N-400 Filed In Philly - Ins Descheduled The Interview

M

MAGNA

New Member
Hello everyone,
I have been following this portal and it has been very helpful. I have had a very rocky and delayed journey for my GC and now I am having the same issues with my citizenship. I have filed based on marriage to US citizen for 3 years. Here is my timeline

Filed N-400 and got receipt date March 14, 2005
Fingerprint notice on April 24, 2005 - got fingerprinted on 5/31/2005
Received Initial Nat. Interview notice on June 30, 2005 to be interviewed on August 18, 2005
On August 11, 2005(just a week before the nat. interview) received an official notice from INS sayin exactly this:
"this is to advise you that, due to unforseen circumstances, we have had to cancel the previously scheduled interview on August 18, 2005. We will advise you of any further action taken on this case, including any rescheduled interview information, under seperate notice."

What exactly does this mean? I have been waiting since August 05 but nothing has happened. What should I do? Also due to a misunderstanding I have said no to "have you ever been convicted of an offense?" question on N400. I had a sealtbelt ticket 5 years ago but I thought of an offense being criminal so never thought that this would count. Is there any recourse to this? What should I do?

I would appreciate any help.
Thanks
 
MAGNA said:
...
On August 11, 2005(just a week before the nat. interview) received an official notice from INS sayin exactly this:
"this is to advise you that, due to unforseen circumstances, we have had to cancel the previously scheduled interview on August 18, 2005. We will advise you of any further action taken on this case, including any rescheduled interview information, under seperate notice."...
Thanks
Click to expand...
Most probably they have not completed you FBI name check and cancelled the interview due to the lack of response from FBI. The same happened to my husband. His interview took place in October after his first interview was cancelled in May. In August we contacted one of our state Senators and they sent a request for the case status. CIS rescheduled the interview to October. At the time of the interview my husband was asked to sign a waiver of his right to sue CIS if the decision is not made within 120 days after the interview, he got worried and signed it (NEVER EVER DO THAT). And though since his interview our Senator's office worked to help us and we have an official letter from CIS stating that my husband's background checks had been completed as of Nov 17, 2005, we have no response from CIS as of today. Our last action was a letter addressed to the interviewing officer stating that mandatory background checks had been completed, fingerprints re-taken and we request an answer regarding his case, we attached a copy of the official letter from CIS to this letter. It was last week.
Hopefully this information will be useful to you. We are also at Philly DO
 
I had my interview descheduled with the exact same message you had, but I got a rescduled letter the following week. I think you may get some info with the Infopass appt..Good Luck

Regards
 
Thank you for all your help. I know someone who has been waiting for 2.5 years since his interview at the Phila DO!!!!! I am confused. I will make and infopass appt.

Anubody else have any comments?
 
My citizenship interview has been rescheduled too

I am supposed to show up for my citizenship interview on March 30, 2006.
A week back, I got a letter saying that it has been cancelled due to unforseen circumstances and that I will be informed later with a new date.

(My wife and I got the interview schedules for March 30, 2006 with 30 minutes apart. But only my interveiw got cancelled).

I plan to wait for a couple of weeks. But not sure what can i do to follow it up (other than waiting). any suggestions?

By the way, we have filed the application at Nebraska center.
 
March 2007 - Still waiting!!!

Hello again everyone,

I am still waiting for my interview to be rescheduled. I was fingerprinted in May 2005. Do you know when does the fingerprints expire? I wasnt even interviewed and now my N-400 case has reached the 2 year waiting time. I have sent a letter to Immigration Ombudsman but they were not able to help and advised me to WAIT!!!! I am sick of waiting and dont even know if I can sue BCIS without having the interview..... I dont want to pay an attorney tens of thousands of dollars for something that was granted to me by law but I dont know what else to do!!! I would appreciate all your help and comments. My timeline is below:

Filed N-400 and got receipt date March 14, 2005
Fingerprint notice on April 24, 2005 - got fingerprinted on 5/31/2005
Received Initial Nat. Interview notice on June 30, 2005 to be interviewed on August 18, 2005
On August 11, 2005(just a week before the nat. interview) received an official notice from INS sayin exactly this:
"this is to advise you that, due to unforseen circumstances, we have had to cancel the previously scheduled interview on August 18, 2005. We will advise you of any further action taken on this case, including any rescheduled interview information, under seperate notice."
 
I was descheduled about this time last year. I ended up getting my interview about 5 or 6 months later, and naturalized in November.

My advice:

  • Take and InfoPass, ask as many questions as you can think of to figure out what is taking so long.
  • If it is name check, well, for the most part you are in limbo
  • If it something else, ask why they haven't rescheduled you (I don't think I would have been rescheduled had I not done everything I did
  • If it's not name check, try the congressman/senator route. That worked for me. I found it important to know as much as possible so that I could steer the congressional aid in the right direction (everyone assumes it is a name check issue and that there's nothing that can be done).
Search for my postings (search for "deschedule" and me) to get more info.

I believe you can sue if years have gone by. It's called a "writ of mandamus" but it is more complicate than the Interview + 120 days rule. Again, search the forum for more info.

Good luck
 
Name Check black hole....

Thanks for your advice Flydog. I am really confused. I am more worried about the name check deal and I have been to an infopass and they told me that they are waiting for the clearance and CIS cant do anything to expedite it. I have also sent a letter to CIS Ombudsman and CIS responded to me saying that they have given a case # to my complaint and my delay is due to backsground investigation(I guess this means the dreaded name check deal) and they cannot do anything until it is cleared....They also told me to call them in 6 months which will be up in April 2007.....

So now I have couple of options:
1) go to an immigration lawyer and pay tens of thousands that should normally be my legal right to get(being a citizen) - not sure if that would do anything but to make me poorer.
2) make another infopass and ask again - but I dont know what that would get me.
3) sue them (WOM deal) - I dont know if I can do this since my interview was descheduled to be never scheduled again....

What can I do to expedite this name check deal? What is the first step? Also I was fingerprinted in May 31, 2005. When do they expire?

Finally does going to the congressman/senator help in my situation?

I really need all you guys expertise and advice.

Thanks to all and God help us....
 
I think your fingerprints have expired (not sure though). However, that's not a big deal (FP appointments are easy). The important thing is to somehow get out of name check hell. I don't know of any path for that.
 
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