Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	I just wanted to share my interview experience with everyone. So my appointment was at 10:00 but they were running late so I wasn't seen until 10:30. At the time of checking in they gave me a package for applying for my passport and said that I could bring it with me to my oath ceremony to apply that day. The IO started with swearing me in and proceeded to go over all my info to make sure it was correct. She had me sign my pictures that I submitted and asked about my work as an RN. She also asked about any memberships that I belonged to and I said I didn't belong to any but she reminded me that I am part of the California Board of Nursing..oops! other than that everything went smoothly. As for my Civic questions the ones that were asked were: What ocean is on the west coast? What is the rule of law? Why does the flag have 13 stripes? What is the minimum age to vote? Who was the first president? What the name of the national anthem? I was told to write "We have 100 US senators." and to read out loud "Why do some people want to be American citizens?" (or something like that) So with all that being done she said congratulations and that I passed my interview. She also mentioned that in a couple of weeks I should be receiving a notice for my Oath ceremony. As for my husband's interview he was asked about his driving tickets and luckily we had the records from the court of his tickets being paid for and his record from the DMV. They told him they would have to review the records and send him the decision but said there shouldn't be a problem with him being approved. Hoping if all goes well we should be citizens by the end of April. Yay! Big congratulations...	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-03-18 19:53:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Going for our interview today! So excited and nervous! Will update everyone on how it goes! You'll do great.... Good luck!	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-03-18 10:10:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Hey folks, so I'm trying to put my list together since I will be travelling and won't be back home until after my interview. Here is what I've gathered so far, please let me know what you think / or if i'm missing anything. My list may be an exhaustive but I'm trying to minimize any delays especially since my field office is a 5 hour drive. I am applying based on 5 years of being a LPR. 1) Interview appointment Letter 2) Passport (old and new) 3) Driver's license 4) Tax return for the last 5 years -I was only able to order the ones for 2009 - 2011, the irs don't have one for 2012 yet 5) Divorce petition 6) Divorce decree 7) Marriage certificate 8) Social security card 9) Traffic tickets proof of payment / resolution 10) Driving record from DMV 11) Passport photograph (2 colored copies) 12) W2s and proof of employement 13) Permanent residence card 14) Application form (filled and signed) 15) A pen and a pencil Am I missing anything? Thanks for all your help. Looks good... Take your green card as well (they asked to see my husbands) and any updated list of travel outside the us since filing the application... Good luck! Edited by christeen, 15 March 2013 - 04:19 PM.	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-03-15 16:18:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Christine how many months it took u for the filin My uscis office is super fast here in west palm beach (and very clean, organized and nice as well) We mailed the paperwork January 14 and interview yesterday and should have oath mid April (but might postpone it till mid may as we are going out of the country for a few weeks ).. I know most offices are much slower than that (but usually within 5-6 months for the process... Good luck with your process	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-03-12 20:40:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Congrats to you two! that is awesome! what a relief right? You mentioned that you guys brought all the stuffs that they asked for (i assumed proof to support the marriage, tax paperwork, etc...) Did the interviewer looked at them at all? Nope, never asked for nor looked at when my husband asked if he wanted to see the tax returns when he was asking about taxes (btw we sent in the tax transcripts which he had in the file). But never looked at any papers he brought... Thanks everyone on the well wishes! Hope everyone else goes quickly!! I will post when we have an oath date!	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-03-11 21:22:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Christeen... You both went in interview room or only your husband?? Only my husband, I stood up, but the interviewer said that he would be interviewing my husband alone. So I sat and waited and chatted with the front desk lady. Total time in interview was 30 minutes, but. Saw some,mwhomhad other interviewers come put in like 20 minutes.. Hubby is here with me telling me what went happened and what they asked so I can type it here as he is a super slow hunt-and-peck typer ... Lol Edited by christeen, 11 March 2013 - 06:47 PM.	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-03-11 18:45:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Interview DONE and he PASSED... Recommended for approval. Arrived at 1 pm for the 1:30 interview.mer were about 100 people checkin in on the other side of the room for their oath (lady at the check n desk said that they do them 2xs a week and the usual wait time between interview and oath is 4-6 weeks. He got called in at 2, the guy was a ver serious type of guy, my husband was a bit tense. He asked 6 questions (first president, where is the Statue of Liberty, who is governer, what was the civil rights movement, responsibility of citizen, and 2 us holidays)... Super easy for him, and the sentence he wrote was "Washington was the first president". Then he proceeded to go through every question from the application and seemed to stress "have you been involved with criminals, did you pay taxes or ever evade taxes and several time what is your wife's name, how do you spell that." My husband said he asked these several different ways. He was polite but very serious and my husband gets nervous sometimes. He asked about my husbands job and how much he travels and if he finds that hard (which he said yes but the money is good) but we have been married for 10 years so we are used to crazy life. But in the end all ok and we passed. No additional paperwork was asked for (we brought stuff) we are goingmtomitaly end of April so the interviewer made a note and said iit will either be scheduled for mid April, or mid may when he is back... So whew! All good... Time to party (although he has to leave for chile for a job tonight) soma solo party!	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-03-11 15:57:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Today hubby is reviewing questions for his interview tomorrow!	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-03-10 11:29:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	I had 29 entries on my N-400 . And I am not worried! Going back to the UK next week as well and interview is due soon... Hubby has about 62 entries on the n400 ... But his time in country is sufficient.. We will bring a spreadsheet showing his trips since the application... Just getting a bit nervous I guess, questioning stuff... But I am sure he will do just fine!	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-03-07 20:34:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	I'm sure you won't need to keep track of the trips after the interview. I think at the time of oath they just collect your green card and give you your certificate. Definitely bring an addendum of his trips prior to the interview and a letter from his employer would help explaining his trips. Every little bit helps. BTW I've been reading on other boards the IO have been asking about traffic tickets/violations and wanting proof they have been paid/cleared. So you may want to look into getting his driving record or bringing receipts from paid tickets. (Such a pain!) Good luck on the interview! He has not gotten any traffic violations, so we are ok there... He just wants to b prepared for the travel question and what the best way to present the info. I will tell him to get the employment letter just in case.	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-03-06 23:31:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Question... So since we filled out the N400 my husband has taken 6 trips out of the country ( for work, each about 2-4 days). Should he type up an addendum indicating these trips to turn in at his interview on Monday? I would assume that he would have to do another of these for all his trips between the interview and oath too? Do you think it necessary that he get a letter from his employer stating that his job requires him to leave the us to service ships or should he just explain this in the interview? He has 50+ trips outside the USA since getting his green card (none more than a week at a time). we do not want any surprises.	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-03-06 22:11:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	I've got the letter today, the interview will be on 3/21/13. I can't wait! Allright! Congrats... Movin along!	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-02-20 00:06:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Very cool! It's great when you can see historical things up close! It pulls everything you study together. Hubby and I are both born and raised in Canada so I'm afraid this is all new for us. I learned a lot just from watching the movie Lincoln lol (very good movie) Hopefully once we get our citizenship we can go to D.C. too! We would love to learn more about this amazing country's history It was a great trip. Be sure to write you congressman, he set us up with VIP tour of the Capitol and the White House tour and tour of the congressional. Offices... Even had lunch in the house cafeteria. It gives you a whole new appreciation...	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-02-19 20:08:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	The yellow letter came separate from the interview letter. As far as documents are it never hurts to bring too much. I think the main thing when it comes to days out of the US the USCIS wants to make sure no trip single lasts over 6 months because to them it means you abandoned your GC. You guys should be in good shape! Good luck with your interview btw! It's coming up soon! Hubby and I have been studying civics like crazy to the point we are even using the flash cards! We have gone through the questions but he is kind of a history and politics buff so he does pretty well. Plus, We took a trip to Washington, D.C. Last april and went to senate, congress, met our congressman, did the capitol and White House tour, and the library of congress had a full exhibit ofmthe declarationof independence and bill of rights history... the whole 9yards, so I would say the trip was not in vain!	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-02-19 17:59:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Has any of you who are already scheduled for your interview received a yellow sheet from USCIS? I just got one today asking I bring my drivers license. Thought it was kind of weird. I don't remember it being a requirement for submission with the N-400 application. Oh well luckily it isn't anything too major! We did not get any yellow letter.. Did it come with the interview letter or separate? We are bringing every govt document and birth and marriage certificate that we have to be safe... Our biggest issue that worries my hubby is his travel outside of the country. He does 2-3 day jobs every couple weeks to fix cruise and tanker ships (no he did not work on the Triumph) so we have a list 2 pages long of trips... But none are more than 5 days at a time and total about 300 days over 3.5 years. I figure he will get questions so we got a letter from his employer stating what his job is and that international travel is a job requirement.	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-02-19 13:51:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	I'm sure yours will go by fast too! Mine went fast because of the early biometrics and plus the fact that San Francisco has a 5 month processing time. A co-worker of mine had her citizenship done last year (San Jose, CA Field office) and it took her 3-4 months from application to oath. Ya... We're a bit surprised how fast ours is moving... March 11 is his interview... Guess west palm beach office is a quick one! Hopefully everyone's applications start moving quickly too!	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-02-14 16:20:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Cool. we have our first interview. All the best Christeen. We're kinda shocked it went so fast so far!	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-02-10 10:20:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Just got our letter for his interview date. The interview is scheduled for 11 march at 1:30n. Yay!!! (Can someone update us?) thanks Edited by christeen, 09 February 2013 - 05:54 PM.	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-02-09 17:53:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	West to biometrics today in west palm beach... To very crowded, 10 minutes in and out...	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-01-30 13:46:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	I got the Biometrics appointment letter yesterday for 02/07. I went today to see if I can get my Bio done and was shot down. Got to wait till 02/07. Good try though! Sorry they shot you down... My hubby is traveling for work, so waiting till the date, jan 30, actually works best for us.... Otherwise we would see if they will take us early.	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-01-23 23:48:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Can someone update me? Received NOA on 1/22 and biometrics appt on 1/30. Thanks...	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-01-23 14:32:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	I can laugh now...we are leaving for vacation on 2/7 and I was concerned about the Biometric date landing on our date of departure then having to go through the hassle of rescheduling. It didn't as we got 2/6! Looking at Kasiraman's latest update, we got lucky!!! We submitted our files on the same date and we are at the same field office....we just happened to get 2/6 and they got 2/7. Crazy lucky! elguevon............|01/10/13.|01/16/13.|01/16/13.|02/06/13.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Saint Paul, MN Kasiraman...........|01/10/13.|01/16/13.|01/17/13.|02/07/13.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|--/--/--.|Saint Paul, MN W e are in the SAME situation... We are leaving for vacation on 31 January and we had the same fear.... Today we got our bio appt letter... Ours is Jan 30th, day before we leave... I thought it was crazy too! Edited by christeen, 23 January 2013 - 12:58 AM.	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-01-23 00:57:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Just checked the mail and we received the 797 (NOA). And the biometrics appointment letter... Bio is 1/30/2013. YAY!	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-01-22 17:59:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Just looked at my account and the check was cashed! So it begins...	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-01-18 11:01:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	So, my husband travels (many time out of the country) as a technician almost every week... I hope after the oath, he will have to go to the passport agency in Miami to get a same day passport made (his company will give him a letter stating that he has to leave the county for work) which is a pain..... But, One question, I would assume then that he will have to change his status for his global entry as he will not have his green card? Any idea what this entails? With immigration at miami airport, global entry is a godsend!	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-01-13 23:02:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Everything sent off today... Time to start the tracking and waiting game!	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-01-10 16:18:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	Christeen, I see that you just opened a topic under the same description. Any reason? If not, let's keep everybody in one group, makes it easier! Thanks! Oops... For some reason thought I hit for new post, not topic... Sorry, I will delete	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-01-09 17:49:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 January 2013 Filers	We are getting all the final stuff together now (photos) to file... Hardest part is that hubby travels outside the us almost every other week for a few days... The outside the USA part is 78 trips! Aauuggh... But we should be all ready to roll in the next day... Time to start another journey!	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-01-08 20:25:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	when u can file for citizenship?	Nobody will let you know whether you can apply right now in light of the fact that we have no clue when you first got a green card. Do as other have inferred and take a gander at your green card for when it was initially issued.   Also have some patience after applying for the Green Card... Best of Luck OP stated he got first GC on June 20, 2011	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-12-10 13:14:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	when u can file for citizenship?	You are off.  You are making the mistake that 90 days equals 3 months (March 21 to June 20).  March and May have 31 days.   The first day is March 22, 2014 if all the other requirements are met. Forgot the 31 of M arch... So March 22 is the first day you can apply...	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-12-10 09:38:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	when u can file for citizenship?	You can lie on March 21 2014...	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-12-09 16:26:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	when u can file for citizenship?	90 days before the 3rd anniversary of your first green card... (The date LPR since...)	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-12-06 13:37:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	I am freaking out! Help - urgent travel after oath!	When we asked at uscis, We were told that he could use the naturalization certificate for identification and domestic travel... But to re enter the USA from abroad, he needed a passport, hence we did the same day passport option as he had a business trip 4 days after oath...	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-12-18 18:25:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	I am freaking out! Help - urgent travel after oath!	You are mistaken. You are required to inform the SSA of any change in your citizenship status as soon as it happens: http://www.newcitizen.us/after.html   "The Social Security Administration requires any person who has a change in his or her immigration or citizenship status to report that change to the Social Security Administration...You must report the change by completing Form SS-5 and by visiting your local Social Security Administration office in person". We were told by uscis to wait 2 weeks to notify Social security in order for the system to be updated... I would NEVER EVER think to leave the country without a passport..	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-12-18 16:37:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	I am freaking out! Help - urgent travel after oath!	dual citizenship, I think you can chose whatever passport you want to use to travel with.   good luck Wrong! Yes you can travel on a different pasport once y ou leave the usa.... however You MUST enter the USA on a USA passport if you are a citizen....	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-12-18 09:05:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	I am freaking out! Help - urgent travel after oath!	Same day as oath... Likely not gonna happen... You need to locate your nearest passport office and see if they have any appointments and what their turnaround time is... We got it done in miami the day after his oath (had to bring proof of trip outside the USA within 1 week ) we made the appointment ahead of time... Gonna be tight, but maybe you can get to a passport office the day after the oath... Good luck	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-12-18 00:38:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Confused if we can file yet or not	If you meet the criteria of having spent at least half of the time in the USA AND maintained residence then you should be able to file... However, you WILL be asked about this 11 month absence (as any trip over 6 months is stipulated) so I would gather evidence of why she was out for so long (the family illness, doctors/hospital etc...) as you will need to prove that residence was not abandoned...	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-11-21 15:50:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Im in a serious bind-Oath Ceremony-Friday/International Travel-Monday	Who said anything about Miami? The poster speaks of Cadman plaza in Downtown Brooklyn?? I believe that's in NY?? Just using it as an example of how some passport centers will not allow walk in's and that there are time limits for some... The OP was figuring on walking in and they might not be able to... I'd for sure check with the agency they are planning to do this...	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-06-29 12:20:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Im in a serious bind-Oath Ceremony-Friday/International Travel-Monday	Miami would not allow walk-in people... Appointments only... And bring your plane tickets/proof of international travel...	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-06-28 20:29:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Im in a serious bind-Oath Ceremony-Friday/International Travel-Monday	I have never heard of being able to hold on to your green card after you are naturalized (after all it is no longer technically valid) ... We did same day passport the day after and we had to do an appt in the morning then pick up the passport after 2:30. Honestly, IMO, I would postpone the oath (I know how much that stinks) until you have time in the US (at least a full working day) to get a passport...	christeen	Female	Italy	2013-06-28 15:56:00