N-400 and I-751 combo pending

[kline19 102]

3 hours ago, jaske78 said:

I posted this a while back, but I am posting an update:

• We filed for AOS in November 2017
• AOS was transferred to Laguna Nigel, CA March 2018
  • It sat untouched, according to records, since then.
• Filed for Naturalization in January 2019
• Got I-551 passport stamp July 2019
• Naturalization interview August 2019
  • Reviewer was stunned that the status had not been resolved. Refused to conduct both interviews. Sent us home with RFE, due within thirty days.
  • RFE handed in September 2019
• Notification that AOS application was sent to Lees Summit, MO (not our local office.)
• Foreign passport will expire June 2020. We must travel back, renew the foreign passport--which will now have no I-551 stamp in it--and then what?

There has been absolute silence. I do not know where these things are. I do not know what is going on, or how long to wait. I do not know what to do. I have heard that they have to decide one way or the other about the naturalization interview within four months, but they say no. I have read that it might take San Bernardino 23 months to adjudicate a green card--does that mean that we have to restart the queue once it is finally transferred? Has anybody had an experience like this? Should I call and ask for them to expedite this process somewhat? Is this overlong? Should we lawyer up? I would really appreciate some assistance here.

This is truly f** up. I am sorry to hear that. Have you tried to contact your local congressperson or Senator's staff to initiate an inquiry into your pending cases? They normally have a form to request it on their office's webpage.

[CRB 25]

My wife had her N-400 interview yesterday and she passed.

We were both called in to the interview room and the first thing the officer said was that he had to take care of the I-751 before he could process the N-400 application. 

We were sworn in and he proceeded to ask us a few basic questions. That was it; I left the room with our daughter and he conducted the N-400 interview with my wife.

I don't know if it made any difference, but we had submitted a letter with the N-400 application asking to to have both adjudicated at the same time.

All in all it was a good experience. The officer was friendly, fast and very professional. 

To this point we never received any notification that the case was transferred or that the local office (Raleigh, NC) had jurisdiction over it. The status on both websites never changed. Just today we received an email stating that the new card has been ordered.

 

ROC filed July 2018, NOA Aug 2018

Biometrics Sep 2018

Filed N-400 July 2019

Combo interview October 2019

[Dashinka 24,657]

3 hours ago, CRB said:

My wife had her N-400 interview yesterday and she passed.

We were both called in to the interview room and the first thing the officer said was that he had to take care of the I-751 before he could process the N-400 application. 

We were sworn in and he proceeded to ask us a few basic questions. That was it; I left the room with our daughter and he conducted the N-400 interview with my wife.

I don't know if it made any difference, but we had submitted a letter with the N-400 application asking to to have both adjudicated at the same time.

All in all it was a good experience. The officer was friendly, fast and very professional. 

To this point we never received any notification that the case was transferred or that the local office (Raleigh, NC) had jurisdiction over it. The status on both websites never changed. Just today we received an email stating that the new card has been ordered.

 

ROC filed July 2018, NOA Aug 2018

Biometrics Sep 2018

Filed N-400 July 2019

Combo interview October 2019

That is almost the same way it happened for my wife as well.  About a week after the combo interview, we got the notice that the ROC was transferred to the NBC, and about three weeks later the ROC approval notice was received.  It wasn’t long from there for the oath ceremony.

 

The interesting thing here is that this seems to vary a lot between local offices and IOs with some doing combo interviews and others not.

 

Good Luck!

[Zombie69 363]

On 10/3/2019 at 4:50 PM, kline19 said:

This is truly f** up. I am sorry to hear that. Have you tried to contact your local congressperson or Senator's staff to initiate an inquiry into your pending cases? They normally have a form to request it on their office's webpage.

It is an option I tired before, It might not work, but it is better than nothing.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Zombie69

[Zombie69 363]

On 10/3/2019 at 1:13 PM, jaske78 said:

I posted this a while back, but I am posting an update:

• We filed for AOS in November 2017
• AOS was transferred to Laguna Nigel, CA March 2018
  • It sat untouched, according to records, since then.
• Filed for Naturalization in January 2019
• Got I-551 passport stamp July 2019
• Naturalization interview August 2019
  • Reviewer was stunned that the status had not been resolved. Refused to conduct both interviews. Sent us home with RFE, due within thirty days.
  • RFE handed in September 2019
• Notification that AOS application was sent to Lees Summit, MO (not our local office.)
• Foreign passport will expire June 2020. We must travel back, renew the foreign passport--which will now have no I-551 stamp in it--and then what?

There has been absolute silence. I do not know where these things are. I do not know what is going on, or how long to wait. I do not know what to do. I have heard that they have to decide one way or the other about the naturalization interview within four months, but they say no. I have read that it might take San Bernardino 23 months to adjudicate a green card--does that mean that we have to restart the queue once it is finally transferred? Has anybody had an experience like this? Should I call and ask for them to expedite this process somewhat? Is this overlong? Should we lawyer up? I would really appreciate some assistance here.

I am sorry to hear that. There is really nothing much you can do to resolve this unfortunately. With my experience, calling a second tier officer is a complete waste of time because they just do the meaningless status report and they won't tell you more than what you already know. You can get a congressman or a senator involved, but there's no guarantee of getting your case moving forward, however, it certainly wouldn't hurt though. There is one option though, it is called Writ of Mandamus, and you need to hire a lawyer for that. It is basically using a federal judge to force USCIS to adjudicate your case due to a "unreasonable delay",  but the federal judge cannot guarantee the outcome. It will be the last resort if all else fail. It won't be cheap and I don't think that is something you want to do yourself. I would wait for another 3 or 4 months and get the Congressman involved for now, they have liaisons that will keep requesting the status update of your case, and by the way, many get the online notifications saying their cases were transferred to Lee Summit which is mostly likely untrue. My 751 was transferred to Lee Summit after it was approved. I am a naturalized citizen now, but my 751 still says it has been transferred, so do not worry too much about this "transfer" notice. Give it 3 or 4 months, and if you still heard nothing, I would seriously consider hiring a lawyer and do the mandumous. The delay is not uncommon these days, I guess you need patience and take advantage of few options applicants have. It will probably be an uphill battle in court because USCIS has been given so much power and they can decide what constitutes a "unreasonable delay". Good luck, hopefully this nightmare will be over for you soon. 

Edited October 6, 2019 by Zombie69

[Dashinka 24,657]

On ‎10‎/‎6‎/‎2019 at 7:28 PM, Zombie69 said:

I am sorry to hear that. There is really nothing much you can do to resolve this unfortunately. With my experience, calling a second tier officer is a complete waste of time because they just do the meaningless status report and they won't tell you more than what you already know. You can get a congressman or a senator involved, but there's no guarantee of getting your case moving forward, however, it certainly wouldn't hurt though. There is one option though, it is called Writ of Mandamus, and you need to hire a lawyer for that. It is basically using a federal judge to force USCIS to adjudicate your case due to a "unreasonable delay",  but the federal judge cannot guarantee the outcome. It will be the last resort if all else fail. It won't be cheap and I don't think that is something you want to do yourself. I would wait for another 3 or 4 months and get the Congressman involved for now, they have liaisons that will keep requesting the status update of your case, and by the way, many get the online notifications saying their cases were transferred to Lee Summit which is mostly likely untrue. My 751 was transferred to Lee Summit after it was approved. I am a naturalized citizen now, but my 751 still says it has been transferred, so do not worry too much about this "transfer" notice. Give it 3 or 4 months, and if you still heard nothing, I would seriously consider hiring a lawyer and do the mandumous. The delay is not uncommon these days, I guess you need patience and take advantage of few options applicants have. It will probably be an uphill battle in court because USCIS has been given so much power and they can decide what constitutes a "unreasonable delay". Good luck, hopefully this nightmare will be over for you soon. 

What bothers me about @jaske78's story is that the IO was not doing their job when the N400 came up for an interview.  It seems that most folks with combo ROC/N400 get a joint interview at the N400, but in this case the IO refused to do this which seems to show a lack of understanding the overall case status on the IO's part.  I wish USCIS would get their act together, but that is probably just wishful thinking.

[Zombie69 363]

4 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

What bothers me about @jaske78's story is that the IO was not doing their job when the N400 came up for an interview.  It seems that most folks with combo ROC/N400 get a joint interview at the N400, but in this case the IO refused to do this which seems to show a lack of understanding the overall case status on the IO's part.  I wish USCIS would get their act together, but that is probably just wishful thinking.

The incompetence of USCIS is definitely evident, but it also depends on certain amount of luck as far as which officer you come in contact with. It is hard to expect them to pull themselves together since USCIS is under the auspices of the current executive branch and under the direction of Ken Cuccinelli, who has a history of not exactly being friendly with legal immigration. My prediction is maybe there will be more applicants that may be forced to do Writ of Mandamus. I am grateful that I am over this process and I pray this nightmare will be over soon for many applicants.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Zombie69

[Dashinka 24,657]

17 minutes ago, Zombie69 said:

The incompetence of USCIS is definitely evident, but it also depends on certain amount of luck as far as which officer you come in contact with. It is hard to expect them to pull themselves together since USCIS is under the auspices of the current executive branch and under the direction of Ken Cuccinelli, who has a history of not exactly being friendly with legal immigration. My prediction is maybe there will be more applicants that may be forced to do Writ of Mandamus. I am grateful that I am over this process and I pray this nightmare will be over soon for many applicants.

The only problem with the WoM route for the AOS or ROC is that it seems to be more likely to drive a denial IMO.  But I suppose the actual numbers going that route are small so who knows. 

[Zombie69 363]

8 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

The only problem with the WoM route for the AOS or ROC is that it seems to be more likely to drive a denial IMO.  But I suppose the actual numbers going that route are small so who knows. 

That is unfortunately a real possibility, but sometimes applicants might be left with no choice but taking this route. And also USCIS may also arbitrarily define what a "unreasonable delay" is. Applicants will be most likely not in a good legal position to counter that. Most applicants probably don't even know what WoM is. It is a problem.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Zombie69

[Alcione 17]

Passed my combo interview!

Original office is Boston but my interview was in Lawrence-MA.

My husband was called first.

The guy asked how we met, when my husband proposed; how long after did we got married; what are the plans for the next 5 years. Asked about my relationship with father-in-law and about my husband's relationship with my mother.

The officer got back with my husband and called me in. He asked me the exactly same questions and said that i751 was good and that he would go ahead to the N400 questions.

 

1) What is an amendment?

2) What did the declaration of independence do?

3) Who Veto bills?

4) Name one branch or part of the government. 

5) What did the Declaration of Independence do?

6) There were 13 original colonies. Name 3.

 

 

Good luck to everyone!

 

[Alozeus 0]

 

Hello, I filed my petition to remove condition on my green card in March of 2019, then filed for my naturalization based on my short stint with the military for which I was given a DD214 uncharacterized category. My problem is my wife and I are now separated and when I went for my interview alone,they requested my wife's presence so as to adjudicate my i751 before proceeding to my N-400. In the absence of my wife, they canceled my appointment, to reschedule at a later date and to come with my wife. The wife and I dont talk anymore, how do I proceed with my case. And by the way my green card already expired.  I would appreciate any insight or guides towards how I should proceed. Thanks

[Alcione 17]

Oath ceremony is scheduled!!! 🎉🎉

11/19th

[MadeForEachOther_ 42]

What is the best way to do for the renunciation of Indian passport for Washington DC area?  

 

A: Only renunciation than after submit for OCI / how many days will take for this?

 

B: Renunciation with OCI at the same time/ how many days will take for this?

 

Please anyone help me. I want to submit within 90 days period.

Also for the OCI they take the US passport for how many days or they immediate stamp on it?

 

Thanks

[MadeForEachOther_ 42]

On 7/28/2019 at 10:19 AM, dilip said:

My oath was July 15, 2019 and applied on the same day at Philly post office.  Expedited ( $60) and got on July 24 and passport card  ($30)came July 26.  Waiting for NC to come back.  Applied renunciation of Indian passport, expected to get next week and will then apply for OCI, which I am expecting to get by the end of August.  Would like to finish with the process as quickly as possible.

 

Did you apply for your passport.  Apply passport card, it will come handy to keep in the wallet and for domestic travel

Hi Dilip,

 

 I think you already done for renunciation of Indian passport and you got your OCI card.

Can you please help me which process is better :

 

  A: Only renunciation than after submit for OCI / how many days will take for this? 

  B: Renunciation with OCI at the same time/ how many days will take for this?
 

As you applied renunciation first and than OCI.

Thanks

 

 

 

[Dashinka 24,657]

11 hours ago, Alozeus said:

 

Hello, I filed my petition to remove condition on my green card in March of 2019, then filed for my naturalization based on my short stint with the military for which I was given a DD214 uncharacterized category. My problem is my wife and I are now separated and when I went for my interview alone,they requested my wife's presence so as to adjudicate my i751 before proceeding to my N-400. In the absence of my wife, they canceled my appointment, to reschedule at a later date and to come with my wife. The wife and I dont talk anymore, how do I proceed with my case. And by the way my green card already expired.  I would appreciate any insight or guides towards how I should proceed. Thanks

Are you planning on getting divorced?