Deb+Steve

It's been years since I have been on this forum! Glad I came back and searched for information. We are contemplating doing this so I have just filed for my US Citizenship to make things easy. We do have (2) children that are US citizens so I'd like to be able to travel freely in the future. I'll probably go ahead while he continues to work here to get things set over there. Holy Moly on the cost, I forgot what an expensive exercise this is.

Best of luck to all. 

We filed N-600 for our daughter and I can't find the notice because we moved and everything is in storage. Any way for us to obtain that receipt number so we can track the status online? I have tried calling to no avail. Cannot even get a human on the phone. Thanks!

It's been a while but I didn't need the Xrays.

Yup- exactly.

We've saved on the basis that I may have to fly back for the testing/oath if it's not through before we have to fly out on the rotator. That's why I have requested Fairfax, VA, as the office in the cover letter, as they do same day oath and are near enough to Baltimore which is the rotator point as you would know. Always pays to have a back up plan for these things anyway!

The most important point is that once you have the oath you are then a US citizen and you must leave with a US passport - so if she does need to fly back here, allowing enough time to get a passport before the return flight to the UK.

I thought you could do the oath ceremony overseas (I swear there is someone on this board that did it) ... didn't realise you would have to fly all the way back to the US for that!

i joined with conditional GC. so i know you can enlist with 2 conditional but if ur conditional will going to expire before your bct they will tell you to renew it , but when i renewed mine they didnt process bcoz they told me military already accept my naturalization . and when CO interviewed me for my citizenship they told me i dont need to renew it and waste money for 10 years GC......

Notice I wrote ... "up here" ... that may have been your experience but it is not the same everywhere. USAREC is not a consistent animal. 2 of his applicants were rejected because they had less than 2 yrs validity on their GC's.

Not much movement from VSC! We applied for military expedite about 2 months because my husband got orders and we leave here in 8 weeks. We have not heard a thing. Faxed them all the info they requested and no one can tell us anything. We have even requested call backs and no one has called us or responded to our emails.

We did an infopass this morning at our local office. They requested our file so they can adjudicate locally so we should know in about 2 weeks if we need an interview or not or if they are going to adjudicate without an interview but at least we will know in the next month!

We didn't AoS but I think he had something that was a statement of service. He printed it, that's all I know. We also sent 3 years worth of tax transcripts and 3 months worth of LES's.

You're not wrong about this thread being dead!

Still waiting for ROC and have an infopass for tomorrow. Wish me luck. Doing paralegal studies in the mean time. Hoping that along with my Accounting, it will lead to something eventually. I've also thought about the medical transcription. My husband's been pushing me that way for a while now. He knows plenty of spouses who do that because it's so mobile. I'll see.

Hubby is on recruiting duty at the moment and up here, the MEPS does not take conditional 2 year GC's. They expect the GC to have 2 or more years left until expiration.

**Baffling because military service is a path to citizenship!

@ecg19 - I also did Accounting. I never worked as an Accountant but was in Construction as a Contracts Administrator. Of course, the market here for that is tanked so I have been a housewife for nearly 3 years. I am doing a Paralegal AAS though and hoping it can move me into real estate when he does retire in 3 years. It sucks having had a plan and being set and then having to start over! I decided based on what they wanted to pay me here that I would rather study some more and watch bad daytime TV.

You file where ever it is that you're stationed. If it's NY, then that's the filing location. If she is required to have an interview and you cannot be there because you're TDY etc. all she will need is a copy of your orders.

FYI: the ROC process is currently taking nearly a year. I dare say you have time up your sleeve. We even applied for a military expedite 2 months ago because my husband has to PCS and we have not heard a word. We faxed them the orders. We leave in 8 weeks and no one can tell me anything. I have an infopass on Friday to try and sort it.

I did POE at LAX and it took soooo long for our luggage to arrive at the carousel (about 45 minutes). It took them even longer to stamp my visa in my passport because I dropped off my packet, they told me to get my luggage and when I returned I still had to wait.

Not to mention the terminal/gate changes etc. I would do 4 hours as a minimum.

I waited until July to move. One of the reasons was school for my daughter. She was in 5th grade in Aus and started 5th grade here. The maths was very different but a tutor helps and will be easy to catch up on. Spanish was new to her but she caught up very quickly. The school here contacted us over the Summer before she started and set us up with other parents so she would be well versed in the school system before she started.

I don't believe our kids are behind, just the cirriculum is a bit different but once they're used to it ... it's a breeze. The accent made my daughter hugely popular from day one so we've never lacked from a social aspect. Best of luck.

Have to agree with NickD. Why would you even quibble over the $$? $600 or $550 for an adopted child. If you're a member of the armed forces, then it's free. Money well worth spent!

Update on my voting situation ... fine wiped. I won't be apprehended when I return on holiday.

Hope you're all well & happy and had a great Christmas and fabulous NY's. We are freezing up here but on the bright side, my husband has new orders and we will be heading South in a couple of months and I cannot wait! We'll be in Nashville and I'll get to say G'day to Keith and Nicole.

Considering it was approved, your parents (as the beneficiaries) should contact the NVC to find out if they have a case # yet. They'll be able to enquire as to the status of their cases and what the next steps will be. They should be able to use their USCIS receipt #. Chances are if the AVR system does not recognise the receipt #, then NVC does have their case yet.

This is a link to contact info for NVC http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3177.html

I hope this helps. It's been a while since I have had to deal with NVC so maybe someone else can also provide more info!

Quite out of topic... We're currently living OCONUS (I'm his SOFA dependent) and my husband will PCS back to the US very soon. Do you know if it is possible for our case to be expedited?

Probably not. I called and asked as well because he received new orders and was told we didn't fit any criteria. Maybe you being OCONUS may be different. Can't hurt to try and since you will have orders, they will ask that you provide those.

My concern is the change of address. Their systems did not update when we PCS'ed to here and our mail went to our FL address (lucky it is still ours). Maybe it's different if you have an active case but we received the NOA's as confirmation at our new duty station so I don't know what the hell USCIS is doing half the time!

Best of luck.

Yay, an approval! And a military one ... there is hope for me then. Only change to my case is that apparently I changed my address on December 7, which I did not!

We just received the green card in the mail. We didnt get any other correspondence from the USCIS. At least it is over now and we dont have to worry about any of this for a long time. The next step will naturalization. We will probably wait a year or a little more to do that though.

California Service Center (# of applicants)

VJName.............Date of I-751.....NOA1 Date.....Biometrics.....Approved.....GC Received...

SCOTT AND MHAY...........03/30/12..........04/06/12......--/--/12.......11/28/12.....12/06/12...... (sent from Aviano AB, Italy)

VJ Name............--/--/12..........--/--/12......--/--/12.......--/25/12.....--/--/12......

VJ Name............--/--/12..........--/--/12......--/--/12.......--/25/12.....--/--/12......

Vermont Service Center (# of applicants)

VJName.............Date of I-751.....NOA1 Date.....Biometrics.....Approved.....GC Received...

GIGGLES............05/22/12..........--/--/12......XX/XX/12.......07/31/12.....08/09/12...... (Applied while stationed overseas. Didn't receive NOA. No biometrics as I sent fingerprints with I-751)

Deb+Steve..........07/10/12..........07/13/12......--/--/12.......--/25/12.....--/--/12......

drkwtsn............06/01/12..........06/11/12......--/--/12.......--/25/12.....--/--/12.....

Congrats, Scott!! I bet Mhay is happy she is officially done until N400 at least.

Good to know there was no correspondence ... not! Update on my case ... apparently I changed my address on December 7, 2012 for my CR189 petition. #######? I did not change a thing but most importantly, it is still in that initial review limbo. We are getting ready to PCS and it does bother me that my GC will probably not be here and I have to change my address. That didn't work so well the last time, my address was never changed with USCIS even though I filed the I865 and did it online as well.

so i have question .. if ur military spouse, are you auto usc once you get married or u still need to do the GC then wait 2 years to renew gc 10 years then apply citizenship. im just curious.

You're not an automatic USC. Still have to go through the process. However, expedite requests are more likely to be approved if your spouse has orders for OCONUS or deployment.

well yes they are very common but not everyone in the middle east gets AP although most do but not all...so I am praying we get to be one that doesn't

Best of luck. Have you been over to the regional forums to see what is currently normal for his consulate? That may help, too. There are certain things that are consulate specific.

We've decided that I will be filing my N-400 without a new GC come next May ...

A note on the voting, I opted out 'forever'. Received a fine from the Qld govt for not voting in the last election ... it went to my old address in Bris and the tenant sent it to me! Nice, now I have to call and try and sort it out. This happen to anyone else??

Here's hoping that is enough. We used tax transcripts and had no issues. He came off an 18 month deployment when we filed. Best of luck!

Has anyone did a status update with their receipt number? Ours show up as Not Found

Yes, I did. No movement. Still Initial Review.

Are you serious? That's contradictory to what's in the instructions for filing as AD military. Giggles had hers approved in 2 months. I hope it works out for you.