Peot

The most that these notices do is give you hope that progress is being made on your file. Most of the time these notices don't contain any useful information, and often you will be more aware of the situation per mailed correspondence than the online system. So again, all you know is "progress is being made" in this case - details will generally follow later, via being mailed to you.

A major benefit is that the paperwork for N400 is done online. It even gives you time to save and add to the draft later. Mostly documents include a marriage certificate, passport, tax transcript, and that's really about it unless you have other situational documents to provide (court, military, divorce decrees, child birth certificates, etc). N400 documentation is the easiest of all the processes - in most cases, even biometrics can be reused from previous - so it's not something that should scare you away from applying.

Not sure if it brings much solace (or that glimmer of hope you wanted), but the fact that they asked for the passport is a great sign - they will apply the Visa to his passport and then return it to him. I would also take the "he was barely asked any questions at all" as another good sign that things went well. It's only when they ask a lot of follow-ups that you should start to worry! Sounds like everything went well and the 221g was logical and something you can overcome. Pending review is not the same as denied, and as with everything in this journey, it can (and will) take time. Stay on them, keep asking for updates when you have questions, and before he'll know it he'll get that visa in the mail - then it's off to the races!

Nerves aren't enough to get you out of it, but it's nothing to be nervous about! I strongly recommend purchasing "flash cards" online for the 100 questions. This will make those questions a breeze. Or, just study the official test: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/questions-and-answers/100q.pdf As far as the reading/writing comprehension it's also very easy 1st grade stuff. Eg: "Please read: What was the first state?" "Please write: "The first state was Delaware". (This answer would be provided by the way, you are just asked to write whatever they say). If your wife has been living and existing in the US for 3 years, it should be an easy win.

Speak truthfully. Yes, they can (and usually do) ask why you want to get citizenship. Your answer shouldn't be rehearsed or overthought. Instead, decide why you are applying for the N400, and your answer could be as simple as "I want the right to vote", or it can be more complicated, but should be true to your situation. Funny enough, your answer of This is not quite correct. One of the 100 questions you will be studying to pass the civics exam notes that freedom of speech is a right of everyone living in the United States, not just citizens 😉 And, there have even been cases brought to court that show non-citizens can "bear arms" and are protected under the second amendment. So, your proposed answer may actually hurt you more than help you.

Get a job sooner than later, and the longer you wait until after having the job, the better. I really wouldn't wait until the last minute if I were in your shoes. Just because you can have a co-sponsor, doesn't mean that they won't still consider your circumstances and how you personally will be able to support your fiancé/spouse. If you can show that you can maintain a steady job/income, that's good. Also throwing it out there that it sounds like, in your situation, because you won't have a continuous income to show on tax forms a co-sponsor will be a requirement, not an option at this point. That's why it's even more important to show that you too have some ability to support them.

Everyone's story is different for sure. I was naturalized under 3 year rule, and despite this being the result of a marriage, the USCIS rep seemed downright cranky that I would even suggest to bring my spouse in the room with me. I admit I still tried to bring them in there! After all was said and done, I realized it really wasn't necessary for them to attend, and no questions even pertained to the marriage. Just trying to play devil's advocate that even if your spouse can't attend, it won't be the end of the world, and the interview can still be very pleasant and successful!

It's at the USCIS' discretion whether or not to allow biometrics to happen while overseas, and I've heard that it takes rare/extenuating circumstances to allow it. It also depends on the quality of the biometric services (if any) at your local field office. Call your local USCIS field office (or US embassy, consulate, etc) and ask for an appointment - if they grant one, you're good to go. If not, you might be able to escalate it with a call to USCIS in US to ask for an exception to be made and then go through that process again of trying to book locally. If that too gets denied, you would unfortunately be limited to traveling back to the United States, and I don't see a way around that.

For what it's worth, I'm sure you'll be fine. Travel will be fine - you can likely prove very easily that you have no intention of abandoning residency. As long as you have evidence showing you maintained your address, received mail there, paid taxes there, etc.. you will be fine. Contrary to what others might suggest here, I see no benefit to having your spouse at the N400 if you are just doing that interview. It's not required at all. For I-751 joint interview, it's much more necessary because the questions are quite literally about the relationship at that point. My spouse was able to attend I-751 but not N400. I have heard from others who did a joint interview that their spouse was allowed in the room for the first half, and then asked to leave for the citizenship part. So, it depends which kind of interview you're having whether it's joint or not.

Photos: If you are applying with a paper form, you should include photos along with it per the instructions. Make sure the "passport style" photos are US-style, and not those of a foreign country which can be different. If you apply online, this is no longer needed. It depends if you qualify for this given your current residency, but assuming you are still a "permanent resident" and have not breached the continuous residency requirement, you should be fine to apply online. Biometrics: They will actually notify you one way or another if biometrics are needed, and if so, you would need to make an appointment at your closest embassy, consulate, USCIS office, etc in that country. Lately they have been using biometrics taken long ago as a carryover from covid. My 2018 biometrics were used for my 2024 naturalization.

I just want to provide some tips about a driver's license that I have some first-hand experience with. It varies from state to state, but you should be able to get a driver's license if you are "lawfully present" in any state. That means, with any valid status in the US. Evidence can even be your K1 visa, believe it or not, and this is what I initially used along with SSN. However, the expiry is extremely short (obviously), and as such you end up paying a lot to get it renewed. It seems that you can get this in California as well. I got a driver's license renewed at these stages, each done to extend the expiry as long as I could: K1 EAD 2 year GC 10 year GC Citizen Interestingly, even if they have a foreign driver's license, it can be considered invalid for operating a motor vehicle in the US if they reside in the US and not that foreign country anymore, even if the license is technically valid and not expired on paper. The expectation is that when you move here, you also get a state driver's license to maintain your ability to operate a vehicle. But, this is why I pushed to apply even at the K1 stage to be sure I could drive with a valid license. Having a driver's license as early as possible also made it significantly easier to get access to services, such as a bank account, and to make purchases that might require it. For that reason, I always suggest getting a driver's license as early as you can, even if you will have several renewals in rapid succession.

As some have alluded to, just wait and see! When I got to the naturalization interview, the USCIS rep had a file folder half a foot tall with all the evidence through the years. EDIT: The reason for paper copies often comes from redundancy and backup. For example, if for some reason servers crashed, and backups were lost (unlikely as this is), a paper copy shows a record of the events that have happened and the forms that have been processed as well as their status. Even in the case of a simple internet outage, it can cause problems processing documents if they are digital and in the cloud. Additionally, digital copies can be manipulated after the fact. A printed copy can be important to showcase the value of a document before it is potentially edited (again, not that this would happen). Therefore, printing them and having copies remains important for processing files, especially in government-related processes.

If it was expunged, you will need to show evidence that there was a conviction that was expunged. In other words, you can file a petition with the court (in the county it happened in) to have the case re-opened to gain access to the expunged records, and then submit this in your I129F. Expungement doesn't actually mean the records were deleted, so they should still be available. 5 years is long enough though that there's a chance they don't exist. In this case, you would still have to note the conviction existed and was expunged, with potentially a criminal record report as evidence of this.

Exactly this, which is why I figure it might be the copy of the documents sent back (typically as a "packet 3" kind of thing) which would have a copy of the stamps provided. The copy of the I-129F should have been sent back to them before the interview happened after NVC process, and I remember having to bring this copy along with other supporting documentation to my interview, so very possible that Jordan has the same kind of requirement. Maybe there's a chance that calling up the USCIS, with your case number, could get them to send a second copy back to your address. To me, this is the only solution to the problem because otherwise if you don't have the copies, you are out of luck.

Sounds like the standard requirement for any photo sent - needs to have a note listing who is in the phone and the date/location. All of my photos were digital and ended up being printed on an 8.5x11 printer paper in color. In any case, the USCIS ends up scanning these photos into their documentation anyway, so the format doesn't matter. Sending them individually is what I did, only because it separates those dates and places more concisely. During K1 interview, the interviewer sometimes flips through the photos briefly. If you inundate them with a bunch of photos on a single page, it might actually slow that process down. At the end of the day, both methods you mention are completely fine.

Yareth is correct, and also the purpose is kind of two-fold: 1. It ensures the criminal charges don't make you ineligible for entry/visas, etc 2. It shows that the petitioner was aware of a criminal conviction. During the interview process down the road for AOS, they can even bring this up again and ask the petitioner (then spouse) if they are aware of the conviction, so disclosing this early is important to keep everything honest.

It might be different for you, but when I received "packet 3" in the mail, which I was to bring to the interview, it included a copy of the submitted I-129F form with stamps. I think this is what they mean - to make sure you bring packet 3 with you to the interview. The original I-129F would be in the hands of USCIS now, and of course already submitted, so not something you can download from USCIS website. Did they include a copy in the packet 3 they sent?

The certificate you provide should be a certified (embossed stamp) copy from the court naming the county / state. If you don't have this, you would need to go to your county clerk's office and get a new copy, usually for a small fee. This is what you provide.

I agree that more information about the circumstances of the immigration is needed, but I'm also surprised that the IRS 1040 or transcripts weren't provided the first time around. Please make sure to look through more information on VJ to make sure you are providing as much evidence as you can, even in addition to tax documents. There are plenty of guides and suggestions in this forum about what you should provide which can help avoid situations like this from happening.

Not going to lie, it's a trip I would have avoided when I was in the same pending status, but I don't want to alarm you. Just make sure you have all of the documentation to show your pending status and you should be fine. It would be an issue if you traveled to Mexico at the Boquillas Crossing POE and then tried to get back in - this is what AP is for, and since you don't have it, my advice is of course, to avoid traveling into Mexico either way. If you're really concerned about it, the checkpoints are actually the perfect opportunity to take a stretch break and go inside to chat with an officer about it. They'll let you know one way or another. It's not quite the same as crossing the border, but they do still want to see documentation that shows your immigration status, so be prepared to do a lot of explaining. Ultimately if their advice is to turn around and head back, you will have to make do with that on your vacation! Not ideal, I know, but soon all this status and immigration stuff will be a distant memory when you go on trips like this. All North/South highways heading from there have checkpoints, so it's not something you can avoid without avoiding the entire national park altogether. Just drive up and chat with them and you will be fine.

There isn't a tracker available because: 1. Every location books their oath ceremonies separately. 2. The location of each ceremony can also be different in the same city/region (My nearest city has at least 3 buildings they host it at). 3. They often don't book them so regularly at all locations. Maybe in a large city like Houston as someone mentioned, or New York, or Detroit, you might be able to guess at the regular schedule, but in other cities, they only book it when they have enough people, and this can vary upon how quickly that builds up. My oath ceremony took approximately 3 months from interview to book. The interviewer told me between 30-60 days. 260 people were at my oath ceremony, and they waited until this was the case as that matched the number of seats in the auditorium. Using my oath ceremony as an example, I assume that if you were #1 on the list, you may wait 2-3 months. If you were number #260 on the list, your oath ceremony is in two weeks, kind of thing. This would make getting an idea of when the oath ceremony takes place, even if you knew the location, pretty impossible. You can assume that from the time of your successful interview, the booked oath ceremony will be 3 months out at the latest, so not a terribly long wait.

I agree with others with waiting. Considering the entire process of coming to the United States and ultimately getting naturalized, 3 months of additional waiting comes and goes in a flash, and would very effectively remove the worry and explaining needed to justify the travel you did. You can of course do whatever you like, and I think the 3 months can be explained especially since it wasn't necessarily a long period, but you know best why you were out of the country, what you were doing, and where you were residing. Whether you want to take the time to explain that to the interviewing agent or wait 3 months to not have to do that at all is ultimately up to you to decide. To answer the question more broadly, if you don't want to wait 3 months, and you consider those 3 months as residing somewhere else (ie: you lived, slept, received mail, etc) at that other address, then you need to put that down as an address, and this would be considered breach of the LPR status in my opinion. So I would also strongly urge you to just wait 3 more months.

The requirement notes that you need to maintain continuous residence in the US. Basically, that you didn't want to abandon your status as an LPR in the US. Physical presence is a big part of this, yes, but so is paying taxes. If you had left the US, changed your address, and paid taxes in Germany, etc, while avoiding US taxes as a non-resident, you would have issues. One key point is that it doesn't seem you were ever out of the US for more than 6 months at a time, which I have been told effectively resets those travel/work visas and should also reset your status abroad as well. If you had otherwise abandoned your LPR status due to residency by straying out continuously for more than 6 months, you would be in breach of it and have an "order of removal" against you. Since this is not the case, and you consider the US your legal permanent home, and you have paid US taxes, you should be good to go. Of course if it ever came up in the N400 interview, you would explain as honestly as you have here that although you worked abroad, it was for fairly short stints (forget the "in total" amount), was temporary, and that you intended to maintain your residency in the US despite that. I doubt it would be an issue for you at all, but honesty will get you where you need to be in the end, always.

If the reason provided was in fact " in the U.S for three years but not at the time of the application", I would just double or triple-check 1. The date on the Green card exactly 2. The date of the application If this still makes sense and was within the 90-day early-filing window or beyond, then I'm going to guess that there was a different reason for denying the application, and he put that as the reason so that it was more or less denied "without prejudice". Ie: You didn't meet a specific requirement, so I'm going to mark down that your application was not within the 3 years so that you can re-apply as soon as possible. I am also guessing that, due to the marriage, it wouldn't fall under the 5-year requirement, so being 2 years too early is not the case. People are suggesting to call senators and whatnot, but as a first step, you could always try calling the USCIS to speak to a representative. Someone with access to the file should be able to see the date of filing, vs the 3 year date and come to a conclusion about what the withdrawal was for.

Tldr; I want to detail my experience for others going to this same location at the Detroit field office for USCIS. I was approved! Hope this helps! Location If you attended a green card interview or removal of conditions, this is the same location. It's a stone's throw from downtown Detroit and a few blocks from Belle Isle park. The surrounding area is pretty empty. If you're not from the area you will see boarded-up houses everywhere nearby and this can be a bit of a shock for the unacclimatized, but despite this it is NOT a bad area of Detroit. Unfortunately, it's just far enough away from downtown (about 20 mins) to make it kind of inconvenient to venture that way if you have time to spare. Most substantial stores and malls are about 40 minutes away. Keep in mind that if you travel to kill time there will be travel time to get back! There's a diner a few blocks away (Legends), but you need to order food - they specifically do not let you wait there for your interview unless you order food. They are extremely strict about not letting you in until 15 mins before your appointment and there is no waiting area - you have to wait either outside or in the main breezeway which is like a greenhouse in the heat (or in your car if you have one). If you try to enter early, they will turn you away, and they have a list of schedules so they know when people are supposed to be there. All interviews are done in blocks of several people at a time. Process At both security and check-in, I needed my interview notice document out and ready. Biometric confirmation was done at check-in. I have my 10 year GC, and this was done via Removal of Conditions interview at this location based on marriage. If your interview is a combo interview for green card like I-751 or ROC, your spouse can attend the interview. For me on the other hand, because I already had my 10 year, my spouse was allowed past security and past check-in point, but needed to stay in the waiting room while I went in to interview. The entire time from entry to security to check-in to interview was about 20-25 minutes. Most of the time was spent waiting in the waiting room to be called. I saw at least one person go through security, check-in, and get called all within about 5 minutes, so it really depends. As of a week ago, they now allow cellphones in the waiting room area despite the signs that say you can't. This is what I was told by the check-in clerk. Interview Took about 15 minutes total. You need to be sworn in / attest to tell the truth before proceeding. They did not want to see any of my supporting documentation original copies, but of course, I had them just in case. The documentation they wanted was: Green card Drivers license (ID) Passport - open to the photo page They asked very few questions. They asked (in no particular order): What was my wife's name How many marriages did they have How they became a citizen or what gave them citizenship status What my stepchildren's names were Do I owe any federal taxes They then went through the tests (see below), followed by confirming the same questions as the application form regarding being a part of a terrorist group, that you are willing to defend the country if called upon, and so forth. As soon as this was done, she rifled through the documents one last time and then printed out a letter noting that I was approved on the spot. The oath ceremony is to be booked "30 to 60 days from now, but likely sooner". Testing Reading test they had me read off an iPad: "What was the first state in the United States?". Writing test they had me write on the same iPad "Delaware was the first state". Note: I have heard from another who attended Detroit that they asked "Who was Abraham Lincoln" -> "Abraham Lincoln was President during the Civil War", so these questions are clearly randomized, or different depending on the interviewer. Civics questions, they only asked until I reached the 60% threshold - so 6 questions total: How many US senators are there? What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution? What are two rights of everyone living in the United States? Who did the United States right in WWII? What movement tried to end racial discrimination? Why does the flag have 13 stripes? Note: Again, I have heard a completely different set was offered to others. However, the questions were exactly worded as they are in the 100q document provided by USCIS to study. Study all questions as the ones you get will almost certainly be different.