N-400 Newark/Mt Laurel New Jersey

[Snorlux 58]

2 hours ago, MaLo said:

@Snorlux Did you file N400 in Dallas, TX in 2016 or 2017? I'm guessing its 2017. Congrats!!

yeap, it's 2017  thank you!

[storig14 0]

I have interview on 9/12 at Newark Field Office. Is my husband allowed to go inside the building with me?

[viajero 14]

1 hour ago, storig14 said:

I have interview on 9/12 at Newark Field Office. Is my husband allowed to go inside the building with me?

yes!! when did you file?

[storig14 0]

Oct 2017

[viajero 14]

20 hours ago, storig14 said:

Oct 2017

cool.. I'm also a Oct'17 filler.. wish you all the best!!

[Snorlux 58]

My god... I'm now stuck in the waiting game for oath to be scheduled even though there are always same day ceremonies at Newark  Anyone knows if I can just walk in?

 

Travelling on August 30th so if they give me a date before that I can go to the NYC Passport office and get a same day passport.. But without a date from USCIS yet there's nothing I can do  

[nbluDeby 5]

I just took the oath at the Newark office yesterday, and wanted to write down a few things that might be useful to other people (as I found other people's experience useful for my purposes). Please see my timeline in a standard format below.

 

• Application: I printed and mailed my application around the end of Nov (I believe Nov 30th). At around the same time, online application became available, but I didn't know that. From the Nov and Dec trackers in this forum it seems that people who submitted electronically went through the process quicker. That being said, I think my application was scanned and then became an quasi-electronic one (I got an IOE). 
   
• Fingerprints: I was scheduled on Dec 9th, 2017 for Dec 27th, 2017 at Elizabeth ACS. As I was traveling for Christmas, I attempted to do a walk-in at Manhattan ACS next day, and the employees there were friendly and seemed ready to accommodate, however, at the last moment a supervisor overheard me, and stopped the process, claiming there were already too many people. If you ever been to Manhattan ACS, you know that wasn't true, however, you can't argue with authority (although, now that I am a citizen and can't expect retaliation, I will be filing a complaint with their office).
  
  A USCIS agent later told me on the phone that in the event of not being able to make a fingerprinting appointment, you're technically allowed to go to a different office on a different date, so you might want to try that if you have time and work in Manhattan not too far from the ACS (as I did). I have successfully early walked-in many times before (for green card and UK visas), and I think what was different this time is that the ACS on the appointment was Elizabeth.
  
  Following this, I called USCIS on Dec 11th, and on Dec 12th, 2017 they scheduled me to fingerprint on Jan 2nd, 2017 at Elizabeth ACS. The agent on the phone offered a couple of different days to pick, however, he was only able to offer 3 weeks window or later from the day I called. On the 2nd, I went to the Elizabeth office, which was not too crowded. I heard it gets extremely busy, but I only spent about half an hour there. 
   
• Interview letter: I received my first interview letter on May 30th, 2018 for July 11th, 2018 (i.e. 6 weeks from letter date to interview date). As I was traveling (again!) for the 4th of July, I decided to reschedule. The advice is often to cancel the trip, and I contemplated that seriously, but eventually I decided to try my luck as there were too many family members involved.
  
  So I called USCIS and asked them to reschedule. The lady on the phone assured me she would send a reschedule notice to the USCIS office. This was a mistake! A few weeks later I got a form reply from USCIS advising me to follow the regular process. I also scheduled and attended an InfoPass appointment, and that proved pointless too. The only way Newark USCIS would process my case was through the instructions on the interview letter.
  
  So on June 15th, 2018 I sent a reschedule request through certified USPS. Again, you might have a different experience, but while USCIS got my request, USPS never confirmed delivery (last available status is "delivery attempted, but nobody was at the building was available to accept"). I was told by the USPS customer service that this is not unusual for federal buildings where mail is accepted in bulk.
  
  On June 25th, 2018 I received a de-schedule notice, confirming that my earlier interview was no longer current, and on July 20th, 2018 I got a new interview date for Sep 4th, 2018 (i.e. 6 weeks + a few days from when the interview was scheduled). Overall, I lost about 2 weeks here by not rescheduling right away.
   
• Interview and oath: I did not know this, but Newark allows you to bring anyone with you as long as they have an ID. There are plenty of chairs to wait while you do the interview with an officer. My interview was at 1pm, I showed up at 12:30pm, handed my appointment letter on the 15th floor, was checked in and asked to go to 14th, handed my appointment letter on the 14th, was asked if I had any documents to submit, said not, and a few minutes later was invited to the the interview around 1:20pm.
  
  The interview itself was basically a review of the N-400 form that I submitted plus updates and then the tests. The Q&A portion was extremely simplistic. He would ask me a question (e.g. "What is the dirtiest river in the US?"), I would answer in a few words ("East River"), he would write my answer verbatim on a piece of paper with questions that he had, and would mark the answer "correct" or "incorrect". Much like the study guide indicated, I only needed to know the very short answers. I gathered the interviewer question sheets are pre-printed in advance, they grab one and go question by question.
  
  The one interesting thing I learned at the interview is USCIS considers your name from the foreign birth certificate to be your full name. So if you want to change it (in my case, I dropped part of my name that didn't make sense in the US), you can do it at the interview, the agent helped me do this on the iPad. But they might not offer, so ask if that's something you want to do. The name change did not delay my oath, and was seamless.
  
  Another quick note is that I found the USCIS practice app for the iPhone extremely helpful. 20 questions at a time, I learned all the necessary bits. Sadly, over the course of 2017 and 2018, I already learned way too much about our current leadership at the White House and the Congress and about the theoretical process of checks and balances, so there wasn't a lot of new material to study anyway.
   
• Oath: After the interview was done, I was asked to go back to the 15th floor and wait to sign an oath certificate. This took considerable time -- I waited from 1:45pm to 3:15pm. For many people the wait was shorter (and they could go grab something to eat at the cafeteria on the 2nd floor that works until 3pm), but a few waited longer than I am. After I signed my certificate, I got handed some materials for the oath, and then around 3:30pm we were invited into the oath hall.
  
  A quick note on the scheduling: from what I gather, the staff at the Newark office works very hard every day to make sure everyone takes a same-day oath, so they wait until everyone is done with their interviews and signed their oath certificates, and only then the final oath ceremony of the day takes place.
  
  The oath ceremony itself was cool, and the people running it made us all feel very special and appreciated as new citizens.
   
• In short, my main takeaways:
  - submit the application electronically
  - fingerprinting appointment can be rescheduled on the phone, and will happen about 3 weeks after letter is sent
  - interview can only be rescheduled by mail, and if my case is any indication will probably delay you a few months
  - bring everyone with you to the interview as it's much easier and things can move quickly (make sure everyone has an ID)
  - generally in my (very basic and commonplace) case things worked out fairly quickly and predictably

Good luck everyone with your cases.

==================================
Dallas/Lewisville, Texas Lockbox
==================================
UserName.........|GC-Date.|Sent....|Cashd...|NOA.....|Fprints.|In Line..|Int ltr..|Intrview.|Oath.....|Field Office.....|NBC/IOE
nbluDeby.........|02/23/13|11/30/17|........|12/06/17|01/02/18|.........|07/20/18.|09/04/18.|09/04/18.|Newark, NJ.......|IOE

 

Edited September 5, 2018 by nbluDeby

[Icee14 10]

My husband is for interview on October 11 2018 in Mt. Laurel. Any tips? We have a 3 year old daughter, is she allowed to come with us?

[Moxa1989 21]

Paint me red finally!!!! 

Interview 11:45 

called in at 12:10 

out at 12:25

offifer was very pleasant and professional.  6 question straight to the point followed by yes/no question, if I want to change my name. And to my surprise the oath was at 1pm not 3pm.

 

23 people from 17 country. 

 

Cermony started at 01:15 because one person was late.  

I was out by 02:00. 

 

Im sooooo happyyyyyyyy 

thank you VJ 

[njblue 51]

Hi to all. I’m a March 13 2018 filer and I just got yesterday a message that my interview was scheduled, can’t see on my online account any update yet , just on online status case. But anyway hopefully I will recibe the letter soon. 

Edited September 9, 2018 by njblue

[viajero 14]

==================================
Dallas/Lewisville, Texas Lockbox
==================================
UserName.........|GC-Date.|Sent....|Cashd...|NOA.....|Fprints.|In Line..|Int ltr..|Intrview.|Oath.....|Field Office.....|NBC/IOE
JT4/25...........|10/31/07|07/12/17|07/18/17|07/20/17|08/18/17|09/05/17.|12/19/17.|01/19/18.|--/--/--.|Mount Laurel, NJ.|NBC
LKB..............|10/31/07|07/13/17|07/16/17|07/29/17|08/11/17|09/12/17.|12/19/17.|01/19/18.|--/--/--.|Newark, NJ.......|NBC
Moxa1989.........|12/05/12|09/20/17|09/28/17|10/02/17|10/16/17|08/01/18.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Mt Laurel, NJ....|NBC
Viajero..........|01/21/15|10/23/17|--/--/--|10/26/17|11/16/17|12/21/17.|09/05/18.|10/13/18.|--/--/--.|Newark, NJ.......|NBC
==================================
USCIS Online Filing
==================================
UserName.........|GC-Date.|Sent....|Cashd...|NOA.....|Fprints.|In Line..|Int ltr..|Intrview.|Oath.....|Field Office....|NBC/IOE
Ben&Katie........|04/19/12|10/22/17|10/22/17|10/22/17|11/03/17|--/--/--.|12/11/17.|01/18/18.|01/18/18.|Newark, NJ......|IOE
Ezsosa...........|01/22/15|10/25/17|01/31/17|11/01/17|11/24/17|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Mt Laurel, NJ...|IOE
bcb..............|02/09/13|11/11/17|11/11/17|11/11/17|12/06/17|--/--/--.|03/05/18.|04/12/18.|--/--/--.|Mt Laurel, NJ...|IOE
NewportNinja+1...|08/03/12|01/21/18|01/21/18|01/21/18|02/12/18|04/02/18.|04/03/18.|05/15/18.|05/15/18.|Newark, NJ......|IOE
NewportNinja.....|08/03/12|01/22/18|01/22/18|01/22/18|02/16/18|04/02/18.|04/03/18.|05/15/18.|05/15/18.|Newark, NJ......|IOE
D3si.H3art.......|05/08/15|02/07/18|02/07/18|02/07/18|02/27/18|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|08/23/18.|--/--/--.|Newark, NJ......|IOE
Geeky2255........|09/18/12|02/23/18|02/23/18|02/23/18|03/16/18|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Newark, NJ......|IOE
Malo.............|04/13/15|03/05/18|03/10/18|03/12/18|03/22/18|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Newark, NJ......|IOE

[Moxa1989 21]

23 minutes ago, viajero said:

==================================
Dallas/Lewisville, Texas Lockbox
==================================
UserName.........|GC-Date.|Sent....|Cashd...|NOA.....|Fprints.|In Line..|Int ltr..|Intrview.|Oath.....|Field Office.....|NBC/IOE
JT4/25...........|10/31/07|07/12/17|07/18/17|07/20/17|08/18/17|09/05/17.|12/19/17.|01/19/18.|--/--/--.|Mount Laurel, NJ.|NBC
LKB..............|10/31/07|07/13/17|07/16/17|07/29/17|08/11/17|09/12/17.|12/19/17.|01/19/18.|--/--/--.|Newark, NJ.......|NBC
Moxa1989.........|12/05/12|09/20/17|09/28/17|10/02/17|10/16/17|08/01/18.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Mt Laurel, NJ....|NBC
Viajero..........|01/21/15|10/23/17|--/--/--|10/26/17|11/16/17|12/21/17.|09/05/18.|10/13/18.|--/--/--.|Newark, NJ.......|NBC
==================================
USCIS Online Filing
==================================
UserName.........|GC-Date.|Sent....|Cashd...|NOA.....|Fprints.|In Line..|Int ltr..|Intrview.|Oath.....|Field Office....|NBC/IOE
Ben&Katie........|04/19/12|10/22/17|10/22/17|10/22/17|11/03/17|--/--/--.|12/11/17.|01/18/18.|01/18/18.|Newark, NJ......|IOE
Ezsosa...........|01/22/15|10/25/17|01/31/17|11/01/17|11/24/17|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Mt Laurel, NJ...|IOE
bcb..............|02/09/13|11/11/17|11/11/17|11/11/17|12/06/17|--/--/--.|03/05/18.|04/12/18.|--/--/--.|Mt Laurel, NJ...|IOE
NewportNinja+1...|08/03/12|01/21/18|01/21/18|01/21/18|02/12/18|04/02/18.|04/03/18.|05/15/18.|05/15/18.|Newark, NJ......|IOE
NewportNinja.....|08/03/12|01/22/18|01/22/18|01/22/18|02/16/18|04/02/18.|04/03/18.|05/15/18.|05/15/18.|Newark, NJ......|IOE
D3si.H3art.......|05/08/15|02/07/18|02/07/18|02/07/18|02/27/18|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|08/23/18.|--/--/--.|Newark, NJ......|IOE
Geeky2255........|09/18/12|02/23/18|02/23/18|02/23/18|03/16/18|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Newark, NJ......|IOE
Malo.............|04/13/15|03/05/18|03/10/18|03/12/18|03/22/18|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Newark, NJ......|IOE

Woot woot that’s good news 

[MaLo 15]

Received email that interview was scheduled. Now we wait for the letter to arrive. YAY!!

[mariaaa 14]

6 hours ago, MaLo said:

Received email that interview was scheduled. Now we wait for the letter to arrive. YAY!!

You can check your online account in a day or two. The appointment schedule will also be uploaded there. I didn't receive the letter yet but found out my interview date this way.

[Im-patient 4]

20 hours ago, MaLo said:

Received email that interview was scheduled. Now we wait for the letter to arrive. YAY!!

Congratulations. Wishing you all the best.

I see from your timeline that you have filed to remove conditions, any updates there? did you get the 10yr green card or going in with both application still pending?