JenIE

Congrats! I was pleasantly surprised with how quick the passport timeframe is these days, my husband got his in around the same amount of time expediting it and that included the Thanksgiving holiday!

I think when we filled it out we just put the end date on the Sunday and the new job start date stayed the same. No one asked any questions, they are only concerned if there are large gaps. Putting unemployed for 2 days seems silly, but if that option makes you feel better that works too.

Just from reading the threads it always felt like most of the people were doing 3 year. I just saw you asked on the December thread. As an FYI when we applied it initially it said 9 months but obviously didn't take that long.

Tons of people did the 3 year rule. Join the monthly threads for up to date info on timelines. My husband applied under 3 year rule and took the oath 3 1/2 months after applying. Here's this month's thread but there's one for every month. https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/815935-n-400-january-2024-filers/

I wasn't in the room but from what he says I think it was pretty much as straightforward as described, with the agent being satisfied with my husband's answers.

I can't help you with tips for not having the I751 yet other than being your spouse with you just in case they decide to do a dual interview. We had already been approved without an interview by the time we applied for the N400 so didn't have to worry about that. But on the USCIS website they have a list of all the questions they might ask you. They ask you a maximum of 10 and you must get 6 right. If you get the first 6 right they don't ask you any more. My husband studied by having me ask him all the questions and anything he didn't get right immediately he put on a list to study. The next times we went through the questions I only asked him the ones he was unsure of and then the day before and morning of I asked him all 100 questions. His interview went very smoothly, the most difficult part was just that it pretty much took the entire day. I wrote about the experience here: https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/806429-n-400-august-2023-filers/?do=findComment&comment=10924601

The processing times are meaningless, like all the other ones were. Ours said 9 months when we first submitted.

They don't ask for both the returns and the transcripts though so you're not giving them what they asked for. The instructions say "Internal Revenue Service (IRS)-certified copies of the income tax forms that you and your spouse filed for the past 3 years (or an IRS tax return transcript for the last 3 years)." Uploading all the other types of items you listed is great and more than enough. The whole process of N-400 for us took about 3 1/2 months

You've listed way more than what we sent in and we got approved. Although you're sending tax transcripts so no need to also send the full returns and make the amount of documents to look through needlessly longer for the agent to look through.

Not a big deal and I wouldn't even mention it. My husband didn't remember the exact start date of his first job when he arrived here in 2020 and we couldn't find it in his didn't so we just put down the day we thought it might be. No one asked about it and it didn't occur to us to be worried.

If your I-751 has already been approved, no your husband doesn't need to go. But if it's still pending then you should bring him so they can do the dual interview with him if they need to.

My husband had his interview at the Chatsworth office right before Thanksgiving. They held oath ceremonies every 2 hours while we were there so yes it's very likely you will have the oath on the same day and then be all done with the process!

My husband had his oath the Monday before Thanksgiving and we applied for his passport the next day. We expedited so he could travel home for Christmas and he got his passport in just over 2 weeks (which included the Thanksgiving holiday!) All he needed was the application that we filled out online and printed out and brought with us, and his Naturalization Certificate. They took the photos at the post office. Make sure you know what form of payments your passport center takes, our post office only took checks, not credit card.

This varies depending on the office where you had your interview. For instance, my husband had his in Los Angeles and that office does oaths the same day. If you provide where your interview was maybe someone else who also went there will have some insight.

Congratulations on reaching the end of the journey! This site was such a great resource and definitely helpful for keeping sane during the added complications of covid. If it helps, the passport process is pretty straightforward, especially after all the other forms you've filled out. My husband went to the post office the day after his ceremony and took his Naturalization Certificate and a printed copy of the filled out application and they took photos there. We expedited so he could travel for the holidays and he received his passport in just over 2 weeks!

The test is just up to 10 questions randomly selected from the list of 100 that are on the government website. I would have someone ask you all the questions and note which ones you didn't immediately have the right answer for, then just focus on those until you have them all right.

I believe the notice says you can only show up 30 minutes before. They look at your letter when you check in so I'm not sure they'd give you a number if you are earlier than that. It's possible it was busier for us because it was a holiday week and maybe staff was on vacation. Fingers crossed you don't have to wait as long!

While we were there we saw oaths happen at 11:30, 1:30, and 3:30 and ours at 3:30 seemed like it was the last one, which makes sense since I doubt they'd hold one at 5:30pm.

We were scheduled for 10:50am but he didn't get called in until 12:50pm. He got out of the interview at 1:15 and took the oath at 3:30pm. It seemed like 3:30 was the last ceremony that day. They apologized for being slow that day so I'm not sure if our wait was typical. If you don't get seen for 2 hours you'd miss the oath that day, so I'd make sure you get there early to check in as they issue you a number when you check in and call them in order.

My husband did the oath ceremony in Chatsworth. They held an oath ceremony every 2 hours while we were there, so unless you are scheduled near the end of the day, you will take the oath that day. You just might have to kill some time if you finish too close to an oath start time because they'll put you in the next batch. My husband finished his interview 15 minutes before an oath ceremony and he had to wait till the next one. We got some food and then came back 2 hours later. Good luck!

That's great to hear! Congrats to your wife on reaching the end of the Visa Journey!

We filed my husband's N-400 online, uploading the evidence required. We filed beginning of August and he had his citizenship interview and oath the week of Thanksgiving! So I would definitely say go for online, it was a very smooth process to fill out the information and the agent giving the interview didn't ask us for any papers in person because everything was already uploaded in the system. Good luck whichever method you choose!

Ah yeah I can understand the worry if you mailed it! I think you can go back into your case online and upload evidence after the fact? I can't check because they closed our case. It wasn't a big deal for people needing photos, they had a camera to take them that day for those who were approved. I'm not sure if they need it to be in digital form when they use it.

I would do one sided to match what's expected for submissions. As a note we just had our interview last week and had uploaded everything online at the time of submission and didn't actually bring anything with us except for the official documents listed on the interview letter (green card, marriage license, birth Certificate, etc). They didn't ask to see any documents more recent than what we submitted and they didn't even ask to see the documents we brought since we had already scanned in copies online ahead of time. The interviewer was also impressed we had even included a passport photo which meant my husband didn't need to take a new photo for the Naturalization Certificate.

That's great news! You can actually see the copy of the letter in your account under documents to see when the interview is, if you don't want to wait for it to arrive in the mail.