Chicago IL - N-400 Timeline

I have to respectfully disagree for two reasons.

(1) USCIS falls under Department of Homeland Security. Citizenship status is determined by the State Department. We all know their stance on dual citizenship.
(2) The oath asks one to renounce allegiance to any foreign entity/person. That is not equivalent to renouncing one's present citizenship(s).

Bobsmyth said:
Asking if you are willing to give up your current nationality is a legitimate question to determine if you have any reservations about reciting the oath of allegiance.
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Here's what the oath states:

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen.."

Answering that you do not intend to relinquish your previous citizenship can be seen as a sign that you are not willing to take the oath.

Again, IMO it's a legitimate question that is used to determine your willingness to take the oath and has nothing to do with your eligibility for dual citizenship.
 
I guess we can agree to disgree :)

I would be okay if the adjudicator re-phrases the question. As long as "losing citizenship" is not included.

Bobsmyth said:
Again, IMO it's a legitimate question that is used to determine your willingness to take the oath and has nothing to do with your eligibility for dual citizenship.
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FP and FBI

Went to the Michigan City, IN office on April 18th (FP date). Turned up there at 8 AM instead of 1:00 PM (FP appointment time). The office did not seem too busy. Guard gave me pain and suffering for being there "five hours early". I told him I have to fly out later that day. He was wondering why I did not choose to reschedule. Long story short, my smiles and nice demeanor (I assume) got the FP done "five hours early".

FYI, the Michigan City office directions in Mapquest and in GPS are wrong.

Just called FBI today to confirm the processing of FPs - nice lady said they were processed the same day.

D/O: Chicago, IL

03/20/09: N-400 App delivered to Phoenix Lockbox
03/20/09: N-400 Received By Lockbox
3/20/09: Priority Date
3/26/09: Notice Date
03/27/09: Check Cashed
3/30/09: NOA Received ( I-797C)
4/5/09: Fingerprint Appointment Notice Date
4/10/09: Fingerprint Letter Received
4/18/09: Fingerprint Appointment Date (done)
TBD: Interview Letter Received
TBD: Interview Date
TBD: Oath Letter Received
TBD: Oath Date
 
oath letter received

Today I finally received an oath letter, for an oath ceremony in my town's federal courthouse on May 14.
 
Received yellow letter (and interview date)

See the updated timeline below. The yellow letter is dated 5/5/09. Coincidentially, that is the day when I called USCIS to find out any updates on my case.

I just called USCIS again for any further updates and they told me the interview date over the phone.
 
oath completed

I finally had my naturalization oath today and became a U.S. citizen, 29 months after submitting an N-400 application. The ceremony was in the federal courthouse in our town. The oath letter said to report there at 1pm. I came about 20 minutes before 1pm. There were two immigration officers from the Chicago service center in the courtroom who at around 1pm started checking people in by collecting their oath letters and green cards and sending them to assigned seats. There were about 50 people taking the naturalization oath there today and the check-in process took about 50-55 minutes. The judge came in around 2:20pm and the ceremony started. It took about 40-45 minutes and shortly after 3pm we were all administered the oath, given the naturalization certificates and became U.S. citizens.

Then there was a reception, with free food and drink for the newly sworn citizens. At the reception there were representatives from the county clerk's office registering people to vote, representatives from the social security administration taking in applications for updating the social security stat us (from a non-citizen to citizen) and from the post office accepting passport applications. That was rather convenient. I registered to vote and updated my social security info right there. Since I am travelling abroad in two weeks and don't want to take chances with expedited passport service (which supposedly takes 2-3 weeks now), I'll have to get an appoitment at the Chicago passport agency next week.

Overall, the naturalization oath ceremony was pretty nice and wll-organized, and had a very different tenor from my previous interactions with USCIS.
 
hello

hello i passed my interview citizenship test 30 days ago the officer gave me n-652 that you passed test but Decision Can not be made yet ..i have disability in my foot i walk with cane and the officer asked what is your work i told him iam food vendor and he told me that you have disability and you work as food vendor isnot hard for youi told him i dont work too much ...he asked why you dont take disability benefit i told him i dont take no benefit and that i said is true..he asked how you support your self and you work as part time i told him i suport my self iam working,,,i show him my 5 years tax but i dont pay too much money in my income tax..at last he told me Decision Can not be made right now and that he will check my income and i will get Decision by the mail ..iam now very worry i did not recieved no thing pleaze can you tell me what to do i have to call them or what ..thank you all
 
ecnirp11 said:
See the updated timeline below. The yellow letter is dated 5/5/09. Coincidentially, that is the day when I called USCIS to find out any updates on my case.

I just called USCIS again for any further updates and they told me the interview date over the phone.
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Hello Ecnirp11,

Which number did you use to call USCIS? I called 1 800 375 5283. (which is written on my receipt) They said they don't have any information on when the notices were actually sent. They recommended that i should just wait longer. Do you have abother number you used? Thanks.
 
Hi,

Just gave the FP in IL, how do I call the FBI and find out about the finger prints. Is there anything specific that we need to ask?

Do we give the name or case number or the A-Number?

Thanks,
 
KrisKumarr said:
Hi,

Just gave the FP in IL, how do I call the FBI and find out about the finger prints. Is there anything specific that we need to ask?

Do we give the name or case number or the A-Number?

Thanks,
Click to expand...

Call FBI at 304-625-5590. You will need to give either your A-number or your case number.

This call is a straighforward one, and they do answer immediately. This will at least confirm if they had received your fingerprints, processed them and passed on the results to USCIS.
 
Successful Interviews for Self and Wife

Straightforward. Nothing much to add other than my wait was long. In Chicago, there are two seating areas that you wait in. I dont know if there is much to this, but it appears that Officers from Area 2 take a lot less time than Area 1, although this is out of your control. Officers are assigned interviewees the previous night. My officer from Area 1 took her time, went over all the documents thoroughly. Did not ask for additional docs, but looked over all the ones that I had submitted real clos. My wife's officer from Area 2 had her in and out in 10 mins, mine took nearly 30. Older, fastidious lady for me, youngish person for my wife last week. Due to case separation, we will get oath letters by mail.
 
how long it will take for interview after finger printing? Do we see any updates in case status online after fingerprinting?
 
You should see

your case status disappear once the interview is scheduled. At least, that's what happened with me and my wife. My timeline is in my signature.
 
Called FBI on FP

Hi ,

Thanks prithis, called the FBI today (options 2,5 &3) and they asked for A number and told me that they received the FP on 28 and snet it back the same day.

Can someone tell what does it mean?

Looks like it is taking 60 days from the date of FP to interview, typically.


Thanks,
 
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This is for the Chicago folks who are going through the process. I recently completed my Interview and Oath ceremony at Chicago. The following posts have details of the interview and Oath ceremony, and I want to put it together in one place so that others may benefit. I have tried to put in as much detail as possible, so pardon me for the very long posts.

Interview:
http://forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?t=298202

Oath ceremony:
http://forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?t=298550

A special word of thanks to BobSmyth, nkm, Triple Citizen, Mr.Vertigo, Jackolantern, rangav, absrao, thomas5, JohnnyCash, Huracan, to name a few. Your posts on this forum were invaluable in my naturalization process.

Now starting to visit the Passport and OCI threads.
 
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