Houston or Chicago?

H

HAWAII

Registered Users (C)
I am back in this forum after a long time. It's good to be back. I had a question for the gurus please.

I485 was approved October 5 2004. We are currently residing in Chicago and would like to move to Houston after summer of 2009. By then we will be eligible to apply for citizenship. We can wait to apply after we move to Houston or apply in Chicago, get the citizenship and then move. I heard that Chicago is easier and faster for citizenship process compared to Houston. Any truth to this?

(Our greencard process in Chicago was not smooth or easy at all - it was quite a challenge).
 
Either way you will incur at least a 90 day processing delay when you file .

scenario 1: File while in Chicago, move to Houston, notify USCIS of move, have USCIS transfer case to new jurisdiction (~90 day added delay)

scenario 2: Move to Houston, wait 90 days to file to meet district residency requirement.

According to posted USCIS processing times, Houston currently has faster processing time than Chicago.
 
I hope Houston works out then

Thanks Bobsmyth for the info. My mother's experience in Houston was that she passed the interview in March 2008, then were about to approve her for oath when the interviewer noticed that they had called her for interview 1 day early! He said oh we can't give you citizenship yet because we made a mistake and called you 1 day too early. Legally you are eligible for interview tomorrow. We will reschedule you. When she went back a month later...she met a very tough interviewer who asked questions that were not part of the regular questions. She still passed but he said I will send out a letter I cannot tell you today if you will get oath letter or not. Finally in July she got a letter and now is a citizen. My dad's experience was very different he passed right away and got oath 2 weeks later...maybe it just depends on who's working that day.
 
Talking about Atlanta DO

HawaII,

Just to give you an idea and give you an example. Lot of people would say that Atlanta DO is one of the fastest DO in the country. I am sure it could be true for lot of us as Atlanta is one of the few DO's who conducts oath ceremonies almost every single day. You pass your N-400 interview in the morning and by afternoon you are done with your oath and have your natz certificate in your hands.

Unfortuantely, Atlanta DO was not for me. I have lived here for over 10 yrs. My citizenship was a nightmare. Was called for interviews on 2 different occasions (9 months apart) and both times Atlanta DO did not have my file to interview me.

After almost a 2 year wait when I finally became a USC, I decided to apply for my wife's GC. We have been married for over 4 yrs, have 2 kids together. First we got an interview letter in March and in 2 weeks got another letter saying that our interview has been canceled due to unforseen circumstance. After a 5 month long wait, we finally received our second interview notice. 2 weeks ago we had our interview. The interview went very well, but unfortunately as usual Atlanta DO was missing one of the files in their system. It was a dual file issue. I was told that we will get a written decision in the mail in 4-5 days and at the most 2 weeks. It has been over 2 weeks noww. Upon infopass inquiry, when I asked for the officer, I was told that he is on vacation for the next 3 weeks. The file has been requested so that they could merge both I-130 & I-485 files together. The process sounds easy and very simple but when it is going to happen, nobody knows.

The point I was trying to make was, like you said.....it's entirely your luck to tell you the truth but ofcourse I heard major cities tend to process applications lot faster. By filing out of Houston, I am sure you will be ok. If I were you, I would start my process from one place and end it in the same place. Definitely would avoid giving USCIS extra work to trasfer files from one state to another.

Good luck.
 
HAWAII said:
Thanks Bobsmyth for the info. My mother's experience in Houston was that she passed the interview in March 2008, then were about to approve her for oath when the interviewer noticed that they had called her for interview 1 day early! He said oh we can't give you citizenship yet because we made a mistake and called you 1 day too early. Legally you are eligible for interview tomorrow. We will reschedule you. When she went back a month later...she met a very tough interviewer who asked questions that were not part of the regular questions. She still passed but he said I will send out a letter I cannot tell you today if you will get oath letter or not. Finally in July she got a letter and now is a citizen. My dad's experience was very different he passed right away and got oath 2 weeks later...maybe it just depends on who's working that day.
Click to expand...

Did your mom happen to file 90 days before the 5th year of her GC anniversary? If so, it sounds like they accidentally scheduled her 1 day too early before she met the anniversary date of her GC at the interview.
 
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