ForumTitleContentMemberSexCountryDate/Time
US Citizenship General DiscussionNo document to prove citizenship
If they gave him his greencard back and he never got a certificate, and he never returned to the US to sort things out, than I'd say that no he's not a USC... if he really wants to find out after a lapse of 30 years he needs a good lawyer!
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-01-25 08:42:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionNo joint accounts
If you're short on evidence, do you really NEED to rush into getting his citizenship right now? If you can sit tight for another two years, all of that evidence becomes entirely moot. His greencard is valid for a decade - it's going to be just as green then as it is now. The only things he can't do with his greencard are vote, serve on a jury, and get an American passport. We didn't have the money at the 3 year mark so we waited... and I ended up waiting until 5 years and it magically becomes soooo much simpler overnight!
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-01-25 08:30:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionMention of Biometrics on NOA1?
They send you a biometrics appointment letter afterwards.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-01-25 08:47:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionCitizenship question?
If you're applying after five years, you don't have to send ANY tax documents with your application. You just have to tick the box that says 'yes, I've been good and paid Uncle Sam every year'.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-01-25 19:59:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionWhen does the five years start?
You have to use the date on your card. They count the five years forward from there. You'll be able to join the airforce as a USC some time next year.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-01-31 19:12:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionCAPS or not?
I think they want to make sure that it's properly readable. Caps/lowercase isn't an issue if you use a PDF-filler like most people do now... but handwriting can be very confusing. I never even noticed that requirement when I filled it out, but I typed it on the computer.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-01-31 19:17:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionWould you recommend I rush to file citizenship?
I'd allow at least six months for the paperwork... it might get done quicker, but you don't want to be out of the country when you're supposed to be taking oath, or they'll throw your whole application in the trashcan because you didn't show up. I want to travel to Australia in October, so I filed in December, and I'm hoping to be done by June/July, giving me PLENTY of time.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-02-03 11:14:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionA friends is filing for Citizenship, does economic status matter?
AFAIK her financial status is totally irrelevant at this point in time. All they're interested in at Citizenship level is whether you've been in the country long enough, including any trips, and your criminal background. If you can pay the fee, you can get your citizenship.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-02-08 14:07:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionInterview finally scheduled: fingerprints not readable
If you're 99% SURE you're going to need the certificate because of the condition of your skin, it won't hurt to short-circuit the waiting process and get your own. It's not like they're going to say 'it's not good enough, go get another one' when you hand it to them at the interview, and you could save yourself the extra waiting time.

As for the kids, if they're not your own biological children and they don't live with you, why would you need their birth certificate? They're not part of your family if you don't have custody. They want birth certificates for children you have actually given birth to yourself on US soil.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-02-17 17:29:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionLearning the answers
I've started looking at the civics booklet and running through their CD of answers. I'm wondering how long it took people to learn all 100 answers? I know 60 of them right off the bat, another 10 are relatively easy to remember after reading them (there are 27 amendments etc.) but the last 30 are doozies and I doubt I'll EVER be able to call them up on demand. I'm HOPELESS with names and dates! How much do I need to worry about those horrible 'who is the state representative?' etc. questions? Anybody actually get asked about that stuff in their test?
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-02-19 15:01:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionPassport style photos
If they're going to take your picture, assume that you want to look your best for it and dress/groom accordingly. They may or may not use it, but who wants to spend the rest of eternity with bad hair if they do? :P
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-02-19 15:03:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionN-400 Dilemma and RFE Issues!
If they refuse you, you just sit tight and wait another couple of years and file again on your own after you've had your green card for five years.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-02-17 17:22:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionMy experience @ LA Convention Center.
Congratulations. But I'm glad that Fort Lauderdale is a lot quieter than LA... I'd go stark screaming mad if I had to go through the oath ceremony with 6000 people pressed in around me. Not to mention standing in line for three hours. I have trouble standing still in one place for more than 15 minutes. :(
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-02-25 18:03:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionSpecial Abilities Green Card and N-400
If you have an actual greencard and not a work visa (b whatever it is), you have nothing worry about. Working visas are only valid as long as you maintain the employment they were granted for. Once you have a greencard, it's yours for life unless you choose to leave the country and give it up.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-02-25 18:23:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionHow big was your oath ceremony when you took citizenship?
A couple of hundred people in the room I can handle, especially if it's a big enough one not to seem too crowded. An hour's wait I can handle. Much more or longer than that brings back all of my agoraphobic nightmares...
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-02-25 18:20:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionHow big was your oath ceremony when you took citizenship?
Somebody just described their oath-taking in LA and it sounds like a total and utter nightmare because they processed 6000 people at the same time and left them standing on the pavement for two solid hours before they even opened the doors to start the processing. For people who have already survived the process, how big, crowded, and lengthy was your ceremony, and where was it? I'm asking because I'm a)curious, b)have a disabled husband who would not be able to stand in line with me for anywhere near that length of time, and c)claustrophobic! You won't ever find me voluntarily joining a gigantic crowd for anything.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-02-25 18:12:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionHOW LONG CEREMONY TAKES
I'm sure it depends on where you are in the country and how crowded the oath-taking ceremony is going to be. Just look at the description posted earlier today - 6000 attendees at one ceremony, so it took hours on end just to get through them all.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-02-25 18:14:00
US Citizenship General Discussionk-1 visa, now divorced.. problem getting citizenship?
If you have a ten-year greencard, and you wait until you've had it five years, you're getting your citizenship in your own right, not piggybacking on your spouse. Your divorce is a non-issue. Paperwork for a 5-year citizenship application is very simple. Photo, copy of your greencard, check, application, and anything else specifically asked for in the application form.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-03 19:33:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionOK, either I am blind or crazy, or else, but, is it 3 years?
You're quite correct. You only HAVE to hang onto that ten-year-greencard for 12 months if you're married to a US citizen. But having paid all that money to get it, there's no rush. It's good for a decade.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-02-29 17:01:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionWhen to start studying for the civics test?
If you're a fluent English-speaker you don't need to start studying at least until you get your interview letter. That gives you about a month's notice, which is plenty of time to memorise the hundred questions. At least half of them are things that most people with an English-speaking-background will know already just from watching television and reading books so you really only have to 'learn' the tricky ones.

If you have to do the whole thing by rote it would be much, MUCH harder.

Edited by Kajikit, 15 March 2012 - 03:21 PM.

KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-15 15:20:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionCitizenship
Nobody's FORCING you to become a citizen. Some people don't because they'd have to give up their original citizenship and they want to keep it (but their country of origin doesn't allow dual citizenships). Some people have trouble coming up with the cash or they're worried about the exam or whatever. You can keep a green card forever if you want, you just have to keep on remembering to renew it every ten years. Personally, citizenship means never having to worry about the USCIS ever again, and being able to get an American passport.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-15 15:26:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionFunctional Illiteracy and the N400 Interview
They give you a vocabulary list in the back of the citizenship booklet for both the reading and the writing sections of the test (they're not identical, but most of the words are very simple). If it's any help, his partner could drill him in those lists for as long as necessary to help him learn them. You have to read and write sentences like 'The president lives in the White House.' If he has a certifiable learning disability (like dyslexia) causing his illiteracy he could get a medical exemption on that part of the test and not have to do it. They just need to fill out the medical form and get a doctor to rubber-stamp it.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-15 15:39:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionAm I Classed As A Naturalized Citizen?
Seems simple enough to me. They're trying to avoid confusion. It doesn't actually distinguish between citizens-by-birth and naturalised citizens, it wants to make sure that the bases are covered. If you're not a citizen yet, you need the A number.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-15 15:48:00
US Citizenship General Discussiontest questions asked
Most of the questions are really easy. Just make sure that you learn the 'names' questions that you have to look up yourself. It seems as if you're almost certain to get asked for one of them (who is your governor/representative/senator?)

I don't remember all the questions I was asked, but the last one was name two American holidays. How easy is that? Christmas and Thanksgiving and you're done. I also had to name our state's governor.

Edited by Kajikit, 20 March 2012 - 09:22 AM.

KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-20 09:19:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionI'm a citizen now!
Yeah... it was certainly convenient to live 20 minutes from the immigration office. I hate to think what would have happened if we didn't have time to go home and fetch my green card before the ceremony. I'm not normally quite so scatter-brained about interviews etc. but DH's sister has cancer and she passed away yesterday morning, and he's been very unwell this week, so I was worrying about everything on earth APART from the ceremony.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-23 17:01:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionI'm a citizen now!
Actually, yes I am. Australia switched to allowing dual citizenships in the 1980s. When I go home to visit my parents later in the year I'll see about getting my Australian paperwork in order and up-to-date. I never changed my name or anything because it was too difficult to do from here.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-23 15:38:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionI'm a citizen now!
My oath ceremony was this morning at Oakland Park Florida. We were told to be there at 10.30, so to make sure we were really early, we left home at quarter past nine and we got there about 20 to 10 and I went to the back of the already-long line. Then there was a crisis. We had a family emergency this week, and I was so flustered that I entirely forgot I needed to take my green card with me. I remembered it when I got into line and saw the lady ahead of me holding hers in her hand. Oh BLEEEP!!!!!!!! I ran back to the car, we raced home, I RAN upstairs and picked it up, and we raced back again, getting there exactly at 10.30am. The good thing about that was that we were still perfectly on time after that little crisis, and I didn't have to stand in line for very long because they started filing us into the building five minutes after I got there. So that's one reason for being early!

It didn't take long to get everyone in the door at 10.30 because they checked all our paperwork while were lined up waiting, and clipped our green cards onto our sheet. Make sure you put the right date on it. I was so flustered that I copied the date the letter was sent instead of today's date, and I had to fix it. But it seemed like every second person had to correct something on their sheet, and some didn't understand enough English to even fill it out. (like the lady in front of me. She left it blank and when they started questioning her she just said 'yes, yes' until they grabbed somebody to translate for her and straighten out the mess.)

Your guest doesn't get to sit anywhere near you. They put visitors with small kids over by the door (presumably in case a parent needed to take the child out of the room) and the other guests were crammed on the far side of the room. Family were encouraged to take photos during the ceremony to help us remember our 'special day' but there was really nothing to take photos OF - there are too many people crammed into too small a space, and I couldn't even see where John was sitting. All the new citizens were sitting in the middle, and they called out the list of countries alphabetically with how many people from each were there, and made us stand up as our country was listed and remain standing. Since I'm from Australia, I was right near the front of the list and standing for a fair while. They said there were 166 people from 40 countries being naturalised today, so the room was packed. There were one or two from a whole bunch of places, 10 from Columbia, 20 from Venezualea, and right at the end of the list they called Haiti(40). Everyone applauded politely, and the Haitians cheered loudly enough to raise the roof. That reminded me of why citizenship is really important to a lot of people. Some of us come from one privileged country (Australia, Canada, the UK etc.) to another and we've basically just changed the country on our passport. We could go 'home' again and live just the same way we do here, we just don't want to, but to the refugees it's a really HUGE thing to be here, and the USA really does represent a 'better life' for their families.

The rest of the ceremony was pretty quick. We sat there and they played a couple of patriotic video clips, then we said the oath, the pledge of allegiance and sang 'Proud to be an American' and we were done. I wish they'd chosen something a little less militiaristic, like America the Beautiful or God Bless America!

I'd expected that we'd stand up and file past the stage at the front of the room to collect our certificates a la graduation, but they just had us stand up one row at a time and collect them on our way out the door. I was in the second-last row in, but the first one out. If you wanted a photo at the front of the room you could do it afterwards, so lots of people milled around there waiting for a turn. The whole thing was over before 12 and my husband and I went off to have a Southern-style lunch to celebrate. (he suggested Chinese, but if you're going to become an American you should really eat American food to celebrate it!:P)

One tip - make sure you take your social security card with you. They don't TELL you to bring it because you don't need it for the ceremony, but they had representatives from the social security department, the voting registration people etc there, and you could sign up for everything on the spot - as long as you knew your social security number! I didn't even think of taking that card and I have no idea what my number is, so now I'll have to wait 2 weeks (10 business days) for my change of status to get into the system before I can do all that stuff at the appropriate office. It's not a big deal, but it saves a lot of extra running around if you can do it right away.

Edited by Kajikit, 23 March 2012 - 03:35 PM.

KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-23 15:25:00
US Citizenship General Discussioncan i bring reading/writing materials to oath ceremony
To those who think it was a special 'life-changing day', it's just another piece of bureaucracy and red tape. I'm not saying I didn't want to do it, but I would have been just as happy if I could have been handed my certificate of citizenship at the same time as I had my interview (just last week!) even if it meant sitting around all day. For one thing, last week I had ALL my paperwork with me in case they wanted to see it, and today I left half of it at home! Being penned up in a room with 165 strangers, plus their friends, and watching a few pre-recorded videos is not my idea of a great time. (it would have been a lot more meaningful to me if they'd let me sit beside my loved one instead of having him where we couldn't even see each other in the distance! The whole point of our journey is to spend our lives together side-by-side, after all.)
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-23 16:57:00
US Citizenship General Discussioncan i bring reading/writing materials to oath ceremony
We could bring anything we wanted to the ceremony... I was going to bring my kindle, but we ended up so late that I didn't have time to do anything and I left it in the car. A notebook and pen is no problem, but you're not going to be doing much writing standing in line with a million other people. (my purse had my camera, phone, etc in it and there was no comment on any of the electronic gizmos.)

Edited by Kajikit, 23 March 2012 - 04:52 PM.

KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-23 16:50:00
US Citizenship General Discussionmarried and 5 year Resident
If you've had your greencard for five years, you can apply for citizenship in your own right and it doesn't matter what your marital status is.
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-27 11:24:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionPLEASE READ. Your help is needed!
If you're that unsure about the quality of your evidence, do you really HAVE to file for your wife's citizenship right now? Her greencard is good for years to come. If you hold out another two years, none of that evidence will matter because she'll be able to get her citizenship in her own right with no need to prove her marriage at all. At that point you'll have another couple of tax transcripts to show them and so on. If they decide to make life difficult for you and deny her for lack of proof, the money is down the drain and you'll have to reapply anyway.

Edited by Kajikit, 30 March 2012 - 09:20 PM.

KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-30 21:19:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionUSCIS contacted after became a US citizen
It seems a little odd that you would get an email rather than a paper letter... I'd be double-checking if I was you!
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-15 20:55:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionN-400 December 2011 FILERS
You can tick me off in red now. I sat through the oath ceremony this morning (see my seperate thread for details.)
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-23 17:02:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionN-400 December 2011 FILERS

My oath gonna be tomorrow !!!


I just got my letter. My ceremony is next Friday. I'm very surprised it's so quick... but that means I'll have a US passport by the end of next month. :)
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-15 20:50:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionN-400 December 2011 FILERS
Had my interview at Ft Lauderdale today and it was a carbon copy of Moonys... got there at 9.30, the appointment time was 10 and they called me back at 10.30(ish). The interview took ten minutes tops. The lady who interviewed me seemed to have no interest in me whatsoever and a robot could have done the interview, but at least it was painless! She didn't want to see any paperwork except my greencard and the interview letter (she told me to put the rest of my packet of stuff away unseen), and the only real question she had for me was who supports me financially (since I had no employment history on the form, and none to give her now. I'm 'working' six days a week between our church and the local library and local cat shelter, but nothing you get paid for...) Anyway, the answer to that is my husband, of course. We have one of those old-fashioned marriages where what's mine is yours and all that. Not that I said that to her, I just told her that my husband did... she made a little note on the form and passed me on to the next question, and in the end she told me I was approved. On the way out the door I tried to get an idea when the citizenship ceremony would be but she said she had no idea and I'd get the letter in the mail. All she'd tell me is that they do them a couple of time a month.

Actual civics questions. She asked the Governor of our state, name two American holidays, where is the Statue of Liberty, and I can't remember the other questions but they were easy ones.

Edited by Kajikit, 12 March 2012 - 04:00 PM.

KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-12 15:59:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionN-400 December 2011 FILERS
Congrats Moony! I hope my interview on Monday goes so smoothly...
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-03-09 13:04:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionN-400 December 2011 FILERS
I got my interview letter today! Well, actually yesterday but we didn't get the mail in till this morning. My interview is March 12 at 10am, so yep, I'll be hot on your heels Moony! Guess I'd better start looking at that stuff they gave me to learn. I'm hopeless with names and dates. :(

PS. I guess getting your fingerprints done early or when they send you the appointment doesn't make a whole lot of difference - I thought Moony would be 3 weeks ahead of me, and there's only a few days difference between our interview appointments.

Edited by Kajikit, 06 February 2012 - 03:36 PM.

KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-02-06 15:34:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionN-400 December 2011 FILERS
Congrats Moony! I expect I won't be too far behind you... guess I'd better start learning all that stuff we're supposed to know!
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-02-03 09:58:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionN-400 December 2011 FILERS
Just a note - I went and had my biometrics done at the Oakland Park service center today as scheduled and it took all of ten minutes! There were only three people ahead of me in line and three behind me by the time I was done, so the longest part of the procedure was sitting down and filling my info in on the clipboard. It sure was a change from going out to the overcrowded Sunrise office five years ago! Now to wait for my Interview letter...
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-01-17 17:07:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionN-400 December 2011 FILERS
I got two things in the mail today - first, my biometrics appointment letter. I'm set for Jan 17... and second, my bank statement for last month, which tells me that USCIS cashed my check on December 22, 2011. Things are moving along much faster than I expected...
KajikitFemaleAustralia2012-01-03 17:33:00