120 days after N400 interview

[afrocraft 313]

Honestly, there are a number of possible reasons for the delay. It could simply be that the officer in charge of your case has gone on a prolonged leave or left the Service. In addition to trying your Congressional rep, try writing a letter, sent certified mail return receipt, to the field office (check mailing address on USCIS website) asking for an update, and reminding them of the 120-day decision deadline.

 

Hopefully it doesn't get to this, but in the event you need to sue USCIS, you're in a better position if you can show that you've exhausted all your administrative remedies.

[peacan 7]

This piece of advice really helps thank you so much 

[implife 318]

If your contacting the senator doesn't help, I would consider applying for Naturalization again.

[Hypnos 6,576]

2 hours ago, implife said:

If your contacting the senator doesn't help, I would consider applying for Naturalization again.

That is an absolutely terrible idea. 

[afrocraft 313]

9 hours ago, Hypnos said:

That is an absolutely terrible idea. 

Beyond terrible!

[implife 318]

10 hours ago, Hypnos said:

That is an absolutely terrible idea. 

why?

[Hypnos 6,576]

Because adding a second N-400 to the mix when there's already one floating around is just asking for bad things to happen. 

 

I'm not even sure you're allowed to have two pending N-400s at the same time. 

 

And if there's some kind of underlying issue with the first one, it may well occur to the second one too. 

 

It's a really bad idea, and at best would be a band-aid. 

[implife 318]

1 minute ago, Hypnos said:

bad things to happen

That's kind of vague, wouldn't you agree?

Are you saying that suing the government is a better idea? (not to mention spending thousands of dollars in the process)

 

I'm not saying I'm right, but I am actually speaking from similar experience of a family member. Here's the story in a nutshell:

1) person applied for naturalization in ~2005

2) application accepted, but no action taken for ~3 years

3) multiple letters to multiple officials, including Bush Jr (that one I wrote myself :-)) and multiple appointments, including a trip to VSC (their jaws dropped, but we were actually visiting friends in St. Albans)

4) or yeah, paying a lawyer at some point, some sort of class action

= NOTHING

5) finally, submitted another application, and it worked like a charm, they found and processed the first one within weeks

 

I know it's not an identical situation, but something that worked for us.

[Hypnos 6,576]

When there is a specific provision in law that directly addresses your issue, I don't know why filing a fresh application would seem like a good idea. 1447(b) exists for a very good reason and it specifically addresses USCIS stalling on an N-400 by allowing the court to approve it if they so wish (and this has happened on multiple occasions). 

 

Having multiple applications floating around is just not the best way to address something like this at all. 

 

Can hiring a lawyer for a 1447(b) action be expensive? Certainly. However, there are DIY guides on the internet showing how people did it themselves for just a few hundred dollars in filing fees and process server costs. During a time when there were issues with my N-400 I found one of those templates and drafted my own lawsuit on it, for later use if need be, and I'm certainly not the smartest guy in the world. 

 

It's great that it worked out for your relative, but I would never recommend anything like that when there are far better alternatives available. 

Edited July 7, 2019 by Hypnos

[implife 318]

2 minutes ago, Hypnos said:

better alternatives available. 

I don't disagree, I'm just saying there may be cases where alternatives do not work.

[peacan 7]

Thank you all for your precious pieces of advice. I am going to write a letter to my service center in Tucson, AZ first on Friday, mail it out they will receive it on Monday. Saturday July 13 marks 120 days after the initial interview. I will call again to speak to a tier two officer since the last two were just operators, that's just my guess. I do have a pending service request that I have not received a response yet. Do you think these are best options before bringing them to court? I think the last one is a little extreme.

[afrocraft 313]

3 hours ago, peacan said:

Thank you all for your precious pieces of advice. I am going to write a letter to my service center in Tucson, AZ first on Friday, mail it out they will receive it on Monday. Saturday July 13 marks 120 days after the initial interview. I will call again to speak to a tier two officer since the last two were just operators, that's just my guess. I do have a pending service request that I have not received a response yet. Do you think these are best options before bringing them to court? I think the last one is a little extreme.

Your only administrative remedies are:

• Contact USCIS directly by opening a service request/writing to the field office (I guess that's what you meant, not the service center)
• Speak to someone in the field office via InfoPass (but that's not an option for you)
• Ask your Congressional rep to follow-up through their agency liaison officers
• Ask the CIS Ombudsman for help

[afrocraft 313]

6 hours ago, implife said:

5) finally, submitted another application, and it worked like a charm, they found and processed the first one within weeks

 

I know it's not an identical situation, but something that worked for us.

How do you know it was the second application that did the trick?

[peacan 7]

Hi all,

 

I made an inforpass appointment when it was still available. They told me to wait, I waited for 8 weeks, I contacted Congressman in my district. It didn't help because I guess the 120 day mark was not mature yet.

 

I put in a service request via the 1800 number after the 90 day mark was mature. I did this because when I called before the 90 day mark, the lady suggested I call back after 90 days. So I have a pending service request.

 

This coming Friday I am going to mail out a letter to my Field Office in Tucson.

 

I can't think of an obstacle that has caused such a delay rather then the fact that upon arrival to my interview, they tried to send me home believing that my I-751 had not been approved yet but it had. I had to show him the card before he and his supervisor agreed to interview me. It went smooth after that, he asked me six questions to which I answered correctly to. 

 

This morning, I sent a message using the page provided by USCIS when I first sent in my application. This method gets you a quick response however the answers have always been vaguely broad and general. This particular message I composed serves more like a reminder that the 120 day mark is coming up. I hope this helps. To be brutally honest, I am exhausted and deeply frustrated right now. Thank you all for your kind, informative words and support. I will certainly keep you posted on the progress of my case. If you have any other ideas that you come across, please share in order to help me, and others who are in the same situation.

[peacan 7]

I am hopeful that the tier two officer will be able to help when I call on Monday July 15th.