Long and winding road..almost there..

[eo23]

Dear all,

I have been completely remiss from the forum since the last 2 months have been crazy for me.

As you can see, I finally had my FBI name check cleared, received my interview letter and did the interview yesterday.

However, the officer told me that she cannot make a decision about my case until she checks the stamps in my passports (old and current) with my application.

I went through all the oath papers etc. during the interview and she told me that I should expect to hear USCIS between 30 and 90 days. She was very cordial and she gave me no reason to be worried.

However, she did ask me about my trip home which I did right after I received my interview letter for the past month as I presume she might have thought that I was planning to go back, however I reassured her that my new job entails alot of travelling to my region of the world for work etc.

Should I be worried about anything whatsoever? I have around 580 days outside of the US as of interview date (5 years back) but I have many trips for short periods and be quite frank my passport looks messy.

Guys everyone here has been extremely helpful so far, I am in the last stretch now and any extra advice from you will be much appreciated. I have already set up an infopass for Monday April 9th just to see where things stand.

 

[equate]

I don't know if there's any advice anyone can give as you have only one course of action - to wait for adjudicator's decision for the duration of 90 days.

 

[eo23]

I don't know if there's any advice anyone can give as you have only one course of action - to wait for adjudicator's decision for the duration of 90 days.

Absolutely, I was wondering whether this is at all common.

 

[mario123]

eo23, did you have both your passports with you? Were a majority of the stamps on the old or new passport?

The reason I ask is that it's not likely that the IO would have put your appl. on hold unless you travelled to the 26 countries on the State Dept's. watch list or are a citizen of one of them.

From my exp., the IO definitely checked all the stamps (old and new passports)

 

[eo23]

eo23, did you have both your passports with you? Were a majority of the stamps on the old or new passport?

The reason I ask is that it's not likely that the IO would have put your appl. on hold unless you travelled to the 26 countries on the State Dept's. watch list or are a citizen of one of them.

From my exp., the IO definitely checked all the stamps (old and new passports)

Hey Mario,

Most of my stamps were on the old passport and she took copies of both the old and new. I am definitely not a citizen of any of the State Dept's. watch list and I did not visit any of them. Thus, there should be no reason my application should be on hold.

Did you have extensive travels? Did the IO want to take his/her time to check your passport later or was it all done on the spot?

I've had 30 trips totalling about 580 days and this is a very modest estimate of my time out as I include my departure date as absent from the country as well as my arrival date.

 

[mario123]

Hey Mario,
......
Did you have extensive travels? Did the IO want to take his/her time to check your passport later or was it all done on the spot? ....

No I did not have extensive travels - about 60 days (6 trips) since getting my GC 9 1/2 yrs. ago. Oh yes, the IO checked each and every entry/exit stamp on both passports, cross checked them on my N-400 and even made some loose talk (while doing it) about what I was doing on those trips . At that point I too started asking questions about why such a big deal is made about trips overseas - which is when the IO told me that there is a State. Dept. watch list and any trips made to those countries is scrutenized Welcome to the post 9/11 world. Luckily I had both passports with me, otherwise who knows what would have happened - and from what people are experiencing on this board, anytime you go off track or off schedule with USCIS, you run the risk of getting your whole process stalled. I really hope that doesn't happen to you.

The good thing is you had your interview - so your 120 day clock is already tikking.... (tik tok tick tok ).....From what I have heard and read on this board - 90% of the time a "cannot make a decision" is checked off on the N-652 is due to name check - have not heard about that happening bec. they couldn't verify dates on the passport. Ofcourse I could be totally wrong on that since I'm only going by what I see/hear on this BBS and other forums.

 

[ap74mo]

Eo123,

I would not be worried if that's the only reason that the IO did not approve you. The IO's supervisor would go through the photocopies and normally approve you if there are no other issues. I know it sucks becoz it pushes back the oath date but I would just wait for 30 days before scheduling an Infopass.

Can you shed light on how you got your FBI name check expedited? Thanks.

 

[eo23]

Eo123,

I would not be worried if that's the only reason that the IO did not approve you. The IO's supervisor would go through the photocopies and normally approve you if there are no other issues. I know it sucks becoz it pushes back the oath date but I would just wait for 30 days before scheduling an Infopass.

Can you shed light on how you got your FBI name check expedited? Thanks.

Thanks guys for your reassurances. My passports are just full of stamps and it took me about an hr and a half to cross check them with my application so the IO really needs her time and that was the only red flag she raised, she said she wanted to check the dates with my application. I suppose its not about she couldn't verify the dates but its about that I had 30 trips over the last 5 years and there are a ton of stamps thus she needed her time to check them off.

Yes the 120 days clock is definitely ticking but I do hope it won't have to lead to that - at least its not the name check!

ap74mo, I did not get my FBI name check expedited, it just cleared, I kept taking infopasses to check and one infopass unexpectedly, the IO mentioned that my name check cleared.