Atlanta GA - N-400 Timeline

My lawyer's Dale Schwartz. http://pview.findlaw.com/view/2951740_1?noconfirm=0

He has a very good reputation, so it's not his incompetence or anything. I just don't know what to do at this point. I've just wasted 10 months of my life. I wasn't even planning on staying in the U.S. after my college graduation on Dec. 2006. I graduate from Emory with an LSAT score in the 99th percentile and what do i do with it??? Wait months and months for NOTHING!!! I was planning on going to Japan and Korea, learn some languages before law school. AARRRRGHHHH!!!!!

Who knows, maybe my lawyer will be able to fix it. They said they'll give me a call tomorrow and let me know why this occurred. They seem to be extremely perplexed by the situation, and told me that it's probably just incompetence from USCIS... as usual. Right now, i'm writing letters to both my senators and my congressman (john lewis) although i've already tried with the latter and the bastard just sends me a stock e-mail about immigration that has nothing to do with me. Crying out loud, i'm paying 1040 a month rent because i'm on 60 day leases waiting to leave as soon as i get naturalized.

Sorry for the rant. Any advice from you is definitely welcome.
 
atl07 said:
Hi Guys
I just found this forum. I am so happy to meet with the people who have the same concern. I am so nervous about the interview. Is there any standard for the interview like starting with same things and finishing with another thing? And also how do they make you swear in before the interview? I don’t know anyone who had experience on naturalization. I’m wondering if any of you guys know about the procedure of the interview.
Thanks
My timeline
Priority Date: 06/25/2007
Fingerprints Appointment: 08/02/2007
Interview Scheduled for: 12/19/2007 at 12.05 pm
Click to expand...
ATL07

When did you get your Interview Letter?
 
ENGLANDER said:
ATL07

When did you get your Interview Letter?
Click to expand...

Actually I learned my interview date from the officer on Oct 3 when I went to info pass. She also told me that I should get my letter soon. Just like she said I got my letter on Oct 8. Since then I feel a little nervous about the interview. I read some older messages and there hasn’t been too many interviews done since June. And also I saw there are a few members of the forum getting their interview before me like VRB2007, PASHAPUFFY,JAVAJAG, AMBARK, TAUREAN. Please don’t forget us and share your detail interview experience. Also if anyone puts light on the interview procedure, I would appreciate it.
Thanks
 
Hello ATL07,
I don't think there should be any reason to be nervous about the interview itself. It is not the GMAT :)

You may want to review "A Guide to Naturalization"

http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/M-476.pdf


All the best!

-Bambaiyya

atl07 said:
Hi Guys
I just found this forum. I am so happy to meet with the people who have the same concern. I am so nervous about the interview. Is there any standard for the interview like starting with same things and finishing with another thing? And also how do they make you swear in before the interview? I don’t know anyone who had experience on naturalization. I’m wondering if any of you guys know about the procedure of the interview.
Thanks
My timeline
Priority Date: 06/25/2007
Fingerprints Appointment: 08/02/2007
Interview Scheduled for: 12/19/2007 at 12.05 pm
Click to expand...
 
Calling Congressman (My experience)

In the past I have tried Johnny Isakson's office (our senator). Mr Spry has been telling me nothing but letting me know that my case is stuck in some background check. He knows that my name check has been cleared since Feb / March of this year, but he still can't do anything to expedite my case. He understands that I was called for the interview twice but again he can't do anything. He just tells me to check with him once a month that's all.

Every other person has tried calling their senator and congressman so yesterday I finally thought of calling John Lewis's office (GA congressman) nad try him out. The person who is responsible to help people with their naturalization cases is Miss Butler. I left her couple of voicemails during the day. She told me that she never got my messages & when finally I was able to get hold of her around 4pm yesterday, she told me that she was on the phone & assured me that she will definitely call me back before she leaves for the day. I never heard from her. In short, my experience with this congressman's office wasn't so pleasant.
 
exact same experience with Miss Butler. She never gave me a call back, and when i finally called her back, she told me she knew nothing.
 
ATL07

Good news for you, but so for me. My FP was only 8 days after you, but I have seen nothing. I did an Info Pass on the 10th October and all I could get was that everything was cleared, but IO did not give any indication of any interview date.

I must admit there are times when I have to question do I really want to be a citizen of this counrty when the government is in such a mess. Every agency is in crisis because of lack of people or resources. Also from reading this and other forums there is no consitency with the USCIS, some people fly through and other take years for no reason.

May be its time to think about going back to the UK, at least its home and you know where you stand.

The idiot USCIS should have increased the fees a bit each year instead of doubling them and then wondering why they got a bow wave of applications. Great planning guys....

The story continues.....
 
Bambaiyya
Thanks for your help. I will check the form you mentioned. Sounds like it has good info. I feel uncomfortable probably because I do not have enough info about the interview procedure. After I gather info, probably I will be fine. I didn’t get that nervous even before my GRE test, because I knew what to expect. The reality is that there is no such a standard on any thing in USCIS except double-standard and caos. Look at the situation Atlanta brother and dudnaito are in, they are left on a boat without a paddle. What to say, hoping the best

Englander
I understand what you mean. I think you should get your letter soon if USCIS does the job right and in order. What I see is that they work periodically and they mail things in bunch and stop for 1 month and start the circle again. I can see your interview will take place in January. The logic says that but like we all know, USCIS is in a mess and overwhelmed by the applications.
 
Butler calls back

dudnaito said:
exact same experience with Miss Butler. She never gave me a call back, and when i finally called her back, she told me she knew nothing.
Click to expand...

dudnaito,

Out of the blue I get a call back from Miss Butler (Congressman's office) today. I wasn't even expecting her call especially after reading your note. She sounded very concerned over the phone & took all the necessary details from me like my A #, receipt number etc etc. She told me that she will make some phone calls & will try her best to move the file to Atlanta office without me faxing any paperwork to her office so I could be interviewed immediately. To be honest, I kept listening to what she had to say coz she sounded too good to be true. She told me that if not by end the day today, she will get definitely back to me in the next couple of days with some answers.

Let's see if I hear from her. I doubt it, but I will keep you posted if there is any development.
 
i just called ms. butler, and she seemed more responsive and helpful. Surprisingly, she vaguely remembers my case from 2 weeks back even recounting what she told me last time. She apparently found out that it was not John Lewis' office, but a particular senator's office who took my file for inquiry. I don't know who CLOSED my file though.
 
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my lawyer advised me not to speak to anyone else, because it may confuse the issue further... meaning i can't speak to ms. butler, who by the way informed me that a senator took my file for unknown reasons. My lawyer is working on the case saying he's confident that he'll get it reopened on the grounds that i already went through a fingerprint twice, and hopefully will try to get it expedited so that i'm looking at an interview date of dec. or jan. although no guarantees are made.

Judging from my past experience with immigration, i'll probably have to stay for another year though lol lol lol (knock on wood).
 
It's a tough call

dudnaito said:
my lawyer advised me not to speak to anyone else, because it may confuse the issue further... meaning i can't speak to ms. butler, who by the way informed me that a senator took my file for unknown reasons. My lawyer is working on the case saying he's confident that he'll get it reopened on the grounds that i already went through a fingerprint twice, and hopefully will try to get it expedited so that i'm looking at an interview date of dec. or jan. although no guarantees are made.

Judging from my past experience with immigration, i'll probably have to stay for another year though lol lol lol (knock on wood).
Click to expand...

dudnaito,

You are right as they say "Too many cooks spoilt the broth". It's hard to make that choice. I have been told in the past that one can try from different angles, you never know which effort would work, I mean going thru senator, congressman, first lady or lawyer....you never know. I am not going to push Ms Butler too hard but will wait for her response. This way when my lawyer prepares to file a law suit, we can also throw this additional point, that congressman was also contacted & there was no outcome.
 
Response from Ms Butler

Check this out !

Tuere

The file is currently undergoing security check. File will be transferred when this has been completed.

Thank you for your inquiry and please do not hesitate to contact us again if you have further questions regarding this case.
 
Hello again,
I mentioned before, that I mailed my application to INS in TX on July 22. Today I called them to check if there is any progress going on, so they told me that my case is not even in the system yet. And I should wait until the end of the month and if I still dont hear from them I should make a copy of a check (front and back) and send it to them so they can check what happened to my case.
 
just received letter from the senator's office saying that they've sent an inquiry. I think I have 3 different places sending inquiries now. Furthermore, my paralegal mentioned that she hopes i didn't sign a privacy release form... which i apparently did automatically by sending a letter to Sen. Isakson. Oii.... what the hell's going on? What am i even supposed to do?
 
still not confident

ATL brother, I've read a ton of your posts and know your situation very well. It may seem great to know where your case stands, but to find out it's in security check is not very comforting. Why is it there at all, and why has it been there for such a long time? There are so many questions, and we the prospective citizens don't get a response. Hell, i still haven't even been told by USCIS that my case has been closed. If it wasn't for the fact that my mistrust of USCIS compels me to check my case by force every other day, i wouldn't even have known. What does that say about our government? Oh yeah, btw, we just spent nearly 2 trillion dollars in a war that was started under false premises and all children born from 2006 onwards will have to pay for our insurmountable national debt, since Bush doesn't want to pay for it now.
 
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dudnaito,

Well I called Butler first thing this morning. She told me that she doesn't have the power to move the file to the local DO and arrange my interview, that is impossible. She can check my status every 45 days to tell me whats going on.

Guess what ? Butler is confident that my file is still with Mesquite, TX service, in their possesion in other words & they won't release it to Atlanta DO until all my additional checks are cleared.

Now, on the other hand when you talk to immigration attorneys, not one not two, about 6 different lawyers have the same opinion & that is, my file is misrouted or lost....USCIS can't seem to know where it is...so they are using an excuse "additional security check" so one can shut up and not do anything about it. Filing law suit could be the only solution to expedite the process and get results.

Let me know what you and other users here think about this.

Thanks again.
 
I agree with your conjecture. In short, as harsh as it may sound, i think you're f'ed. You really only have two alternatives: 1) to file a lawsuit, and 2) to just start your application from scratch. I don't think there's anything suspicious about you or me for that matter where our cases become delayed. I think that we're simply a victim of statistics and incompetence. If you're not planning on leaving the country anytime soon like me, i highly suggest that you just refile. Well... then again, i'm a newb at this compared to you, but i just wanted to give you my thoughts on the matter.

P.S. how much would the lawsuit cost? From my understanding, isn't it like 6-10 grand? Also, how long will it take for the case to be resolved?

My file is in Atlanta DO, so hopefully things will work out for me. I'll keep you posted on what's going on.
 
My thoughts

dudnaito said:
I agree with your conjecture. In short, as harsh as it may sound, i think you're f'ed. You really only have two alternatives: 1) to file a lawsuit, and 2) to just start your application from scratch. I don't think there's anything suspicious about you or me for that matter where our cases become delayed. I think that we're simply a victim of statistics and incompetence. If you're not planning on leaving the country anytime soon like me, i highly suggest that you just refile. Well... then again, i'm a newb at this compared to you, but i just wanted to give you my thoughts on the matter.

P.S. how much would the lawsuit cost? From my understanding, isn't it like 6-10 grand? Also, how long will it take for the case to be resolved?

My file is in Atlanta DO, so hopefully things will work out for me. I'll keep you posted on what's going on.
Click to expand...

I will probably go with option # 1...i.e. to file a law suit and get it done and overwith.....why I say that coz there are 4 reasons to this. They are as follows:

1) If I file my application all over again, it will take ages, it will take forever to first of all USCIS to receive my check & send me my priority date with the receipt. You must be aware that there is lot of front log with USCIS applications because of their increase in the application fees from $400 to $695.

2) If I withdraw my application and USCIS system does not update it properly, there will be duplicate files created with my application....that will be another nightmare to deal with.

3) It's not all about traveling. I have my widow mother approx 70 yrs of age. She is all by herself back home. I am her only hope. Don't you think as her son I would like to sponsor her and bring her so I could take care of her.

4) I found a very good lawyer to help me file a law suit, it's not that expensive. I found out that the lawyer would charge $1500 + the filing fees of $350. I don't think it's that bad.
 
yeah, i've definitely thought about the problems with duplicate files. 1850 definitely isn't that bad... not that i can afford it at the moment anyway. Either way, if there aren't any advances by the end of the year, i'll probably go to japan as planned anyway, and hopefully work things out when i get back. what a nightmare, huh?

I also feel that i'm being neglected by my lawyer. His paralegal takes care of everything regarding my file. I haven't talked to him in almost half a year.

Who's your lawyer and what's he expecting will be the outcome of your case? How quickly does he expect things to be resolved?
 
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