Oath ceremony pending - NYC (March 2022 filer)

[hamont 6]

Hey y'all,

 

I passed my interview on August 9th and I have been waiting for my oath ceremony to be scheduled ever since. I'm not sure what the hang up seems to be considering that a bunch of people who had their interview in the city after me got theirs scheduled already.

 

It's already been more than 3 months and I've called USCIS twice to inquire about it but nothing they could really do except tell me to be more patient. I did try to escalate my second call to a tier 2 officer but the lady I spoke with on the phone told me she wasn't able to do that? 

 

At this point I don't really know if there's anything else I can do to get them to hurry up and get this over with? 

 

Any help, tips, positive waves appreciated, thanks! 

 

[Dashinka 24,492]

Are you doing a name change?  Sometimes that can delay things as name change oaths have to be done by a federal judge, whereas others not doing a name change can do an administrative oath.

 

Good Luck, and stay patient, you are nearing the finish line.

[Mike E 11,739]

5 hours ago, hamont said:

At this point I don't really know if there's anything else I can do to get them to hurry up and get this over with? 

You’ve no standing to do anything until December 7, which will be 120 days.  At that point you must do the following (and document each step) to force action:

 

* Call USCIS, say info pass, and request a tier 2 officer call you regarding your case. 
 

* If the above fails, file a case with the USCIS ombudsman 

 

* Optional: if the above fails, contact your federal senator or congressional representative about your case 

 

* hire an immigration attorney who has experience litigating de novo reviews of N-400 cases in federal court.  Once the suit is filed, USCIS will most likely offer to settle out of court. Accept nothing less than the administration of your oath of citizenship and a naturalization certificate. Don’t let them con you   
 

* if you go to court, after your case is approved, your attorney should ask the judge to administer your oath of citizenship versus sending the oath back to USCIS. Your attorney will have a good argument: the reason everyone is in the court room is because USCIS was delaying the oath so why trust USCIS to administer oath now?

 

Realistically this will take as long as July 2023.  

[hamont 6]

6 hours ago, Dashinka said:

Are you doing a name change?  Sometimes that can delay things as name change oaths have to be done by a federal judge, whereas others not doing a name change can do an administrative oath.

 

Good Luck, and stay patient, you are nearing the finish line.

No, not even! That's what's odd. Thank you, I'm hanging in there  

 

5 hours ago, Mike E said:

You’ve no standing to do anything until December 7, which will be 120 days.  At that point you must do the following (and document each step) to force action:

 

* Call USCIS, say info pass, and request a tier 2 officer call you regarding your case. 
 

* If the above fails, file a case with the USCIS ombudsman 

 

* Optional: if the above fails, contact your federal senator or congressional representative about your case 

 

* hire an immigration attorney who has experience litigating de novo reviews of N-400 cases in federal court.  Once the suit is filed, USCIS will most likely offer to settle out of court. Accept nothing less than the administration of your oath of citizenship and a naturalization certificate. Don’t let them con you   
 

* if you go to court, after your case is approved, your attorney should ask the judge to administer your oath of citizenship versus sending the oath back to USCIS. Your attorney will have a good argument: the reason everyone is in the court room is because USCIS was delaying the oath so why trust USCIS to administer oath now?

 

Realistically this will take as long as July 2023.  

That's massively helpful, thanks a lot for putting all of that together! Hopefully it doesn't get to the point where I have to go through all those steps, I'll keep you all posted 

[hamont 6]

Giving a bit of an update. I'm still waiting (shocker) and I can't quite comprehend such level of incompetence. 

 

I have reached out to USCIS 7 times in the past 8 months. I've also recently filed a case with my senator and congressional representative as well as the USCIS ombudsman (I didn't do it sooner because every time I would get in touch with USCIS, I'd have to wait 30 days minimum at a time for them to get back to me. I didn't want those two requests to run concurrently, in hindsight I realize it was probably a mistake). I even wrote a letter addressed to the officer who interviewed me at the Manhattan field office... I'm not holding my breath on any of those though given the agency's previous track record. 

 

The last update I got from them was that they needed to get my records from the National Records Center, so they could better understand what the bottleneck was, and then get back to me. They said it would take between three to six weeks. It's been eight. 

 

Now the issue I'm facing is that my conditional green card is expiring in May and I'm not going to receive a 10-year green card. I got a letter stating that since my N-400 had been approved, I would just have to wait for the oath ceremony to take place. However, as far as I know, I'm legally obliged to possess an unexpired proof of residency with me at all times. As such, what are my options? Do I have to get an appointment with USCIS so they can extend my conditional green card by stamping my passeport? This is all so silly and such a waste of human resource on their end as well when they could just give me the damn certificate. What a farce. 

[Mike E 11,739]

On 11/12/2022 at 6:34 AM, Mike E said:

At that point you must do the following (and document each step) to force action:

 

* Call USCIS, say info pass, and request a tier 2 officer call you regarding your case. 
 

* If the above fails, file a case with the USCIS ombudsman 

 

* Optional: if the above fails, contact your federal senator or congressional representative about your case 

Did you try the ombudsman?

[hamont 6]

On 4/19/2023 at 7:54 PM, Mike E said:

Did you try the ombudsman?

Yes I submitted a request almost a month ago. I got a response saying that they had reached out and that they'll notify me whenever they hear back from them. 

[Mike E 11,739]

26 minutes ago, hamont said:

Yes I submitted a request almost a month ago. I got a response saying that they had reached out and that they'll notify me whenever they hear back from them. 

At day 30 start talking to a lawyer

[Henras 0]

On 11/12/2022 at 3:14 AM, hamont said:

Hey y'all,

 

I passed my interview on August 9th and I have been waiting for my oath ceremony to be scheduled ever since. I'm not sure what the hang up seems to be considering that a bunch of people who had their interview in the city after me got theirs scheduled already.

 

It's already been more than 3 months and I've called USCIS twice to inquire about it but nothing they could really do except tell me to be more patient. I did try to escalate my second call to a tier 2 officer but the lady I spoke with on the phone told me she wasn't able to do that? 

 

At this point I don't really know if there's anything else I can do to get them to hurry up and get this over with? 

 

Any help, tips, positive waves appreciated, thanks! 

 

Any updates here? I’m on the same boat. 150 days since my interview, they are saying i’m in queue for a i751 interview even though my interview was a def a combo interview…

[hamont 6]

On 5/5/2023 at 9:27 PM, Henras said:

Any updates here? I’m on the same boat. 150 days since my interview, they are saying i’m in queue for a i751 interview even though my interview was a def a combo interview…

I got an update this morning. My oath ceremony is scheduled for next month. It was about time!

 

Hang in there, I know it's hard to be patient when the system is made so there's very little transparency.

 

Thanks y'all for your support 

[Henras 0]

3 minutes ago, hamont said:

I got an update this morning. My oath ceremony is scheduled for next month. It was about time!

 

Hang in there, I know it's hard to be patient when the system is made so there's very little transparency.

 

Thanks y'all for your support 

Awesome! congrats!!

 

how long was your wait after the interview? And did you find out what the issue was?

[hamont 6]

On 5/8/2023 at 7:01 PM, Henras said:

Awesome! congrats!!

 

how long was your wait after the interview? And did you find out what the issue was?

Thank you!

 

9 months. I have no clue. They said they would get my file from the National Records Center to get more insights but they never got back to me.

 

I don't know what/who unlocked the situation either. Could be the ombudsman, could be the senator, could be the congressman, could be me pestering them about getting a ADIT stamp in my passport. I don't think I'll ever get any closure on that unfortunately. At this point I think I'm just happy I can move on with my life though haha. 

 

Edited May 12, 2023 by hamont