smrose20

My wife's visa Journey is nearing the finish line. 

February 8, 2023: We went in for the N-400 interview but were told on the spot that the i-751 Interview would also be done, which threw us off. It was our fault for not doing more research and bringing a hard copy of what we sent. Thankfully, we were approved for the i-751 removal of conditions. However, the N-400 was canceled pending rescheduling.

July 18, 2024: Received notice: "We are actively reviewing your Form N-400, Application for Naturalization. Our records show nothing outstanding at this time."

August 26, 2024: Received notice: "We scheduled an interview for your Form N-400, Application for Naturalization. (September 30, 2024 Irving)"

September 30, 2024:

8 am: Complete interview

9:30 am received notice: "We recommended that your Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, be approved. Your case was submitted for quality review."

12 pm: Receive notice: "Your Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, was placed in line for oath ceremony scheduling."

1:30 pm receive notice: "Oath Ceremony Notice Was Mailed (October 19, October 2, 12 pm Irving, TX)."

We got there at about 7:45 am. They only let her in, and I stayed in the car.

According to her, she went through security and had to wait 10-15 min for them to call her. The officer interviewing was pleasant and spoke good english. She starts with an oath where she stands, raises her right hand, and swears to tell the truth. No small talk at all. The first thing was to read and confirm her full name. Then the officer asked my wife to read out loud one sentence. Then the officer said, "California has the most people," and my wife had to write it on a tablet.

Civics Test:

-Name of national anthem
-Where is the Statue of Liberty?
-Who makes laws
-Who signs bills to become laws?
-I forgot the last one.

From there, it was an N-400 walkthrough. The first minor hiccup was how long we've lived at our current address. We have lived in the same building address for 4+ years but moved apartments, so technically, our current apartment has been there for only two years, but the building has had the same address for 4. My wife had to point that out to the officer.

Things got really tense once it came to how long she'd been out of the country. The officer said, "You've been out of the country longer than you're supposed to, which is more than six months in a year."

My wife had only been out of the country 2-3 weeks a year for the past five years, so this was very confusing. The officer showed my wife the screen, and it showed a bunch of dates that we did not submit on our N-400 or I-751. As it turns out, the system added the 1+ year she needed to wait outside of the country for her CR-1 to be approved and lawfully enter the US. We are really grateful the officer showed the screen and a willingness to listen because it allowed my wife to walk through with the officer that it's counting time before she was a lawful resident and we lived in Colombia right after getting married because our understanding was to change her Visa from visitor to spousal, we HAD to leave the USA until the CR1 was approved, a new visa was added to her passport and mailed back to her. 

The officer said that made sense and let my wife know that if she hadn't clarified that, she would have denied her and was actually wondering why my wife came to the interview if we knew she was going to be denied based on being out of the country for so long. 

After that tense back-and-forth, the officer made all the updates in the system and said my wife was recommended for approval.

We were shaken at the fact an error happened that was no fault of our own, and that error was pointing us to being denied. But we are SUPER grateful the officer was willing to let us explain our side and not just try to push us through to get to the next person. Overall, it was like a 45-minute interview, and the happiness kicked in with them being so quick to schedule our oath ceremony (October 19).