N400 Seattle (merged)

[thewaitingame 34]

On 2/7/2020 at 4:36 PM, Malauriea said:

Oh I remember that. We thought about filing citizenship because of the fees increasing. A lot of applicants actually did. But then we decided to make a choice between paying higher fees and at least getting the green card or  paying less and getting stuck in combo interviews with repeated extensions. 

The fees didn't increase after all. We paid $725. 

 

I believe they are aware of the long delay experienced by combo filers in Seattle. They are supposed to train more officers and accredite them for processing combo applications in Seattle. Most officers are either Citizenship officers or I751 officers. They don't have accreditations to do both. And Junior officers can't even approve the N400 the same day without passing it to the qualified officer for final approval, which delay the oath ceremony for some single filers too. 

 

Immigration proceedings require for applicants tough patience and a lot of prayers. 

 

 

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-files-suits-against-states-over-sanctuary-policies-11581376905

 

Quote from the article: "The U.S. Justice Department filed three lawsuits against California, New Jersey and a Washington county"

Guess which county this is?! No wonder they don't want to allocate people to this county's USCIS

[YESWECANDOIT 40]

3 hours ago, thewaitingame said:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-files-suits-against-states-over-sanctuary-policies-11581376905

 

Quote from the article: "The U.S. Justice Department filed three lawsuits against California, New Jersey and a Washington county"

Guess which county this is?! No wonder they don't want to allocate people to this county's USCIS

Do you think the "sanctuary policies " have an impact on the immigration applications in the "King county "?

I know that there is a bridge between USCIS and ICE working together. However, USCIS tend to be more independent from the king county's policies than ICE ( ICE rely a lot on external cooperation and information). 

 

[r2ichennai 1]

Applied for N400 in May 2019, Expected date of completion says August 2020, Finger print done in June

I received a letter saying "interview scheduled" status is showing testing and interview status.

How long after this email will i get a letter for interview? How much time will they give between the interview and date they send the mail in Seattle?

Also I heard they processing folks to Yakima now a days?

Please let me know.

[costa85 10]

1 hour ago, r2ichennai said:

Applied for N400 in May 2019, Expected date of completion says August 2020, Finger print done in June

I received a letter saying "interview scheduled" status is showing testing and interview status.

How long after this email will i get a letter for interview? How much time will they give between the interview and date they send the mail in Seattle?

Also I heard they processing folks to Yakima now a days?

Please let me know.

Mine just got scheduled too.  Based on what I have observed, they schedule the interviews 4 - 5 weeks out.  You should be able to see the letter in the documents tab within 1-2 days.

Edited February 11, 2020 by costa85

[py6 43]

On 2/7/2020 at 1:14 PM, Malauriea said:

We  filed our I751 on November 2018 and were thinking to file the N400 while the i751 is pending.  But for some reasons, we procrastinated and never got time to do it.

Also after reading about  Seattle experiences for  combo interviews, we decided  to just wait for the i751 to be approved first. We got approved on Jan 2020. We applied for the N400 after receiving the 10 years green card. 

 

While the N400 is pending, at least we can travel with the 10 years green card since we are not dealing with extensions anymore. 

 

I wish you knew about this Seattle backlog before applying for citizenship while your i751 is still pending. If you have a military spouse, things might go faster than others. 

 

From your experience it does look like combo filing is delaying the whole process (both I-751 and N400 process). I filed my I-751 in 2017 Oct. I would probably have received my 10-year green card in 2019 had I not filed for N-400. And I would probably be done with N-400 by now judging by the N-400 only peoples timelines.

 

USCIS told me on telephone that I-751 and N-400 are completely separate processes and do not interfere with each other. But it's very obvious here that filing N400 before I-751 completion causes a significant delay of I-751 at least. Why do they do this? Why can't they schedule the I-751 interview first and give me the 10-year green card first? I paid the fees, and part of that includes the fees for making a new green card. Why? 

[PK_ 43]

Here's my interview experience at the USCIS Seattle Field Office. 

 

I arrived 20 minutes before the 10 AM appointment. The parking is $8, and they now accept credit cards. After checking in, I got a number and went to wait on the 2nd floor. I was called at 11:30 AM which was super late.

 

The officer asked to see my passport, green card, driver license, and my trusted traveler card (Nexus). It's obvious that the officer has already gone through my A-file to know that I'm enrolled on one of the trusted traveler programs. After that, I was sworn in and answered 6 civic tests, reading test, and writing test. Then, he went through the entire application. I have a pretty extensive travel history with 10+ more entries to add, and I gave him the entire list. He manually entered a few before saying that he will enter the rest of it later. The interview finished at around noon, but I didn't make the 12-noon cutoff for the same-day oath due to the fact that he still needed to enter the rest of my travel history and reviewed it before approving it. I got a paper with "a decision cannot be made yet about your application."

 

The next day, my USCIS online account showed an approval status with the oath ceremony notice being mailed. I'm still waiting to see when is the oath ceremony. 

[YESWECANDOIT 40]

8 hours ago, py6 said:

 

From your experience it does look like combo filing is delaying the whole process (both I-751 and N400 process). I filed my I-751 in 2017 Oct. I would probably have received my 10-year green card in 2019 had I not filed for N-400. And I would probably be done with N-400 by now judging by the N-400 only peoples timelines.

 

USCIS told me on telephone that I-751 and N-400 are completely separate processes and do not interfere with each other. But it's very obvious here that filing N400 before I-751 completion causes a significant delay of I-751 at least. Why do they do this? Why can't they schedule the I-751 interview first and give me the 10-year green card first? I paid the fees, and part of that includes the fees for making a new green card. Why? 

I'm really sorry that you are experiencing an uncomfortable delay of your applications. And you're right, if you waited to get your i751 approved first, you'd at least already have your 10 years green card by December 2018. You'd had file the N400 by beginning 2019 and definitely be done before the end of 2019. So by now you'd have a us passport and not dealing with immigration anymore. 

 

We just figured out that if it takes the same time to go step by step than doing the combo, we were better off on getting the 10 years green card. 

 

If by March you hasn't been scheduled yet, I suggest that you start writing letters to whoever can hear you. Turn to Immigration non profit organizations. Recently, a lot of organizations in WASHINGTON have been fighting and wining for immigrant and asylum's rights. You should reach out to them, along with the WA judges who blocked Trump's executive orders. I can't recall the judges names but you should find them through the news. 

 

Also, if more than 10 to 20  combo applicants are experiencing the same delay, you should all come together and start a petition. 1 voice might be ignored but not when several people come together to rise their voices for the same cause. 

The problem is that each applicant is dealing with the issue on his own and nobody is taking that seriously. By proving that the Seattle office has abused the normal processing time compared to other offices and they have jeopardized lives of many immigrants, You should definitely start making a huge difference. 

Please guys, don't just wait forever. Start taking some actions. But mostly we should start a list of everyone stuck in that situation to have an idea of how many people are experiencing that. A petition would definitely be a good way to start. 

[GermanG 31]

For COMBO filers.

I contacted US Senator Maria Cantwell (12/3/19, https://www.cantwell.senate.gov/)  and asked her to petition on my behalf. (Everybody can do it and is free so take advantage of it!).

She or her office wrote back to me this morning (it took > 2 months).

*****************

In response to my inquiry on your behalf, I have been in contact with and received the following information from the National Benefits Center:

Thank you for your inquiry regarding this constituent's immigration matter. A review confirms your constituent's Form I-751 application is currently pending alongside their Form N-400 application and will be processed simultaneously by their local field office at the time of the N-400 interview.

Their Form N-400 application is currently awaiting interview scheduling by the Seattle Field Office. Although the A-File is still physically located at the National Benefits Center (NBC), the scheduling of your constituent's interview is within the jurisdiction of the field office. Once the field office schedules this case for an interview, your constituent will receive an interview notice stating the date and time to appear for the scheduled interview. Once the interview is scheduled, the NBC will then forward the file to the field office.

Processing time information for the Seattle Field Office can be found on our website on the USCIS Processing Time Information page.

 

**************

Based on this response, it is clear that both cases will be adjudicated together. There is hope!!!

Therefore,  we don't have to wait 39 months for the I-751 to be approved in the National Benefit Center.

The clock ticks as the N-400 timing.

Please those people who are combo filers contact her and your US Representative and ASK FOR HELP.

THE MORE PEOPLE THEY GET CONTACTED, THE MORE PRESSURE ON USCIS.

Have a great Wednesday!

[costa85 10]

Interview date: March 16 (Seattle office).  Not a combo filer.

[r2ichennai 1]

Thanks Mine 

Quote

Interview Scheduled March 17th.

 

 

[YESWECANDOIT 40]

4 hours ago, GermanG said:

For COMBO filers.

I contacted US Senator Maria Cantwell (12/3/19, https://www.cantwell.senate.gov/)  and asked her to petition on my behalf. (Everybody can do it and is free so take advantage of it!).

She or her office wrote back to me this morning (it took > 2 months).

*****************

In response to my inquiry on your behalf, I have been in contact with and received the following information from the National Benefits Center:

Thank you for your inquiry regarding this constituent's immigration matter. A review confirms your constituent's Form I-751 application is currently pending alongside their Form N-400 application and will be processed simultaneously by their local field office at the time of the N-400 interview.

Their Form N-400 application is currently awaiting interview scheduling by the Seattle Field Office. Although the A-File is still physically located at the National Benefits Center (NBC), the scheduling of your constituent's interview is within the jurisdiction of the field office. Once the field office schedules this case for an interview, your constituent will receive an interview notice stating the date and time to appear for the scheduled interview. Once the interview is scheduled, the NBC will then forward the file to the field office.

Processing time information for the Seattle Field Office can be found on our website on the USCIS Processing Time Information page.

 

**************

Based on this response, it is clear that both cases will be adjudicated together. There is hope!!!

Therefore,  we don't have to wait 39 months for the I-751 to be approved in the National Benefit Center.

The clock ticks as the N-400 timing.

Please those people who are combo filers contact her and your US Representative and ASK FOR HELP.

THE MORE PEOPLE THEY GET CONTACTED, THE MORE PRESSURE ON USCIS.

Have a great Wednesday!

The NBC's answer is pretty much what everyone in your situation already knows: the NBC is NOT the one creating the combo delay in Seattle Field Office. IT'S THE SEATTLE FIELD OFFICE that is taking forever to schedule YOUR APPOINTMENTS.  

The NBC has been pretty fast at transferring applications for other COMBO FILERS IN OTHER STATES.  Your experience in SEATTLE FIELD OFFICE IS UNIQUE TO SEATTLE. So the NBC can NOT help you as they don't have jurisdiction in Seattle or any other offices. 

 

The problem now is the US Senators who are helping you, are NOT KNOCKING AT THE RIGHT DOOR.  They should not write to the NBC. THEY MUST REQUEST AN EXCEPTIONAL AMENDMENT OF PROCESSING TIMES AT THE SEATTLE FIELD OFFICE as your applications processing  times have been severely ABUSED.

In that case, your applications (you and all the combo filers in the same situation) should be treated with high priority. 

 

Also, each of you individually writing to the US Senators is not going to help everybody's case. 

1. You should all you come together and assess how many applicants are dealing with this problem. 

2. You should assess the abusive waiting period for each of you

3. Find evidence that OTHER COMBO FILERS from other states ARE GETTING APPROVED within the normal processing time and that Seattle FIELD office is unique in delaying combo applications 

4. Proof that N400 singles applicants in Seattle who filed AFTER you have been scheduled  for interview and approved BEFORE you. 

5. Proof that I751 applicants who file AFTER you (my case), have been approved without interview BEFORE you. 

6. Proof that your lives have been severely jeopardized due to lack of stable immigration status (excessive extensions,  difficulties to travel, repeated justifications of the legibility of the extension to third parties,  difficulty to get US jobs...you are not us citizens but you are not permanent resident either,  you are just between). 

 

7. Have the senators and any organization willing to help you to knock at the right door with all your documentations and evidence: the local office in Seattle. This is where things are moving slowly or just stuck. Each local office has a director. He/she needs to hear all your cases and do something about it. 

8. File a suit against the Seattle FIELD office in case these delays are going for more than 3 years. 

 

Nothing is impossible. People are just not willing to get things done. 

 

 

[py6 43]

USCIS Representative told me that they are not going to be issuing a 10-year green card if you have already filed N400. They won't do one interview and the other one later. They will combine the two interviews on the same day. Therefore it freezes I-751 and delays the overall process of I-751. With regards to why the N-400 is seemingly delayed by concurrent fillings, it has to do with the Seattle office. Not only filing N400 delays I-751 completion, I-751 also puts combo files into a different category resulting delay of N400 as well. 

 

So basically, Seattle office is the one at fault and delaying combo filers.

Edited February 13, 2020 by py6

[GermanG 31]

11 minutes ago, py6 said:

USCIS Representative told me that they are not going to be issuing a 10-year green card if you have already filed N400. They won't do one interview and the other one later. They will combine the two interviews on the same day. Therefore it freezes I-751 and delays the overall process of I-751. With regards to why the N-400 is seemingly delayed by concurrent fillings, it has to do with the Seattle office. Not only filing N400 delays I-751 completion, I-751 also puts combo files into a different category resulting delay of N400 as well. 

 

So basically, Seattle office is the one at fault and delaying combo filers.

The question is how long can the Seattle office hold the N-400?

So far, I haven't filed any sort of formal legal complaint because my N-400 is within "normal" processing timeframe (in my case 15.5 months have passed, so I have until the first week of May to wait).

I have no idea what the future holds.

I do know that some combo filers were done within the normal processing times for N-400. 

 

[GermanG 31]

2 hours ago, Malauriea said:

The NBC's answer is pretty much what everyone in your situation already knows: the NBC is NOT the one creating the combo delay in Seattle Field Office. IT'S THE SEATTLE FIELD OFFICE that is taking forever to schedule YOUR APPOINTMENTS.  

The NBC has been pretty fast at transferring applications for other COMBO FILERS IN OTHER STATES.  Your experience in SEATTLE FIELD OFFICE IS UNIQUE TO SEATTLE. So the NBC can NOT help you as they don't have jurisdiction in Seattle or any other offices. 

 

The problem now is the US Senators who are helping you, are NOT KNOCKING AT THE RIGHT DOOR.  They should not write to the NBC. THEY MUST REQUEST AN EXCEPTIONAL AMENDMENT OF PROCESSING TIMES AT THE SEATTLE FIELD OFFICE as your applications processing  times have been severely ABUSED.

In that case, your applications (you and all the combo filers in the same situation) should be treated with high priority. 

 

Also, each of you individually writing to the US Senators is not going to help everybody's case. 

1. You should all you come together and assess how many applicants are dealing with this problem. 

2. You should assess the abusive waiting period for each of you

3. Find evidence that OTHER COMBO FILERS from other states ARE GETTING APPROVED within the normal processing time and that Seattle FIELD office is unique in delaying combo applications 

4. Proof that N400 singles applicants in Seattle who filed AFTER you have been scheduled  for interview and approved BEFORE you. 

5. Proof that I751 applicants who file AFTER you (my case), have been approved without interview BEFORE you. 

6. Proof that your lives have been severely jeopardized due to lack of stable immigration status (excessive extensions,  difficulties to travel, repeated justifications of the legibility of the extension to third parties,  difficulty to get US jobs...you are not us citizens but you are not permanent resident either,  you are just between). 

 

7. Have the senators and any organization willing to help you to knock at the right door with all your documentations and evidence: the local office in Seattle. This is where things are moving slowly or just stuck. Each local office has a director. He/she needs to hear all your cases and do something about it. 

8. File a suit against the Seattle FIELD office in case these delays are going for more than 3 years. 

 

Nothing is impossible. People are just not willing to get things done. 

 

 

I agree 100% with your points.

Both US Senators/Representatives contacted USCIS and apparently, they received the response from NBC (instead of from Seattle Office).

The question is how to organize.

Some of us are working very hard in our jobs, with limited free time. The immigration issues should be "in the back burner" like Americans say.

I am exhausted  trying to ask people if they are combo filers or not. Also very few members filled out their immigration timeline.

I don't know at this point how to gather people together and write together a letter to the Director of the seattle office.

They will justify saying that they issue a I551 stamp..so travelling shouldn't be a problem. Same for changing jobs. It's enough proof for eligibility.

In my case, I will wait till the N400 is beyond normal processing time (after May 10ish).

We are not eligible to file a legal action either. I asked a lawyer about that. Only and if only our N-400 is well beyond the normal time-frame, we could file something.

 

[py6 43]

3 minutes ago, GermanG said:

The question is how long can the Seattle office hold the N-400?

So far, I haven't filed any sort of formal legal complaint because my N-400 is within "normal" processing timeframe (in my case 15.5 months have passed, so I have until the first week of May to wait).

I have no idea what the future holds.

I do know that some combo filers were done within the normal processing times for N-400. 

 

It's possible your case will be done within the time frame. It's possible it might take a little longer than that. None of us know how long Seattle office is going to hold your applications until they schedule your interview. There is unfortunately nothing you can do at this point. You've done everything you could.