up. We had a 4 year old child with us, so I delayed my checking-in. I originally wanted to check-in after my wife 's interview is concluded. So that one of us could be with our child at the waiting area. It appeared like she got informed about my check-in via some alert mechanism and then she came to fetch my wife.

 

We parked at Central Library for about 3 hours. We were in that office for about 1 1/2 hours. We had lunch too after our interviews. It costed us $6 for the parking.

 

My questions are below. My wife mentioned she got some tough questions. She doesn't remember the list but she was able to answer the first 6 of them.

 

1) Who is the president?

2) Who is the vice-president?

3) What are the two ways an american citizen can participate in the american democracy?

4) Who is the president during world war I?

5) What is the selective service age?

6) How many justices on the supreme court?

 

I submitted minimal documentation during the online submission. Nothing more than the required stuff. No financial documents (pay checks, w2, Income Tax Returns, Mortgage/escrow statements, checking statements etc) were submitted. No additional documentation (rental agreements, utility bills) was submitted. For both of us, the only documents I uploaded are kid birth certificate, marriage certificate and green card images.

 

Since I submitted the applications online, we were forced to make some changes to the application. The online application doesn't accurately capture some of the answers clearly. So, the IO had to make to changes. We were asked to verify them and sign the IPAD to reflect those changes.

 

I had to amend Question 23 to include my driving violations. I had two driving tickets (fines of about $165 each, one speeding and the one is about illegal turn) from 2010 which I failed to include in my original application. I didn't think it was necessary to do that at that time. But it is needed in my case, probably in all cases. A speeding ticket of driving 55 mph on a 30 mph road is a conviction if you just accept the ticket and pay the fine. I took the driving history document from DMV. One of the tickets fell off my history but the other one (speeding) stayed on. She made those changes. She took a peek at that document and gave it back to me.

 

I had a peculiar issue. My experience could be a helpful guidance for anybody having this kind of issue, that is why mentioning it. Few months before I got my green card, we did international travel. By that time my GC background check was completed and I was in line to be assigned a GC once it is available. The incident was about a rice bag. My wife packed a rice bag in our luggage and I didn't know that. I completed the customs forms as if we are not carrying any rice. Rice is a prohibited item as per CBP. When the customs asked us if we are carrying any rice, I told her no. She basically pulled us aside and was about to give a ticket with fine. We told that officer that it was me who completed the customs form and I was the one who replied to her not knowing that my wife packed that rice bag. We kind of convinced her that it was an innocent mistake. She let us go waiving the fine and informed us that we will be some kind of watch list forever. My N400 application had that agricultural warning on it. The IO mentioned that it was a good thing I mentioned it during the interview. Well, she didn't finish that sentence about the negative consequences. She amended the Question 23 answer to include that. Long story short - if you have had any kind of encounter with law enforcement; mention it at the interview. If you don't mention it and if the application is tagged with such warnings, you could potentially have negative consequences. My wife literally fought with me about this. She was against mentioning about this at the interview but I convinced her it is the right thing to do, play it safe. I am glad I did that. My wife felt no need to mention about it because we were let go with just a warning and no fine involved.

 

We carried lot of documentation (IRS tax receipts, w2, pay checks and so on). The IO didn't look at none of it. I actually asked her that. She said, if we need anything from you; you will get an RFE.

 

She approved both our applications on the spot, at end of each interview, and she said we might get our oath scheduled in the first week of August.

Congratulations,  and very edifying it help me a lot. Thanks.