Philadelphia PA - N-400 Timeline

Change of Address After Interview

We finished our interview at Philly on Jan 4th, 2007. We are waiting for the oath letter. We are planning to move to Atlanta in March 2007. Does anyone know of any problems that the change of address may cause? Has anyone gone through such an experience (changing adress to a different INS jurisdiction during N400 process) ?

Appreciate any help anyone can give.
 
Name change, waiting for Oath letter. How long would it take? Philadelphia office...

Hi,

I had my interview on Dec 05, 2006 at Philly, PA. Since I requested for a change in my last name, the officer told me that I would get a letter from a court.

1) Is there a way to find out which court will give me oath? I live in King Of Prussia, PA.
2) Normally, in this kind of cases, how long would it take to get the oath letter?
3) Is there any way to find out status on my application? I don't have my ESC* number, so I can't check on their web site. I called PA office and they gave me the standard answer "I have to wait". :mad:
4) For name change, would it go for any name verification at this stage?

Appreciate any help on this.

Regards,
Lal.
 
My experience will give you an idea: I had my interview on September 28, and I only received my Oath Letter yesterday - for the Philadelphia Courthouse (601 Market Street) on March 8. In contrast, my husband had his interview on August 29 and his Oath Ceremony on September 13. The difference between the two of us was that I changed my name.

I went for an Infopass appointment on Friday (Feb 9), and all they told me was that my case was pending assignment of a court date by the judge. They would not tell me the court that my case was sent to, but fortunately I got the letter. Now, the letter I received was dated February 7, which means the information I was given by Immigration was out of date.

I live in Chester County, by the way; the IO who interviewed me said he would try to get me to go to West Chester; I told him that location did not matter as much as how soon the Oath would happen.

I hope this helps.
 
My interview is on March 8th.... Is there any way I could get into the oath the same day? I am going to Italy in May and Spain in July. I need to get into an oath ASAP so I can get the passaport!

Any chances? What do you guys advice me to do?
 
Robotina,
Your interview is at Callowhill; the March 8 ceremony is at 6th and Market, and I was invited at 8:15 AM, so I'm not sure you will make that one. Mainly, I have not heard of Philly allowing same day oath except for military personnel - if there is an oath ceremony on that day, that is. If you are not changing your name, your oath should happen pretty quickly after that. I know this is not very helpful, but you can always ask the IO if it is possible to expedite...
 
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Anyone else here with PD in the last 3-4 months of 2006 ? If so, have you received your IL yet ? I am getting a little restless after seeing many people from other DOs who applied after me that have their interviews scheduled already (including a friend of mine). I don't mean to be insensitive to the plight of people stuck in name check that have been waiting a lot longer than me.

Here's the deal. I am hoping to get married this year and go through the whole K3 visa process for my would-be spouse. But if I do get stuck in name check that would throw a monkey wrench in the works and then I will have to consider a plan B (especially since I don't want to leave my spouse in a limbo stuck in my home country). Granted I haven't been waiting very long compared to some others on this board, but it is still frustrating not knowing what to expect especially when you have major life decisions hinging on the citizenship coming through.

KM
 
Still waiting...

Hi just an update

I had my Interview on Jan 4, 2007 and still awaiting Oath Letter. I need to go out of the country next month and so its getting urgent. What do I do I dont know....:confused:

I also have a name change. Sometimes I read that name changes are longer than "non name changes" sometimes I read the opposite. I heard there is a biggie ceremony in April 07 for everyone at the Convention Center in Philly. But for me it would be in a courthouse and my IO said end of Feb. Anyways when when when is the question....I dont even mind traveling anywhere in PA!! :)

My question is...if I dont get the Oath ceremony next month can I still travel out of the country in between? What is our status now anyways? Are we official citizens, citizens on paper?, or still greencard holders?

I wonder if I should get an infopass appt..will it do any good?..we will see.
Anyways wishing you all the best!
 
Anyone else here with PD in the last 3-4 months of 2006 ? If so, have you received your IL yet ? I am getting a little restless after seeing many people from other DOs who applied after me that have their interviews scheduled already (including a friend of mine). I don't mean to be insensitive to the plight of people stuck in name check that have been waiting a lot longer than me.

Here's the deal. I am hoping to get married this year and go through the whole K3 visa process for my would-be spouse. But if I do get stuck in name check that would throw a monkey wrench in the works and then I will have to consider a plan B (especially since I don't want to leave my spouse in a limbo stuck in my home country). Granted I haven't been waiting very long compared to some others on this board, but it is still frustrating not knowing what to expect especially when you have major life decisions hinging on the citizenship coming through.

KM


I feel your pain brother, all I can say is hang in there....wishing you the best.
 
Hi just an update

I had my Interview on Jan 4, 2007 and still awaiting Oath Letter. I need to go out of the country next month and so its getting urgent. What do I do I dont know....:confused:

I also have a name change. Sometimes I read that name changes are longer than "non name changes" sometimes I read the opposite. I heard there is a biggie ceremony in April 07 for everyone at the Convention Center in Philly. But for me it would be in a courthouse and my IO said end of Feb. Anyways when when when is the question....I dont even mind traveling anywhere in PA!! :)

My question is...if I dont get the Oath ceremony next month can I still travel out of the country in between? What is our status now anyways? Are we official citizens, citizens on paper?, or still greencard holders?

I wonder if I should get an infopass appt..will it do any good?..we will see.
Anyways wishing you all the best!

You can have your name changed at the biggie ceremony. I believe all that needs to happen is for a judge to be present and declare that for theose who are changing their names, the name changes are now legal.
 
We finished our interview at Philly on Jan 4th, 2007. We are waiting for the oath letter. We are planning to move to Atlanta in March 2007. Does anyone know of any problems that the change of address may cause? Has anyone gone through such an experience (changing adress to a different INS jurisdiction during N400 process) ?

Appreciate any help anyone can give.

If you have access to your old address i.e. the new tenant will hold your mail, then I would do nothing and ask new tenant to forwad the oath letter (you could even offer to pay them a little $ for doing it).

If you don't have access to your old address, then you have two choices: 1) Wait till you move and hope the oath letter comes before you move. If this happens then you don't have to notify USCIS of address change. You'd just have to show up for the oath and then you'd be on your way; 2) If letter doesn't come before you move and you don't have access to your old address, then you have to change your address with USCIS. The risk is causing huge delays.

My advice is try to maintin access to your old address for a month or two after you move -- at least until April to see if you make the mega oath ceremony in April.

For others reading this, the best way to avoid change of address issues is to rent a post office box at your local post office for a year (it shouldn't cost more that $60 for the whole year). This way if your physical address changes you'll still have access to your mail and you don't risk delays in your application coz of address changes.
 
Thanks Zuleron. We were also thinking along the same lines.

Does anybody know when to expect the oath letter, assuming we are in the April 4th ceremony? (Intertview Date is Jan 4th)

Thanks

If you have access to your old address i.e. the new tenant will hold your mail, then I would do nothing and ask new tenant to forwad the oath letter (you could even offer to pay them a little $ for doing it).

If you don't have access to your old address, then you have two choices: 1) Wait till you move and hope the oath letter comes before you move. If this happens then you don't have to notify USCIS of address change. You'd just have to show up for the oath and then you'd be on your way; 2) If letter doesn't come before you move and you don't have access to your old address, then you have to change your address with USCIS. The risk is causing huge delays.

My advice is try to maintin access to your old address for a month or two after you move -- at least until April to see if you make the mega oath ceremony in April.

For others reading this, the best way to avoid change of address issues is to rent a post office box at your local post office for a year (it shouldn't cost more that $60 for the whole year). This way if your physical address changes you'll still have access to your mail and you don't risk delays in your application coz of address changes.
 
Does anybody know when to expect the oath letter, assuming we are in the April 4th ceremony? (Intertview Date is Jan 4th)

Thanks

Hi we have the same Interview date and I am still awaiting Oath date too. Where did you get the information of the exact date of April 4th???? Just curious.. did the Officer tell you that is the exact date?? I will have to reshedule my international trip if April 4th is correct. Hmmm..
 
Got my IL today, interview is on 3/9.
My wife got nothing so far.
We are a bit panicky since we are going on a trip on March 24th for one week. This is a trip we cannot easilty reschedule and we would need to postpone the interview. How much time would this cost us?
 
oh, and the automated update system (e-mail) worked for anyone here? My case did not update although I got the letter....
 
Congratulations drjochen ! Hopefully your wife will get her IL soon too. My FP was done exactly 2 months after yours but I am encouraged to finally see some IL activity at the Philly DO (haven't seen any new posts about IL received in a while). I am also glad to see that the wait time for the interview isn't very long. A friend of mine at another DO got his IL in mid-January and his interview is scheduled for 04/30 ! :eek:

KM
 
Hi we have the same Interview date and I am still awaiting Oath date too. Where did you get the information of the exact date of April 4th???? Just curious.. did the Officer tell you that is the exact date?? I will have to reshedule my international trip if April 4th is correct. Hmmm..

I am guessing it is April 4th because of three things: 1) At my interview on Jan 12, my IL said that my interview would be sometime in April when USCIS was scheduling a large ceremony where thousands of people will be naturalized at the same time; 2) In the past USCIS has had these large naturalization ceremonies at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia; 3) If you go to the ConventionCenter's website and look at their schedule of events, they have an event on April 4 reserved by USCIS. See it here: https://www.paconvention.com/iebms/coe/coe_p1_all.aspx?mode=DATE&cc=CALEVTS&oc=10

So putting two and two together, there is a good chance that there will be a large naturalization ceremony on April 4. Of course, nothing is guaranteed, but I think it is a safe bet.
 
Any one in Philly receive an Oath letter in the last few weeks?

If you have received an Oath letter in the last few weeks please let the thread know what your timeline is. Thanks!
 
Time for InfoPass ?

I am almost at the 3-month mark (after FP) and still no IL. Does it make sense to go for an InfoPass at this point ? My mail has been erratic lately and I just don't want to find out that the IL got lost in the mail or something like that. Would calling the USCIS number help confirm that an IL hasn't been sent ? Is it also safe to assume at this point that I am stuck in name check and that all bets are off when it comes to when I might receive my IL (in most of the cases I see on this thread IL arrived within 3 months of FP). Or is it just that the Philly DO is backlogged ? That is hard to tell cause there seems to be no one else here from Philly DO with timeline similar to mine.

Sorry again for my impatience but I can't help it when I see so many people with NDs in Jan 07 already getting their ILs (other DOs of course !).

Thanks,
KM
 
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