Maria P.

Had the same observations - the wait time was the most stressful part. In Orlando office, there were around 50+ ppl there, and seeing some exiting the doors with tears of joy and smiles and some with faces like their world ended - was pretty nerve wracking. Also observing officer's personalities and some being very 'Karen' like and some super chill, it just plays mind tricks on you and I literally was sitting there for 20 minutes whispering 'please, not that Karen angry lady' or the 'mean macho officer' Same remark on "Walmart" outfits. Just no comment. With regard to travel - I had 10+ trips in 3 years with total of 255 days out of USA (the longest was 108 days, the first trip after covid borders opened). The officer didn't ask, just wanted to confirm if any new trips happened after sending N400. Also an interesting thing he mentioned - might be useful for anybody who has delayed oath due to name change for example -> he said, when I go to courthouse for name change and oath, I will have to update them with any new trips, arrests or changes (which are the eligibility criteria). So if you are close to a MAX limit of days out of states, make sure u don't breach the "red line" after interview but before oath, as worst case scenario - they will approve u, but then u make urself ineligible due to 'abandoning' residence status... Super rare situation I believe, but if anybody has something along those limits - u might pay attention to this.

Sorry for a delayed reply - went away on Xmas vacation) I did submit 2020, 2021, 2022 tax transcripts with N400. (last 3 years), same with i751 application (from beginning of marriage - 2019, 2020, 2021). Specifically, it was IRS tax transcripts + W2s (paystubs) (from my husband as I was not employed till 2023). The main point - to show u file taxes together (jointly). This is supposedly one of the most respected proof(s) of bona fide marriage (along with having children) if you file based on 3year rule. I brought originals to the interview, but officer did not ask for them

Just got back home from the interview ❤️ So, here are the spilled details my dear VisaJourney family: Arrived at 7:40am, interview was scheduled at 8:00am. Orlando Field Office looked really nice, super clean, very nice vibe... There were already plenty people there when we got there, our ticket got called around 9am. I noticed some officers were not allowing spouses in, some did. Some allowed two people in, and then the spouse was sent out after 5-10 mins. Our officer let both of us in and explained that since i751 is pending, he will have both of us, but that he will ask my husband to change seat and stay at the back of room for the N400 part of interview. Our officer was super friendly, and explained from beginning that he looked at application, he saw i751 pending and requested it to be shipped from Potomac, but it still did not arrive to Orlando field office. He said - "Here is what we will do -> we will do both interviews now, I can approve both of them, but I cannot put you into oath ceremony, because I need to sign the i751 papers unfortunately. Only after I get physical file - I can sign it and you will be scheduled for oath ceremony. Also, because you change your name {I have requested surname change on my n400}, your ceremony must be at the city court house, not here, so unfortunately you will have to wait till January or February anyway, not just because of i751. Technically, you are creating new identity because of name change and judge will need to certify/approve/ that before taking oath. If all goes well today and I get your file in 2-3 days, we will send you the oath ceremony invitation in a mail within a week or two." He did not ask anything what we expected about our marriage and it appeared he already made up his mind before interviewing us, he said "I looked at your application and I can tell it is bona fide marriage, am I correct?" he double checked our IDs, address, marriage date, any children (none). Then asked my husband to swap seats and stay at one row behind me (near wall of the room) and be quiet. I was asked civics questions (what Susan B Anthony fought for, what if president cannot serve - who is replacing , two longest rivers, name 2 national holidays, what led to civil war, what do you do when you plead allegiance...) Reading + writing. Updated my work situation (since I started new job last week). I had asked if he wants more pictures, affidavits that we got from friends and new quarterly bank statements, etc. and he said "unless you really want to give it to me, but I think you can just recycle that, I have enough evidence to approve you". He then asked me all the eligibility questions on whether I was ever in combat, a communist, terrorist, etc. Asked me to sign the new name change, and some oath of allegiance understanding statement. Then he said I am approved on both applications, we will get the oath ceremony date as soon as he is done with bureaucracy regarding i751. Shook hands, said thank you and we said our farewells. Guys, I am not sure, but I feel like wearing a suit & tie and formal clothes, did play some attitude role. I was shocked to see some people came in sweatpants, in hoodies and even baseball hats. Cmon, this is federal government building, I could see non-verbal reactions from officers when they were calling numbers and a trio of people in sweatpants and messy hair showed up vs. nicely presented couples and solo applicants. p.s. there is no change at Online Account.... will update when oath ceremony note will be here I feel super happy, but not fully relieved just yet. USCIS journey is over, but not quite yet a citizen) Wishing everybody good news for this Xmas and Happy New Year... !

Guys, I am having interview tomorrow morning at 8am and I am having a major anxiety panic mode. I think the civics test is all prepared for, documents arranged, but I am freaking out... what if we are missing something or officer will be in bad mood or they lost the application file or I don't know (((( Gosh... Just want this to be over. So so so much... 🥲

Nice, @IamYourFriend thanks for sharing, really appreciate it!

Congratulations!!!! What were the questions about marriage/ any extra documents requests (e.g. did they want more bank statements, more pictures, etc? ) ? + I have an extra particular curiosity -> was the i751 application with all ur documents u sent on officer's desk?

I have applied via mail, thus a bit worried, what if something got lost in transit or I don't know did not get fully scanned? In MyUSCIS online account (in the upload/documents tab) - I see only partially scanned application and supporting evidence (from what was sent via mail), so I decided to just reprint everything in case there was an error of online vs. mail sync, or in case something is lost... my motto is 'over-prepare' than have 0.1% chance of something going wrong @JenIE About the photo - do you think I can bring one to the interview or maybe upload it online even if I mailed the original submission?

Guys, I am assembling all evidence/copies and new 'top-ups' for bank statements since filing for i751/N400, new photos, etc. Does everything have to be still printed single sided or I can bring extra stuff to interview double-side printed?

As a Russian citizen I would say Middle East is not too bad on a scale of "some part of the world which is not favorite to the U.S.".... Name a country that doesn't hate Russians these days... I am Russian born, but luckily I have dual citizenship with Czech Republic ( abandoned my Russian passport back in 2021) - but even back in time when I once came to USA in 2018 and instead of ESTA on EU passport & showed them my B1/B2 visa in Russian: ~ the border patrol officer looked into his computer, said "wait, don't you have valid ESTA? you have other normal country passport?" ~ I said "yes, I do, but ESTA is valid for 90 days and I need to stay here for longer than that, so I followed advise from US Consulate and made B1/B2 visa into my Russian passport" ~ the guy - literally was "gimme that friendly country passport, take away this enemy worthless <DELETED>" and 'threw' the Russian passport onto the counter, grabbed my Czech one and stamped it instead. I felt mixture of emotions to be fair. On one side I felt berated, because a colour of my passport does not define me as a human being. I am coming to USA to spend <DELETED> loads of money earned in EU, not doing anything illegal or 'stealing jobs'... Literally came on skydiving vacation - to do sport training & jump for charity event to raise funds for local kids (toys for tots). On the other side I felt lucky to have EU passport and appreciating my parents took my out of Russia, because they wanted better future for me. But damn, that was a sad moment. What if I did not have the opportunity to be born in normal country? or immigrate in 90s... what if I was just a simple human from Russia, or what if I was born in Afghanistan or North Korea - do I deserve to be called 'enemy worthless' citizen? the dude like doesn't know anything about me. My mum is a doctor, my dad is engineer - I work in consulting and have degree from UK university and studied in Cambridge. I speak fluently several languages. Why on Earth I was considered a piece of , I am not sure... but the look on his face said it all - mixture of disgust, unfriendly, unprofessional, berating. It was just this one time that I had such experience on the border, but for sure - made a lasting impact in my soul. The morale of the story? I have never experienced anything like that one in Miami airport in 2018 ever again... Year ago - a border patrol officer even asked me why i don't apply for citizenship and in general I always have a pleasant experience. There are some mean/unprofessional people in the govt. employee field, just like in any work. But not all of them - I would probably say it's outlier. I don't believe they would cherry pick/discriminate in USCIS on the basis of a country, I think they are just busy + mistakes happen and I have friends from different countries having similar experience with USCIS. My buddy from New Zealand married to his girlfriend of 18 years (who is USA citizen) - applied for AOS in 2020 and is still waiting. Friendly part of the world you would expect and 3 years they are waiting. USCIS is just not really the best operating organization on this planet, just have to accept this fact... Everything will work out buddy)

Which part of the world you are from?

Thank you for sharing the details ❤️ really appreciate it

Yeah, no question about it - we going together and for sure will prepare for combo - > we as a couple did not have initial interview for Adjustment of Status (we had scheduled interview at first, then got cancelled because of covid and eventually got approved without interview), so I am positive 100% they will want to investigate our marriage before giving citizenship. But do you remember what was on your notice? Do I get it right - they sent an extra notice for you 2 days prior?

Ladies&Gentlemen.... I have an announcement ☺️ Was routinely checking my online USCIS account and apparently on November 14th - there was an update - interview scheduled for my N400 on December 19th in Orlando Field office! Right in time before Xmas, as I was wishing for... ❤️ (I guess Santa exists and I was a good girl this year) Now - the thing that I am a bit concerned - the interview notice only says N400 on it. Doesn't say anything about i751. Also my i751 in online USCIS account has no update. Should this be a concern? People who had 2 pending applications (N400+ i751) - what was on your interview notices? ___________ I have personal 2 stories that add up to my nervousness: 1. My friends who were getting citizenship earlier in 2023 -> they applied June 22, they were allocated to West Palm Beach, FL field office at first. They did online filing, with cover letter for joint interview. They came to initial scheduled interview - and the guard didn't let them in, as they said interview is for N400 and they don't have i751 cleared and they won't do citizenship interview, since they can't approve that without processed i751. They tried to argue to their best ability, but didn't want to get too aggressive with USCIS employee, and at the end they legit had to turnaround, go home, call USCIS for days try to figure out what next. At the end they did not find out if the USCIS employee was just an ####### or there was a mixup or whatever - they got new interview notice 3 months later and all went fine. Got ceremony right after interview. I talked about this with my lawyer - she said she never heard of this and that it's weird. It is a good friend of mine, I don't think her+her husband would make up this story. So I asked the lawyer to include cover letter for joint interview. 2. Upon accidental 'slip' from lawyer's assistant - I found out in October that the final package sent to USCIS - actually did not include cover letter. (I can do a separate rant about lawyer and a sh*tshow I got myself into by choosing to work with lawyer - I legit would have done a better job myself, but thats a separate long story... ) At the end - we had a conflict with lawyer and she 'showed' she send the cover letter requesting joint interview as an add -on to application in October. I was shown a mail/envelope, not really 100% positive they sent it, as I lost trust to my lawyer and the only reason why I am not reporting her to disbarment is because I am afraid of retaliation (some confidential stuff was discussed, that could hurt my partner and I am not interested in years of court hearing - I hope karma will do its magic, it always does). __________

Same here - applied in August, no interview notice or movement on applications so far... I believe you can check your field office times here: https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/ In general ~ obviously it's awesome and uplifting to see that some of our August filers got their interview and ceremony over with - but keep in mind that the average processing time for N400 are still 6m to 11m+ nationally (depending on your field office). Thus, in November, just 3 months past application submission, if somebody didn't get interview notice - it is not something to worry about or get suspicious. I would get upset somewhere around 6-8 months past submission date. Obviously jealous and "happy" (as much as it is possible ) for everybody who got this immigration journey over with, but let's hope we all get notices as a great Xmas gift from beloved USCIS)

I agree & support replies suggesting to push over the school and go with the spouse. If it is pending i 751 + N400 -> according to USCIS, since you are applying based on your marriage, your spouse must be with you. Whether the officer on the day of interview decides for spouse to be in the room of the interview or not - is up to an officer. But if you don't have your spouse there - they may interpret this is a red flag (and they should). I had friends doing N400 with pending i 751 in Florida in March 2023 and for their case: they first asked for applicant (wife) to go alone and for her husband to stay outside with quote "we won't be needing him". Officer opened the file on the computer - said "God damn it, you don't have i751 processed, go get your man in here". Then when they finished the i751 part, officer asked the husband to stay silent or leave, and proceeded with all the citizenship questions. While they were there - there was a person with same pending i751+N400 situation who arrived alone (didn't bring spouse) - and was denied the interview (luckily that, instead of denied both applications) - they sent him home and he will go through rescheduling process - will add x-xx months to the whole process. So I would suggest to prioritize USCIS interview or as they say "**ck around and find out"

Good luck and hope it's gonna go smooth and blissful)))) Looking forward to the updates and questions from the officer ! I am a bit nervous about - what to expect from i751 interview, plus N400 -> as my ROC got approved without interview and I have never been to USCIS field office.. So any info from those who have pending two concurrent applications will be highly appreciated) Best Regards, Maria

My story: also pending i751 (stuck in Potomac with nothing other than 48m extension) + applied for N400 => I had sent the paper application one month later than 90-day window opened (i.e. could apply in beginning July 2023, but sent application at the end of August). At first I got 9,5 month estimate, then it fell down to 8 month, 7 month and now in November it got reduced to 6 months. But no interview notice or any movement since original August biometrics reuse/receipt notice. My 3 year eligibility/anniversary kicked in: October 19th. I am not sure if this is valid point, but I have noticed that under that '6 months' it explicitly says that provided estimate is for those who applied based on 5yr rule... So I am not sure if these estimates are valid for us with pending i751 or not... Also I would expect the 'backlog' to be per field office, not nationally... I am in Florida, and based on my zip code - Orlando field office should be handling the applications, and the office's estimate for n400 is still 9.5 months...

I had an update of processing time that was reduced to 7 months, but still no interview notice, if it makes you feel better Starting 2024 as US citizen sounds like a great dream, it would indeed feel great ❤️

Mine has changed from 9 to 8 months after 2 weeks from submission and indeed got changed to 7 months as of this week (checked today).

You will also find form N400 - way more streamlined and easier to assemble (less documents and supporting evidence). You can file online and by mail Lawyers for some reason are old-school and do it by mail (they don't like the online system and complained having issues with it when it launched) - but I know personally people who did it online and got citizenship in under 6 months. So maybe there was an issue when they launched it, but it seems working totally fine in last year and so. Lots of people use online filing - and reported no issues whatsoever. So it's probably just a personal preference.

If you are eligible by now - you definitely should go for N400 in my opinion - it will be faster. With my i751 I didn't even get biometric reuse notice - absolutely nothing. Online there is only a "case received" status and i got extension letters... With N400 I got biometrics reuse notice in 2 days + actively reviewing status. Moreover, we have 2 people from August 23 N400 filers who already received interview notices scheduled for October 23, despite 9 month typical turnaround. My i751 was routed to Potomac and I heard this is a dead-end for couple years, because they are bottlenecked there... So applying with N400 was a no-brainer. Fun story: while I was travelling this August -> was returning from a Dominican vacay to Orlando -> immigration officer was checking my i751 notice letter upon entry and asked me why I don't apply for N400 for citizenship and told me that the removal of conditions is a nightmare with USCIS now, and it takes years. I told him that I already got N400 filled with lawyer and they just couldn't send it to USCIS while I was not on US soil (you must be in the country when sending it), but we are filing in next couple days. Moral of the story - if even the immigration officer at the airport suggest to file N400 - I guess this is the way)

Gosh, some great news are popping in our August N400 group :))) Congratulations @skersgal! I think ur case is particularly awesome (personally to me) - as it proves astrology dates are a bit of bs. I know this is a bit off topic from immigration, but I found it peculiar))) I don't believe in astrology much, but sometimes I think it's fun to read. Basically my application was also submitted on August 23, and I was made aware that it was the first day of retrograde Mercury - with warnings like "all will be delayed, unsuccessful, with lot's of obstacles, not good time to start new things, file documents, etc". I mean - lawyer just sent it in, and I wasn't crazy to wait and align my application with stars - I don't believe in any of that, but I have to say -> it did sit at the back of my mind on top of standard USCIS stress I am so glad to hear ur case - it is an official proof that Retrograde Mercury doesn't do anything))))

Woooooow, UCSIS website says Montgomery takes 9 months on average to process, so this pretty cool amazing news to hear - that they sent you the interview notice so quick! Best of luck on your interview and let us all know how it went I think my spirits went up quite a bit after reading this success story - I even started dreaming of Christmas coming early this year

Whooooa, you got interview notice already?? THat is amazing ! Do you mind me asking where/which service center u sent the application to & which field office you are going to visit for the interview?

Guys, sharing an update as promised -> got my notice letters in a mail today. So I got 3 letters: Receipt Notice, Account Acceptance Notice and Biometric Reuse, all dated: 08/26/2023, delivered today (September 1, 2023). Meaning 8 days after paper application was delivered to Elgin Lockbox(i.e. 'receive date'), or 5 days from notice print date. I got my online access code in the 'Account Acceptance Notice', so now I could add it to my USCIS online account. Wait time estimate given online : 9 months (I am located in central Florida). I still don't know what exact field office will process this, since receipt is IOE (which refers to 'digital') and the only service center listed in these letters was NBC which is in Missouri... 💁‍♀️