New Timeline thread for San Antonio & Austin area

Hey Metam, i just saw the judges docket...they are going to have Oath Ceremony at the Scottish Rite Cathedral on December 18, 2008 at 10 a.m. in San Antonio, thanks to Longhorns here i've being checking the judges website every day. Maybe i have the lucky of become citizen before the end of this year. If they said i'm approved after the interview, i'm going to ask if there is a possibility of me taking the Oath on December 18. I don't mind to drive that many hours to San Antonio.


Just got back from my interview, which went off without a hitch. I studied for the new civics test, but was tested with the old one, but that was alright.

The officer said there is a ceremony for this coming Tuesday (November 25) in San Antonio, as well as on December 18 in San Antonio. I chose the 12/18 date, and was told to expect a notification letter in the mail.
 
Just got back from my interview, which went off without a hitch. I studied for the new civics test, but was tested with the old one, but that was alright.

The officer said there is a ceremony for this coming Tuesday (November 25) in San Antonio, as well as on December 18 in San Antonio. I chose the 12/18 date, and was told to expect a notification letter in the mail.

Wow this is awesome news! I did not that officers can give the oath dates right during the interview and ask you to choice. I hope they could be nice to me as well.
 
Just got back from my interview, which went off without a hitch. I studied for the new civics test, but was tested with the old one, but that was alright.

The officer said there is a ceremony for this coming Tuesday (November 25) in San Antonio, as well as on December 18 in San Antonio. I chose the 12/18 date, and was told to expect a notification letter in the mail.

Oh My!!!!!!!
Congratulations...i'm crossing my fingers for the December 18th Oath...
 
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I did not that officers can give the oath dates right during the interview and ask you to choice. I hope they could be nice to me as well.

Yes, if you are polite and nice and you know of upcoming oath dates, you can ask and if slots are available, you should get them. I got my oath letter right after my interview. The officer asked me wait in the lobby while he printed one up.
 
San Antonio Fingerprints Walk in?

Folks,

I just received my fingerprints letter today and I'm scheduled for Dec at 9:00AM in San Antonio. I need to travel from Austin to SA in the morning and I'm really concerned about the traffic and thinking now to try to walk in and do it before my shceduled time.

Has anyone of you tried to walk in and get his or her fingerprints taken before the scheduled date in SA? It seems like they have this service on Weds or Sats of every week.

Please inform.

Thanks!
 
Folks,

I just received my fingerprints letter today and I'm scheduled for Dec at 9:00AM in San Antonio. I need to travel from Austin to SA in the morning and I'm really concerned about the traffic and thinking now to try to walk in and do it before my shceduled time.

Has anyone of you tried to walk in and get his or her fingerprints taken before the scheduled date in SA? It seems like they have this service on Weds or Sats of every week.

Please inform.

Thanks!

Come on now. Someone must have at least tried to walk in!
 
Come on now. Someone must have at least tried to walk in!

i have done my FP walk in twice.. i don't think u should have any problem. depends on their work load which is always light..

i had to go to out of state both of the time. and i had the plane ticket on my hand just in case they ask. fist time they asked me why and they took my word for it. didn't have to show any proof. but u never know. make sure you can prove valid reason for walk in fp if asked.
 
i have done my FP walk in twice.. i don't think u should have any problem. depends on their work load which is always light..

i had to go to out of state both of the time. and i had the plane ticket on my hand just in case they ask. fist time they asked me why and they took my word for it. didn't have to show any proof. but u never know. make sure you can prove valid reason for walk in fp if asked.

forgot to mention if you are coming from out of town. just telling them u r there for a business or personal reason should do it and u r trying to save another trip for fp. good luck..
 
forgot to mention if you are coming from out of town. just telling them u r there for a business or personal reason should do it and u r trying to save another trip for fp. good luck..

Thanks Longhorn. Just one more questions. Is it true they work only on Weds and Sats? What dates did you go?

thanks
 
Thanks Longhorn. Just one more questions. Is it true they work only on Weds and Sats? What dates did you go?

thanks

I don't think that's true. I had mine scheduled for Thursday, 10/16, and if you look through this thread, at information people have posted about their timeline, you'll see that FPs have been scheduled for days other than Wednesday and Saturday.
 
Thanks Longhorn. Just one more questions. Is it true they work only on Weds and Sats? What dates did you go?

thanks

to my knowledge they are closed on sun & mon.. and open tue to sat.. i beleive they close at 4pm. don't remember if they open at 8 or 9am
 
check the upcoming oath dates the night before going for your interview.
here's the san antonio oath dates (it gets updated every week)
http://www.txwd.uscourts.gov/calendar/MAGSA.PDF

if your case gets approved request ur oath letter. usually they won't deny your oath letter if there's a oath date scheduled.

unfortunately they didn't schedule the oath on oct 23rd until few hours after my interview so i couldn't do nothing but wait.

wish u best of luck..

Longhorn...i just want thank you so much for your advice. Yesterday i went to my interview, it was for 11 a.m. but because i have to travel so many hours, i arrived an hour earlier. Well, big mistake because all the interviews were behind time line so i have to wait for 2 hours until the officer call my name. He was very nice, funny and i was very emotional but calm. Tears rolling from my eye at all time, but i was smilling and answering all the questions. I study for the new test and he ask me question from the old one but it was ok, easy. After we finish, he gave me a paper saying that i pass the test and was recommended for naturalization. He ask me to sign my Citizen Certificate and told me i would receive a letter soon and maybe the closest place for me would be Austin, THEN i remember about what you said and i told him that i've watch the judge's docket and Austin have nothing yet for this month, i told him that i check on San Antonio and found out that there is a Oath Ceremony on December 18th, so he pick up my file and ask me to follow him...we enter inside somebody elses office and he gave my file to that person. He ask me to wait downstair for about 30 minutes and he would see me. After 20 minutes he came to me with an envelope and he said congratulations.
Oh, it took me 4 hours to come back home, and i'm still having this feeling that i'm dreaming until today.
Thank you, thank you everyone here for suporting each other.
This is the best immigration forum i ever found in the web.
 
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Congratulations. The advice for anybody applying at San Antonio DO is to find oath ceremonies before the interview, and ask for an oath letter right after the interview, if one passes the interview as the DO's officers are willing to give one.
 
I'm stunned - Question

Folks,

I'm really stunned because I received my interview letter today. My App was received on Nov 6th and I just did my fingerprints 10 days ago and I was not really expecting any interview before March. Is it possible that they spared me the name check?

The interview letter I received looks like the typical letter people receive for their interview and do the civic test...

Does the CIS call the candidate for more than one interview or just one interview?

Thanks in advance...
 
As far as I know, they don't schedule interviews until all security checks are done. I think they instituted this policy after people started suing them 120 days after the interview. I believe there was a memo from USCIS regarding this. Of course, there are exceptions.

Regarding 2 interviews, I have seen people have them on this boards.
 
congrats.. lucky u.. i'm still waiting to get my oath letter. kinda frustrated for myself considering i had my interview almost a month ago. i made an infopass appnt on 24th as i haven't received anything for either 23rd or 30th. but i can only talk to an IO downstairs and she wasn't any help "unless it's over 120 after my interview blah blah.....". there's 4 more oath dates in November. i doubt i'm gonna get on any of those either.

hello Longhorn,

can you please tell me where were you checking the oath dates? my interview is coming up in Jan. I checked today the Western District of Texas courts http://www.txwd.uscourts.gov/calendar/MAGSA.PDF but don't see any oath dates. Is that the same site you were checking? If so, do they really have 4 oath dates every month?

thanks in advance
 
update:
I just got a call from the officer that interviewed me regarding the hold up on my case/oath. i did submit a request of update to my local congressman's office on the 5th of this month. the office forwarded the request to USCIS on the 6th. the usual response time from USCIS is one week according to the letter from the congressman.

now here's the bs from the officer.
1. i was interviewed before i meet the residency requirement. my interview was on 09/23/2008 and i meet my 3yr as a resident on 10/19/2008. the officer told me that they are not supposed to interview anyone before all the requirement has been met. i thought they can interview you in advance as long as the oath is after that date. need input from someone on my opinion.

2. he's going to schedule me for another interview. no test or nothing just to sign some papers. he'll send me a date in mail after finding out his first available interview slot. this is the same guy that interviewed my neighbor. this guy called her and interviewed her the same day, it was her first interview not follow up. I told him i can be there in 20 minutes but i still gotta wait. anyway, i'm hoping to get the letter in the mail next week.

please post up if u have any input.. thanks in advance..

hello again Longhorn,

I just saw your note above today and could not help it but noticed that I'm too will be doing my interview few days before I meet the residency requirement of 5 years. And I'm just wondering if you have gotten any feedback on your case from this board or from the officer himself. Are they really not supposed to interview the person until the 3/5 year requirement is met?

I hope they are not going to give me a cow.
 
hello again Longhorn,

I just saw your note above today and could not help it but noticed that I'm too will be doing my interview few days before I meet the residency requirement of 5 years. And I'm just wondering if you have gotten any feedback on your case from this board or from the officer himself. Are they really not supposed to interview the person until the 3/5 year requirement is met?

I hope they are not going to give me a cow.

according to the officer you have to meet all the requirements the day they interview you. i had my follow up interview on the 12/17/2008. there was no test or nothing, he just needed to bring me in after i meet the residency requirements. We had a long discussion about their policy on N-400 interview requirement. well according to him his supervisor advised him to close my case and make me reapply as i didn't meet my residency requirement during my interview. meaning another $675 and starting the whole process all over again. but he put my case on hold instead. according to him it wasn't my fault that i got interviewed early. we had a very informal conversation about USCIS bs. according to him there's a few in the department that likes to make people suffer and unfortunately most of those few hold key decision making positions, go figure. anyway i got my oath letter yesterday scheduled on 01/22/09. you should mention about the residency shortage during your interview. in fact that should be the first thing you should tell him as soon as you walk in to his room. and the link http://www.txwd.uscourts.gov/calendar/MAGSA.PDF is valid for naturalization dates. i noticed they are reducing the number of ceremonies compared to few months ago.

07/18/2008: N-400 application Mailed to TSC
07/22/2008: Application received by TSC, tracking on the USPS
07/22/2008: Priority date
07/23/2008: Check cashed
07/26/2008: Online Status Last updated/touched
07/30/2008: NOA1 Received (notice date 07/24/2008, expect interview notice within 210 days)
08/06/2008: NOA2/fingerprint letter received (notice date 07/31/2008)
08/15/2008: FP Scheduled
08/08/2008: FP Completed (Walk in)
08/08/2008: FP received and sent back by FBI called to verify
08/21/2008: received interview document checklist (08/15/2008)
08/23/2008: interview letter received (08/22/2008)
09/23/2008: interview at 9:00AM, approved or recommended for approval.
10/24/2008: infopass to check on oath status, waiting on final approval from the supervisor
11/05/2008: letter to the congressman
11/06/2008: letter from congressman regarding the response timeline for my request.
11/14/2008: call from the officer regarding the hold up, will be scheduled for a follow up interview.
12/06/2008: letter received for the 2nd interview on 12/17/2008, letter issued on 12/03/2008
12/17/2008: 2nd interview
12/30/2008: oath letter received issued on 12/29/2008
01/22/2009: oath date
 
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according to the officer you have to meet all the requirements the day they interview you. i had my follow up interview on the 12/17/2008. there was no test or nothing, he just needed to bring me in after i meet the residency requirements. We had a long discussion about their policy on N-400 interview requirement. well according to him his supervisor advised him to close my case and make me reapply as i didn't meet my residency requirement during my interview. meaning another $675 and starting the whole process all over again. but he put my case on hold instead. according to him it wasn't my fault that i got interviewed early. we had a very informal conversation about USCIS bs. according to him there's a few in the department that likes to make people suffer and unfortunately most of those few hold key decision making positions, go figure. anyway i got my oath letter yesterday scheduled on 01/22/09. you should mention about the residency shortage during your interview. in fact that should be the first thing you should tell him as soon as you walk in to his room. and the link http://www.txwd.uscourts.gov/calendar/MAGSA.PDF is valid for naturalization dates. i noticed they are reducing the number of ceremonies compared to few months ago.

07/18/2008: N-400 application Mailed to TSC
07/22/2008: Application received by TSC, tracking on the USPS
07/22/2008: Priority date
07/23/2008: Check cashed
07/26/2008: Online Status Last updated/touched
07/30/2008: NOA1 Received (notice date 07/24/2008, expect interview notice within 210 days)
08/06/2008: NOA2/fingerprint letter received (notice date 07/31/2008)
08/15/2008: FP Scheduled
08/08/2008: FP Completed (Walk in)
08/08/2008: FP received and sent back by FBI called to verify
08/21/2008: received interview document checklist (08/15/2008)
08/23/2008: interview letter received (08/22/2008)
09/23/2008: interview at 9:00AM, approved or recommended for approval.
10/24/2008: infopass to check on oath status, waiting on final approval from the supervisor
11/05/2008: letter to the congressman
11/06/2008: letter from congressman regarding the response timeline for my request.
11/14/2008: call from the officer regarding the hold up, will be scheduled for a follow up interview.
12/06/2008: letter received for the 2nd interview on 12/17/2008, letter issued on 12/03/2008
12/17/2008: 2nd interview
12/30/2008: oath letter received issued on 12/29/2008
01/22/2009: oath date

forgot to mention that the officer gave me his contact number during the 2nd interview. he told me to contact him just in case i didn't receive my oath letter by the 2nd week of january. try to get the officers contact number if you can.
 
Longhorn...i just want thank you so much for your advice. Yesterday i went to my interview, it was for 11 a.m. but because i have to travel so many hours, i arrived an hour earlier. Well, big mistake because all the interviews were behind time line so i have to wait for 2 hours until the officer call my name. He was very nice, funny and i was very emotional but calm. Tears rolling from my eye at all time, but i was smilling and answering all the questions. I study for the new test and he ask me question from the old one but it was ok, easy. After we finish, he gave me a paper saying that i pass the test and was recommended for naturalization. He ask me to sign my Citizen Certificate and told me i would receive a letter soon and maybe the closest place for me would be Austin, THEN i remember about what you said and i told him that i've watch the judge's docket and Austin have nothing yet for this month, i told him that i check on San Antonio and found out that there is a Oath Ceremony on December 18th, so he pick up my file and ask me to follow him...we enter inside somebody elses office and he gave my file to that person. He ask me to wait downstair for about 30 minutes and he would see me. After 20 minutes he came to me with an envelope and he said congratulations.
Oh, it took me 4 hours to come back home, and i'm still having this feeling that i'm dreaming until today.
Thank you, thank you everyone here for suporting each other.
This is the best immigration forum i ever found in the web.

congrats to get your oath on the 18th. i had the 2nd interview on the 17th and officer couldn't get me into the one on 18th. he mentioned it was already over crowed. but mine is on 1/22/09 so i'm lil relaxed now.
 
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