N400 interview

[mereal 11]

Hi.. has any one of you guys filled the n400 application on last October with the field office  in  Greer South Carolina and get their interview appointment ? I’m still waiting and no update has happened on my case.. I’m getting really nervous..

[bestluck 71]

16 minutes ago, love_my_wife said:

You are still under their normal processing time of 4 to 11 months.

 

If your name is same or similar to people on terrorists' list, then your background check could take more time than normal. One of my friend's name was Mohammed and it took him quite longer than usual (for his field office) for his naturalization!

 

Looking at your country of origin, it could be the reason for your case as well

 

Otherwise, you should have been a citizen by now looking at that timeline and judging on trends of others in similar time frame field offices.

 

This is normal process has nothing to do with Muslims  or name list i got friends name Muhammad they already got naturalization  tho normal process IN VA 

[bestluck 71]

2 minutes ago, love_my_wife said:

 

Pasting the article from https://www.statesman.com/news/20161128/stealth-citizenship-review-program-delays-stymies-muslim-applicants as it might not be available for free throught the link

 

i read a lot and I don't just comment for the heck of it...

Stealth citizenship review program delays, stymies Muslim applicants

 

Ahmed Sediq began working for the U.S. Army in Iraq in 2007. Fluent in four languages, the then-25-year-old Kurd passed his background screening and was welcomed by the Military Transition Team in Mosul as a translator essential to bridge the potentially fatal communication gaps in a war zone. He participated in dozens of missions, and survived two explosive attacks, earning high praise from his unit.

Sediq moved to the United States two years later on a special visa rewarding him for his military service. One of his early jobs was at Fort Polk in Louisiana, where, after another security check, he helped train soldiers preparing for Iraq.

He arrived in Austin in 2011, finding work as a licensed security officer, a job for which the Texas Department of Public Safety performed another background check. Later, when he became a commissioned security officer, permitting him to carry a gun, the state agency issued another clearance.

So in 2014, when he applied to become a U.S. citizen, Sediq was perplexed to find his application mysteriously held up for two years for what the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service described only as “background checks.” The agency’s guidelines call for it to process applications within six months.

Immigration attorneys and court filings charge that Sediq and others are victims of a little-known government program intended to weed out national security threats. But they say the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program, or CARRP, also traps innocent applicants for U.S. citizenship — most from majority Islamic countries — in a frustrating bureaucratic limbo. It has forced applicants to incur thousands of dollars in unnecessary legal fees, restricted their travel and, in some instances, delayed the reunion of separated families.

The mysterious delays have taken on a new urgency in recent months. Immigration attorneys say they fear that after Donald Trump becomes president, use of the undercover program to deny citizenship to Muslim applicants could expand. During the campaign, Trump’s team floated a range of restrictions, from “extreme vetting” of immigrants from Middle Eastern countries to placing their names on a registry to banning them from entering the U.S.completely.

“We’re about to hit a very rough patch of water,” said Elliott Ozment, a Nashville, Tenn., immigration attorney who has represented clients from the city’s large Kurdish population.

Many already have been caught in the currents. Like Sediq, Mohanad Al Hatab was judged safe enough to translate for the U.S. armed forces in Iraq. After moving to the United States in 2010, he, too, passed another background check to become a commissioned security officer for an Austin company. He currently protects a federal building housing the Internal Revenue Service, court records show.

Yet documents filed in U.S. District Court in San Antonio show Al Hatab’s citizenship application has been held up nearly two years, pending what federal officials have only described as ongoing background checks.

 

Thanks to CARRP’s broad criteria, such as potentially denying citizenship because of an applicant’s “associations,” those believed to be ensnared in the program have endured years of legal limbo or been forced to fight rejection of their applications for thin reasons. Adnan Khawaja, of Houston, was denied citizenship when he failed to tell immigration officers he had joined the Parent-Teacher Association at his children’s Muslim elementary school, court documents show. A judge later overturned the decision.

Most applicants never learn they are being subjected to the separate screening, attorneys say, placing them at a disadvantage fighting it. “At no point during the CARRP process is the applicant made aware that he or she has been labeled a ‘national security concern,’ nor is the applicant ever provided with an opportunity to respond to and contest the classification,” according to a Minnesota lawsuit seeking citizenship for Farok Abdulmajid Hamod and his wife. The naturalization applications for the Iraqi couple, residents of the U.S. since 1999, were delayed seven years before being rejected.

They are appealing. “I will remain stubbornly persistent in this matter until they grant these good people the U.S. citizenship that they deserve,” said their attorney, Herbert Igbanugo.

CARRP fishing

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which last year naturalized 730,259 new citizens, declined to discuss individual cases or provide detailed information on how CARRP works. But the agency defended the program as a crucial anti-terror filter.

“If any national security concerns are raised, either based on security and background checks or personal interviews or testimony, USCIS conducts an additional review through the internal CARRP process ... to ensure that immigration benefits or services are not granted to individuals who pose a threat to national security and/or public safety, or who seek to defraud our immigration system,” a spokeswoman wrote.

She added that processing delays may accompany the more thorough vetting, saying, “USCIS does not sacrifice national security or public safety in the interest of expediting the review of benefit applications or petitions.”

 

Because the government has resisted releasing details of the program, it has been difficult to measure CARRP’s scope. It was first widely revealed in 2013, when the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California published a report based on open records requests and lawsuits. The organization found that more than 19,000 citizen applicants from Muslim-majority countries had been diverted into the program since its 2008 implementation.

Earlier this year, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, citing figures from a federal Freedom of Information Act request, updated the total CARRP review number to nearly 42,000, with applicants from Pakistan, Iraq, India, Iran and Yemen topping the list of countries with the most applicants being funneled into the mysterious process. Except India, all are countries whose residents are overwhelmingly Islamic.

In recent months, a small but growing number of lawsuits over delays have begun calling out the program by name in court. The ACLU reports four recent lawsuits nationally that have identified CARRP as responsible for unreasonable delays of Muslim applicants. More have escaped its notice.

Additional applicants whose challenges don’t reference the program directly in court filings are also believed to have become trapped in it based on long, unexplained processing delays due to vague security concerns. Houston’s Dahir Hassan became a legal U.S. resident in 1993, when he moved as a 3-year-old with his family from Somalia. He applied for citizenship in 2010 and was interviewed — typically the last bureaucratic hurdle before citizenship — a year later.

Yet court records show his application was held up for five years because of ongoing security checks. “What security issues?” asked his attorney, Ijeoma Opara. “He was a baby when he moved here!”

‘Non-known terrorists’

 

According to the ACLU report, as well as recent court filings in Texas, Florida, Minnesota and Missouri, among others, applications diverted into CARRP can be held up for several reasons. Applicants can be flagged as security threats for being identified as “known or suspected terrorists,” a group that includes names on the FBI’s Terrorist Watch List, which has been criticized as dramatically over-broad and out-of-date.

 

Applicants also can be delayed by CARRP as designated “non-known or suspected terrorists,” documents obtained by the ACLU show. Applicants can merit inclusion in this group due to vague “indicators” such as travel through areas of “known terrorist activity” or links to people or organizations as varied as mosques or community groups, according to lawyers and the civil liberties organization.

Critics say such fuzzy definitions cast too wide a net. CARRP “illegally brands innocent, law-abiding residents ... as ‘national security concerns’ on account of innocuous activity and associations, innuendo, suppositions and characteristics such as national origin,” Al Hatab, the Austin security guard, wrote in a legal filing last month.

Meanwhile, applications can stall for years as various agencies check for inconsistencies or gaps, trace money trails, or investigate suspicious employment histories or unusual technical skills, said Ozment — or for no good reason at all.

USCIS rarely reveals the reasoning behind its naturalization decisions outside of lawsuits. Yet immigration attorneys note that their success in quickly dislodging long-delayed applications after the mere filing of lawsuits suggests many of the lengthy holdups have been unnecessary.

By 2014, the citizenship applications of Richardson residents Ahmad Muhanna and his wife, Reem Muhanna, had been pending for seven years. Both U.S.-educated engineers, the Palestinian couple had lived in the United States since the mid-1980s, according to court filings.

A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles alleged they had been delayed by a CARRP review without any justifiable cause. Five months later, their case was quietly dismissed when, after the years of delays, the Muhannas’ applications were approved, a lawyer for the ACLU said.

James Hacking, a St. Louis immigration attorney, filed a similar case six months ago on behalf of 20 Muslims whose citizenship applications had been delayed for as long as two years. Hacking said he recently dropped 14 of the applicants from the case when USCIS suddenly approved them for naturalization.

 

‘Loyal to the USA’

Sediq said working as a translator for the U.S. Army offered good pay — as much as $1,500 a month. “But it’s 24 hours a day. You’re out every day on missions and exposed to everyone.” His unit’s convoy once was attacked by a suicide bomber. Another time it was hit with an explosion in which two Iraqi soldiers were killed and several Americans were injured.

Sediq decided to immigrate to the U.S in late 2009. After moving to Dallas to join a friend, he said, he accepted the first job he could find, loading newspapers at a warehouse for minimum wage. He took a part-time job with Wal-Mart.

But Sediq preferred military work, and a few months later, he was hired by a company that supplied native Middle Easterners to Fort Polk’s Joint Readiness Training Center to prepare soldiers deploying to Iraq, he said. The background check for the job included fingerprinting and a lengthy interview, he recalled. He worked three weeks at a time, sleeping with soldiers in the barracks.

Sediq applied for citizenship in August 2014. After being fingerprinted for his security check, he was scheduled for an interview in early 2015 — typically the final step of the naturalization process. But the interview was canceled at the last minute.

“I thought they were just backed up — that they’ll contact me soon,” he said. But months dragged by with no further word from the Citizenship and Immigration Services. “Every time I called, they would tell me my background check was pending,” he said.

He submitted letters of support from soldiers he’d worked with in Iraq. “I had the pleasure of working with Ahmed while he served as one of the Arabic and Kurdish interpreters,” one wrote. “Ahmed has been loyal to the United States of America and unwavering. I personally wish I could return the kindness he has shown my team.”

 

When “my vehicle was heavily damaged by an estimated 500 pounds of explosive,” another added, “two of my soldiers were injured and two nearby Iraqi soldiers were killed in the blast. Ahmed reacted courageously, remaining at my side. Ahmed has earned the opportunity to become a U.S. citizen.”

Sediq contacted U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s office seeking help. But it received the same response from the immigration agency: “unresolved background check issues.” A year after his interview cancellation, Sediq hired a lawyer.

Depending on how long the case took, he was told, fees to fight USCIS could soar to tens of thousands of dollars. Lance Curtright, a San Antonio immigration attorney, grilled him: Had Sediq ever been arrested? Not paid taxes? The checks came back clean, Curtright said. To pay his mounting legal fees, Sediq said, he took a second job as a driver for a ride-sharing company.

The unexplained delays led Curtright to believe Sediq’s application had been funneled into the CARRP black hole. In April, the lawyer wrote to the agency warning that if it didn’t schedule a new interview, he would sue in federal court. Two weeks later, it responded — by asking Sediq to submit new fingerprints.

Finally, on July 7, Sediq was granted his interview. In it, he denied being involved terrorism or associated with any terrorists. He was sworn in as a citizen a month and a half later, never having learned why his application was delayed.

“It was a really great moment when I took the oath,” said Sediq, who was promoted to a manager at his security company and is studying accounting. “But it would’ve tasted different if I didn’t have to go through all this and fight for it. I worked for the Army, was under attack just like soldiers. I proved myself. What made them think I wasn’t going to be a good citizen?”

why you post something from google and post it there u don't know what you talking about , beside there is 3.45m Muslims in untied  states 

 

Recent political debates over Muslim immigration and related issues have prompted many people to ask how many Muslims actually live in the United States. But coming up with an answer is not easy, in part because the U.S. Census Bureau does not ask questions about religion, meaning there is no official government count of the U.S. Muslim population.

 

United states govt treat  everyone as respect and equal this is normal process for everyone no matter where you came from India , Afghanistan , this is has nothing to do with name or religious everyone should follow their normal process and please do not put hate comment on user question that would hurts his feelings 

[bestluck 71]

1 minute ago, love_my_wife said:

Did you read the article?? I am just trying to point out that the OP might be caught up in the CARRP and hence taking longer than usual for his background checks and you are denying it!

 

From the article... "Immigration attorneys and court filings charge that Sediq and others are victims of a little-known government program intended to weed out national security threats. But they say the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program, or CARRP, also traps innocent applicants for U.S. citizenship — most from majority Islamic countries — in a frustrating bureaucratic limbo. It has forced applicants to incur thousands of dollars in unnecessary legal fees, restricted their travel and, in some instances, delayed the reunion of separated families"

 

 

You don't know if he got stuck with name issued or background check , Again this is normal process for everyone and you don't need to copy from google and post it here with every user answer question cos you don't know people background name or anything at all so again i am not agree with your comment about religious or name list . so Please do not put comment such blame any Religious 

[bestluck 71]

5 minutes ago, love_my_wife said:

Where am I blaming any religion. Do you understand English? Please show me a comment where I blamed any religion. You are incorrectly accusing me of blaming a religion! Please learn some English. You need to brush up on your comprehension skills!

Yes I do understand English, I am not going to details with you but mods will read the  comment and show some respect to any religion   

Edited March 16, 2019 by bestluck

[TBoneTX 45,288]

The bickering stops now.