Elise&Joe

Some of us have used lawyers and some, myself included, have completed the process without. There are very good arguments for both approaches. I see @OldUser has provided some resources. If the fender bender and the secondary inspection are your biggest concerns, you would manage without a lawyer. However, this last step is a big and important one, and if consulting legal help will make you feel more at ease about this process, then it will be worth the money. The recent news cycle and having a loved one go through this process takes a big toll, but remember that you and your husband have successfully jumped through all the immigration hoops and this is just one more hoop before you complete the immigration journey. You've got this!

No, this is not classed as being detained. This is secondary inspection, merely a continuation of the standard inspection if their are additional details that need to be verified before an entry decision is made. Almost all, if not all, immigrants will go to secondary at some point, I did when I entered as K1 nonimmigrant.

You can take the boy out of London, but you can't take U out of Colour!

It's official, I am an American citizen! Last night was my last night as a solely British citizen so I drank a (British) pint of London Pride followed by a Scottish whisky. Tonight, it is a couple of American beers followed by a bourbon. The ceremony in Brooklyn Center (Minneapolis) was really well run. We had 500 new citizens from 85 countries. They went through each country and got us to stand when our country was called, until we were all standing and ready to take the oath. I'm lucky that we have had a trouble-free process (although some big delays during covid) but I am incredibly grateful to this community for all the help along the way.

I had my AOS interview in 2022. My wife was in the room, but apart from saying hello, she didn't need to say a word during the whole interview. When I had my N-400/I-751 interview this year, there were several other couples waiting. The US-citizen spouse was sent back to the waiting room for all of us that morning. I think with the current backlog, if it is a relatively straightforward case with no red flags, the IO can get through the interview much more quickly with just the interviewee in the room. Shaving 5 minutes of small talk and verification from each interview frees up a lot of time for their administrative work.

Exactly my thoughts. This is coercive control. She has no means of earning money, is unable to travel internationally to visit family, has no driving license, and may live in fear of deportation. OP, I would look for other signs of controlling behaviour such as cutting her off from friends, monitoring her communications, or preventing her from accessing medical care. Filing is inconvenient and expensive, but 100,000s of us have done it, so not wanting to spend the time or the money is a very weak excuse.

I think so. We have the same date, are you also at 9am? If so, I will see you there!

I wasn't worried about it. You would be hard pressed to find a married couple who haven't ever spent a night apart, particularly those with families abroad. There's also the linguistic distinction: Separated is a common term for a married couple who are living at different addresses before either divorcing or reconciling.

He wanted to know if we had temporarily broken up and then got back together since we got married, or spent a significant amount of time apart. Whilst we have been physically apart on the odd occasion (I have stayed a week longer than my wife when visiting family in the UK a couple of times), we have still been romantically/mentally/spiritually together the entire duration of our marriage.

Interview experience: We had one of the first interviews of the day (7:30am), and were allowed to enter the building just before 7am. A few couples were summoned before us, and it seemed like the US citizen partners were being sent back to their seats. This was the same when we were called, my wife was sent back to the waiting room and the agent proceeded with just me. We had a little bit of small talk on the way to his office, mainly about the Super Bowl which had been the night before. Once in the room, I took an oath to tell the truth, confirmed my name and address, and had my passport, green card and driving license reviewed. We then moved on to the Civics questions. He stopped after 6 questions since I had got them all right. I don't remember all the questions, but one of them was why the US had fought for independence from the British, which I reckon he asks all the British applicants! I then did the English test, and the agent remarked that he had suspected I would have no issue given I am a native English speaker. Next, I was asked a handful of easy questions about my wife, job, and son - when we married, any previous marriages (no), any period of separation (no), what I did for work (there was a major news story in my professional field about a year ago, so we talked about that), when our son was born. I had an envelope of additional evidence with me, but ended up not needing it. I did show him a picture of my son, mainly because I love showing people pictures of him, rather than being asked. Then the usual questions about any past crimes (none) or immigration issues (none). We had a little bit of small talk in between questions while the computer system loaded. I generally kept the small talk fairly vague, I've read about not giving away extra details on the off chance they are used against you - not that I have anything that could be! Once we had worked through a few more things (more verifying of details, going through the specifics of taking the oath), he let me know that he was going to approve me once the system had caught up. He was unable to give any specifics about when I might hear about the oat ceremony though. Overall, it was a really pleasant experience. The agent was friendly and informative, telling me the reason behind each step of the process, and he seemed genuinely pleased to be approving me. All my experiences with USCIS staff have been good, but this was by far the best. He didn't say, but I hope I will be a citizen within 1-2 months.

Thrilled to announced that after my joint interview at the Minneapolis/St Paul office today, my cases have been approved. Now I just have to wait for the Oath and I will be a citizen!

I got notified in December that my interview was scheduled. I received the letter about ten days later, giving me a date in February. Even now, a digital copy has not been uploaded to my online account. You just have the agonising wait, excitedly checking your mailbox every day. Congratulations on getting this far, and good luck to you both with your interviews.

Thank you for the advice! I'd better start buttering up my mother-in-law!

Excited to say I have a joint N-400/I-751 interview scheduled in February! Time to start revising my Civics. Out of interest, does anyone know the policy or have any experience taking a baby to the interview? Our son will be 6 months at time of interview and our interview time is very early so we might not be able to arrange childcare.

I suggest we move our N-400 discussion to the N-400 November 2024 filers forum. However, I did not submit pictures. It was my first time using an online form and at no point did it request a picture of me. As for evidence, I had to provide pretty much identical evidence to I-751, but a complete list of all overseas trips was also required.

I filed online for citizenship today! My I-751 is still pending, so maybe the N-400 will speed things up a bit, or maybe I will still wait a long time and have to do two interviews. Either way, I am feeling pretty excited!

Hello fellow Nov 2024 filers! I applied online today (19th Nov) and have already had the receipt and biometric reuse. Like many of you, I also have an I-751 pending, which I filed in November 2023. The estimated waiting time was 9 months, although this was for a 5 year residence and I am applying based on 3 years of residence and my marriage to a US citizen, so who knows how long I'll be waiting. Here's hoping we all have quick and efficient processing!

I'm a little late posting so I can't remember all my dates exactly, but: Package delivered via USPS to Phoenix Lockbox - 1st Nov NOA date - 8th Nov Biometrics waive, online access code, and Extension letter arrived separately over the following two weeks Service Center - Nebraska I hope everyone has a smooth and speedy process (but the latter seems like wishful thinking)