Leumas

If you’re employed, tell your employer. Have a party! It’s a long journey.

Here's my experience... For benchmarking, I was naturalized on 5/29... I tried to make an appointment online but couldn't, so I started calling. I tried multiple times calling my local office but the phone never got answered. In fact, if you hold too long, the system will just hang up on you. Eventually, I tried the national number. Again, the hold time was very long. I tried on several different days and different times, but one day I got lucky and the call was answered inside 5 minutes. Ironically, the successful call was made around lunch time, which I thought would be a busy time. Anyway, the agent was friendly and confirmation was sent via text. The text had a link allowing you to modify the appointment. I tried the link a few times but it never worked. The only reason I tried the link was the text (there was no email) didn't contain the location of the appointment, only the date and time. I thought I'd check the location but never managed to. Anyway, not wanting to call again, I trusted the process. The day prior to the appointment, another text arrived reminding me of the appointment. This text had another link, telling me to check in via the link when I get there. Today (7/11) at 9am was the appointment. I arrived about 15 minutes prior, with a line welcoming me. I checked in and was given my ticket number via a confirmation text. The check-in link takes you to a web site, which has geo-fencing features on it, I guess to make sure you're actually at the office. Security came out a few minutes prior opening, reminding people not to bring any weapons in. Also, to not talk on the phone while inside in case people mentioned their SSNs. He said if he sees anyone on the phone, they'll be asked to step outside and potentially miss your ticket being call and have to start again. Then he asked for people wanting a SSN, we got pulled out of the line. He checked our appointments. Sat down at the lobby. Another few minutes wait and I was called to a desk. A very kind lady asked how she could help. I told her I was recently naturalized and need to have my records updated. She congratulated me and I gave her the SS-5 form and my naturalization certificate, along with my DL. She pulled up my record and said, oh yes, it needs to be updated (so don't trust the n-400 form that it'll tell SSA to update). She checked the details, asked me my mother's name (I guess just as a verification measure), put my DL under the blue light to check its validity. Then she printed a receipt and asked me to confirm my name and address. She said the new card will arrive inside 2 weeks, if not, call and reference the receipt. Moment from parking the car to leaving the parking lot was about 30 minutes.

You can always fill in the form in front of them and they can tell you what to write down…?

Personally, I'd let a sleeping dog lie. If they RFE it, deal with it then. But I'm not a lawyer or any kind of an expert...

My straightforward case, in Dallas, took 85 days from the day I submitted the application to the day of taking the oath. But I'm just one data point. The web site always said around 8 months for Dallas while my case was in progress.

FWIW, my letter didn't mention guests one way or the other. However, on the day, they decided 1 guest despite having a lot of chairs set up. They claimed it was a fire hazard... Mine was the second ceremony of the day, so there was a lot of people milling around, not to mention people that were there for their interviews. There were also volunteers registering people to vote.

That. I remember with my ceremony (just 6 weeks ago), there was staff that made sure the city was filled in correctly. It needs to be the city of the office or where you take the oath and not where you live. Personally, I filled it in at home that morning.

Do you have family and friends that can write a notarized letter saying you guys are in a real relationship? Any photos that you can include of both of you and with your family and friends?

Health/Medical insurance? Does one of you cover the other and the child?

IMHO, better to stick with the current way in grouping them by months as I suspect baseline questions / experiences change over time.

Disappointing and frustrating when you're so close... Don't worry though, maybe they'll reschedule you on 4th of July, wouldn't that be cool?

I was asked this during my in-person interview. To be honest, I didn't really know what these technical terms mean, so I asked the interviewer for clarifications. Now that I understand the meaning of 'nonresident alien', I don't understand why anyone will say they're a 'nonresident alien' if they have a GC...

I see your 3 weeks and raise you with my 2 months 🤣

I was notified around early April, about 5 weeks before the interview.

I’m based in Dallas. Filed online in early March, had my interview mid May and oath yesterday. My case is pretty straight forward though.