N 400 February 2020 Filers

[Alonso Ramirez 32]

2 minutes ago, NotMoreForms said:

There has been movement.  I have seen an April filer go through the whole process in San Bernardino (my office) and another California person go through.  Not sure how they got through out of order.  Otherwise seems all quiet.

What?! Man they must have had friends in high places. Maybe time to call my member of Congress. 

[NotMoreForms 68]

8 minutes ago, Alonso Ramirez said:

What?! Man they must have had friends in high places. Maybe time to call my member of Congress. 

A nice big donation to the right super pac can make things happen very fast. 

[TeamMcGregor 21]

Hi friends! 

 

After having a COMPLETE MELTDOWN yesterday afternoon because stupid me didn't check all her docs sooner and realizing I didn't have an original birth certificate for my husband - just certified copy - and worrying that would cause a delay, then proceeding to panic-call the in-laws and have them scan a bunch of copies of a couple different versions of the certificate and panic-ordering some for our records because THIS IS NEVER HAPPENING AGAIN...I had my interview today. Honolulu field office. 

I arrived about 3 minutes before my scheduled time. Went through security and sat down until an immigration officer called me to go into the interview room. He swore me in and started checking my personal info, my husband's date of birth, and a couple other things like my parents' names. Then before i could realize what was happening he started the civics test questions. Here are the ones I remember: 

- Name one Native American tribe (I said Lakota)

- How many voting members in the House of Representatives (I said 435)

- Name one of the branches of government (I said Congress)

- Name three of the first 13 colonies (I said NY, MA, and NC)

- How many amendments to the Constitution (I said 27)

and I can't remember the last question. I only needed the six. 

 

He did ask a little about my travel history (I had multiple trips to South Korea while my husband was teaching there - I had a reentry permit but was never out for more than 6 months and never claimed residence anywhere else). He just thought Korea was a random place to go to often. 

 

My reading question was When is Columbus Day?

My writing sentences was "Columbus Day is in October". 

 

Honolulu is doing oath ceremonies in office. There was one today but it was too late for me to join so I'm scheduled for the 14th. 

 

These message boards have been a trusted source of information and fellowship the past 8 years. Thank you to everyone who posts here! Only one more forum to post on! (Passports!)

 

YAY! Wishing everyone speedy next steps! 

[DutchMex 4]

Hi guys,

 

So I had my appointment for the naturalization test today. At the Royal Palm Beach FL center. All went great! No waiting, on the minute I was called for the test. 10 Easy questions, one sentence to write, some more questions about my travels and work. Then she moved on to the pledge of allegiance, since they don't do separate ceremonies due to Covid-19. So within the hour I stood outside with my Certificate of Naturalization in my hand. A wonderful, and super fast experience! I wish you all well with your applications.

 

Happy Holidays & stay safe!

[Soley 73]

31 minutes ago, DutchMex said:

Hi guys,

 

So I had my appointment for the naturalization test today. At the Royal Palm Beach FL center. All went great! No waiting, on the minute I was called for the test. 10 Easy questions, one sentence to write, some more questions about my travels and work. Then she moved on to the pledge of allegiance, since they don't do separate ceremonies due to Covid-19. So within the hour I stood outside with my Certificate of Naturalization in my hand. A wonderful, and super fast experience! I wish you all well with your applications.

 

Happy Holidays & stay safe!

Gefeliciteerd!! 
 

Thanks for sharing, I have mine tomorrow at the same place. I wasn’t sure whether the ceremony would be a few weeks later or on the same day, as someone else posted about a ceremony a couple of weeks later. So you just answered my question 🙂

 

Once again: congratulations!!! 🎉🍾 🇺🇸 
and Happy Holidays! 🎄🌴

[rocklobstermass 41]

22 hours ago, Alonso Ramirez said:

Hello y'all! So has anyone from California seen any movement on their case AT ALL?! I know we have a higher load than all other states, but wow! No movement for any of us whatsoever it seems like. 

Still sitting in MN since February. Speed seems to depend on which field office has your case for review

Edited December 3, 2020 by rocklobstermass

[Albator 17]

23 hours ago, Alonso Ramirez said:

Hello y'all! So has anyone from California seen any movement on their case AT ALL?! I know we have a higher load than all other states, but wow! No movement for any of us whatsoever it seems like. 

Hello Alonso and everyone,

 

Los Angeles filer here. I have not seen any movement for LA field office for February or even January 2020 filers. However I think USCIS in LA is currently working on November 2019 filers. I recently discovered this timeline tool on visajourney, it is truly helpful when people update their timeline on their profile. 
https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/citlist.php?op6=All&op7=Los+Angeles+CA&op1=6&op2=&op4=1&op5=5%2C10%2C11&cfl=

 

So for LA February filers, I hope we will hear something in February or early March for an interview in April or May at the latest. Hard to predict any timeline nowadays but it is what I hope 😊.

 

Take care everyone!

[aa1979 100]

3 minutes ago, Albator said:

Hello Alonso and everyone,

 

Los Angeles filer here. I have not seen any movement for LA field office for February or even January 2020 filers. However I think USCIS in LA is currently working on November 2019 filers. I recently discovered this timeline tool on visajourney, it is truly helpful when people update their timeline on their profile. 
https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/citlist.php?op6=All&op7=Los+Angeles+CA&op1=6&op2=&op4=1&op5=5%2C10%2C11&cfl=

 

So for LA February filers, I hope we will hear something in February or early March for an interview in April or May at the latest. Hard to predict any timeline nowadays but it is what I hope 😊.

 

Take care everyone!

The problem is that we have too many people on here that are not updating their own timeline!

[Albator 17]

Hello Aa1979, 

I completely hear you, hence my comment about updating the timeline. However, for now, that is all we have. I also often check the Facebook group N-400 Citizenship through Naturalization. People are sharing their timeline on there too. By cross checking both, you can get a rough idea of the timeline, which is honestly pretty consistent with what USCIS website announced (at least for LA 13.5 to 19 months). 
Let’s just hope that we wont see anything coming our way that could shut down or delay USCIS temporary and aggravate the delay we are all suffering. Fingers crossed 🤞🏻 😉

[ThaOne 101]

On 12/2/2020 at 2:21 PM, Alonso Ramirez said:

What?! Man they must have had friends in high places. Maybe time to call my member of Congress. 

The issue is not only do field offices go at their own speeds depending on their loads, so one office may have less than another office, but within the same office two people who file the same day may have completely different outcomes based on many factors:

- time for background checks

- how many documents were submitted and need to be reviewed by the officer(s)

- most importantly what I have heard is, there isn't a "ticket number system" for order of cases received in an office. If you go to the DMV (pre covid at least) when you enter you take a number sequentially and as soon as one agent is available you walk to that booth. From what I read, USCIS doesn't work that way. A big batch of cases are assigned to the officers in one go. So if your case gets to an officer the same day as another case goes to another officer even that same day, if your officer is slower, or has more complex and time consuming cases you may be held up, but others with another officer may be going faster. 

 

All this is how within the same office there are such discrepancies. Since I am on a role with analogies, here is another one: You go to the grocery store and there are many checkout lanes. You and your friend pick a different lane. Your friend's lane gets moving and he is done and you are still stuck in your lane although you both got to your lanes within the same store at the same time.

[Cherubic 1]

My N400 NOA date is Feb 28th, 2020, and my biometrics was just recently taken on Nov 30th due to COVID reschedule. It took 9 months to get the biometrics done for me in Dallas office. For a February filer, I have the worst luck.

When should I expect the interview to take place? 12 months since the filing, or 12 months since the biometrics? Current N400 processing time of Dallas office is 12.5 - 15.5 months.

 

[bzbee 93]

20 minutes ago, Cherubic said:

My N400 NOA date is Feb 28th, 2020, and my biometrics was just recently taken on Nov 30th due to COVID reschedule. It took 9 months to get the biometrics done for me in Dallas office. For a February filer, I have the worst luck.

When should I expect the interview to take place? 12 months since the filing, or 12 months since the biometrics? Current N400 processing time of Dallas office is 12.5 - 15.5 months.

 

Dallas is currently 11-13 months to interview from NOA. Biometrics is just one step in the process and doesn't affect your overall timeline.

 

FYI, I filed on 26-FEB-2020 in Dallas and did my biometrics on 06-MAR (early walk-in). The current estimate for me is MAY-2021. I am expecting to get my interview sometime in Feb or Mar. Hope that helps.

 

Also, the Dallas thread shows that Nov & Dec 2019 filers are currently getting interview notices.

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by bzbee

[Cherubic 1]

22 minutes ago, bzbee said:

Dallas is currently 11-13 months to interview from NOA. Biometrics is just one step in the process and doesn't affect your overall timeline.

 

FYI, I filed on 26-FEB-2020 in Dallas and did my biometrics on 06-MAR (early walk-in). The current estimate for me is MAY-2021. I am expecting to get my interview sometime in Feb or Mar. Hope that helps.

 

Also, the Dallas thread shows that Nov & Dec 2019 filers are currently getting interview notices.

 

Thank you so very much bzbee. I was not as lucky as you to be admitted for an early walk-in at Whitehurst. I did attempt to do it on 1 day before but I was denied at the check-in.

My online estimated completion time starts to give me a horribly long wait time right after I finished the biometrics. I hope this estimate is messed up, I wish your estimate will be true for me, and I will get the interview not too long after you are done with it. 

 

Does Irving typically offer the same-day oath? Do you plan to change your name? I think about changing mine but I'm extremely terrified by a longer wait time for a judicial oath ceremony.

[aa1979 100]

12 minutes ago, Cherubic said:

Thank you so very much bzbee. I was not as lucky as you to be admitted for an early walk-in at Whitehurst. I did attempt to do it on 1 day before but I was denied at the check-in.

My online estimated completion time starts to give me a horribly long wait time right after I finished the biometrics. I hope this estimate is messed up, I wish your estimate will be true for me, and I will get the interview not too long after you are done with it. 

 

Does Irving typically offer the same-day oath? Do you plan to change your name? I think about changing mine but I'm extremely terrified by a longer wait time for a judicial oath ceremony.

If I have to guess, I would say you will probably wait longer than someone who applied and had their fingerprints within a reasonable timeline. I don't know where I read it, but I think I read somewhere that the biometric is what makes your signature "official" and where they make sure that it was you who actually applied. I think it would be fair to assume that without biometrics, your application is viewed as incomplete and therefore not processed.  

 

Not too many people are in your situation or similar to it, so it would be interesting to see what ends up happening to your file and how fast or slow it gets processed.

Edited December 7, 2020 by aa1979

[Trav228 17]

20 minutes ago, aa1979 said:

If I have to guess, I would say you will probably wait longer than someone who applied and had their fingerprints within a reasonable timeline. I don't know where I read it, but I think I read somewhere that the biometric is what makes your signature "official" and where they make sure that it was you who actually applied. I think it would be fair to assume that without biometrics, your application is viewed as incomplete and therefore not processed.  

 

Not too many people are in your situation or similar to it, so it would be interesting to see what ends up happening to your file and how fast or slow it gets processed.

Good day, 

so in order for your background check to get started you have to complete your biometrics, after you do your biometric the background check process starts, that normally take from 3 weeks to  3 months to get completed, after that a supervisor will review your case and if everything adds up the way they want it too then your case will be put in line for a interview..hope that help 

Edited December 7, 2020 by Trav228