Question about international travel planned after oath ceremony

[jackiegringa 419]

On 1/22/2024 at 7:02 AM, klems10024 said:

Well I did secure the passport appointment just after my ceremony and I will have proof of international travel for a few days later so it should work just fine.

Rooting for you - passport waiting times are way more reasonable now than months ago, there's a good chance you will get it on time! And even emergency ones, I'm sure it's easier to pencil in those when the line isn't 4 months deep

Edited January 23 by jackiegringa

[klems10024 23]

Quick update: I had my oath ceremony this morning (took almost 3 hours!), and I had snagged an appointment at the passport agency this afternoon. I was in and out in 10 minutes, I showed my proof of travel and they told me my passport will be ready on Tuesday! So it all worked out ! Appreciate everyone's advice! 

[harry.st 62]

On 2/2/2024 at 9:48 PM, klems10024 said:

Quick update: I had my oath ceremony this morning (took almost 3 hours!),

 

3 hours in NYC? I did it last summer... I cannot imagine how 3 hrs would be possible (I am not saying they were rushing things, but it was clear nobody wanted to waste time either).

 

Do you care to share what happened? Did you take the ceremony-in-a-courthouse option (which I heard is longish)?

Edited February 5 by harry.st

[klems10024 23]

9 minutes ago, harry.st said:

 

3 hours in NYC? I did it last summer... I cannot imagine how it would be possible (I am not saying they were rushing things, but it was clear nobody wanted to waste time either).

 

Do you care to share what happened? Did you take the ceremony-in-a-courthouse option (I heard that is longish).

 

Yeah it was at a courthouse. My invitation was at 9am, and there were a LOT of people. 160 folks were getting their naturalization. They dont start anything until everyone is there, so nothing really started until 9:45am or so. Then they check everyone in individually, take your green card, then you line again to sign your certificate of naturalization. Then you sit again, you wait some more, the judge comes to do a speech, and then you wait for your turn to be called to get your certificate. I was out around noon. I'm not really sure why we had to wait for everyone to have arrived so they could start processing. 

[killadocg23 88]

On 1/16/2024 at 1:14 PM, mam521 said:

I naturalized at the end of April last year with required work travel booked before my ceremony was even scheduled.  Attend your ceremony, get your certificate and then when it's within 10 days of travel, call DoS and ask for an emergency appointment.  The caveat here is that you may not get an appointment where you live - you may have to travel within the US for your appointment.  Additionally, you may not get a same day passport.  It's often next day passport, so you have to be prepared to spend 2 days sitting in a passport office.  

 

When you do get your appointment, you will have to provide the passport officer your evidence of travel in addition to your passport application and naturalization certificate.  You will get the naturalization certificate back when you pick up your passport.  Make sure you CHECK the passport for correctness before you leave the building.  Mine had a typo which lead to an additional 3 hours of waiting for a reprint of the passport.  

Were you able to do this locally in Houston? 

[mam521 2,024]

On 4/19/2024 at 1:54 PM, killadocg23 said:

Were you able to do this locally in Houston? 

Yes, but I had to be prepared to go anywhere, if need be.  

 

That said, we did expedited passports for my kids in December.  Appointments at the Post Office on the 19th, both were printed on the 26th and shipped out.  One came on Dec. 29th and the other just after the New Year.  Pretty darned fast considering there's a pair of holidays in there.