Philadelphia PA - N-400 Timeline

If you get a chance to call them, please let us know if you are able to get more specific information than I was able to get. The number is (215) 255 4825.

-KM
 
If you look back through this thread, it is clear that Phildelphia DO has a very spotty record with respect to every step of N-400 process. In theory, nowdays, interviews are only conducted after all "major" background checks are done. However it seems that some people get their Oath appointments within a month after an interview while in some other cases it takes over 6 months. USCIS is not forthcoming with explanations of the reasons for this. It is apparent however that Philadephia DO treats such discrepancies as "normal" and does not wish to do any additional investigation or work to make this process more transparent.

I personally resigned myself to a wait of at least 120 days after the interview before getting excited again.

Good luck to everyone waiting.
 
MichaelDE,

I take it that you did not receive the oath letter for tomorrow's oath. I am sorry to hear that. It does suck to have to wait another 3-4 months just to complete what seems like a mere formality (I may very well be in the same boat as you).

The only reason I was hopeful that I would make it to the June ceremony is that the IO who interviewed me said I had a good chance of making it (she did say there were no guarantees). But if I don't make it I won't feel so bad because there are people like you who have been waiting a lot longer than I have.

Good luck and I hope you hear something for the next oath ceremony whenever it is (September ?).

-KM
 
Hello Folks,

We just got our mail and there was No Oath letter. We always anticipate this time of the day just to try our luck. As kagemusha said, we will wait until Friday and will try to get an infopass (hopefully we can schedule that before Thrusday next week since we are running out of time).

We called the Philly DO and nothing they can give us.
 
:mad: That's not good to hear. I was hoping they had mailed the letter on Saturday or Monday and that we would get it today (and that you were more likely to get it than fire2china and myself). Now it is starting to seem that we didn't make it to the June ceremony. I went ahead and got an InfoPass appointment for Thursday (June 7). I have a feeling that the next Philly ceremony will be in September or later and so I want to ask them about the possibility of taking the oath elsewhere (Harrisburg is the same distance from me as Philly) if there is a ceremony scheduled there earlier.

-KM
 
kagemusha said:
MichaelDE,

I take it that you did not receive the oath letter for tomorrow's oath. I am sorry to hear that. It does suck to have to wait another 3-4 months just to complete what seems like a mere formality (I may very well be in the same boat as you).

The only reason I was hopeful that I would make it to the June ceremony is that the IO who interviewed me said I had a good chance of making it (she did say there were no guarantees). But if I don't make it I won't feel so bad because there are people like you who have been waiting a lot longer than I have.

Good luck and I hope you hear something for the next oath ceremony whenever it is (September ?).

-KM
Click to expand...


Thanks Kagemusha,

You are correct. I did not get an Oath letter. I called 1-800 Customer Service again (since Philadelphia stopped responding to calls) and managed to get pass the first level of customer service people. The second level person (which sounded to me like an actual IO) had an access to my records and told me that I am in a queue for an Oath but nothing was mailed as of today.
 
If you look back through this thread, it is clear that Phildelphia DO has a very spotty record with respect to every step of N-400 process. In theory, nowdays, interviews are only conducted after all "major" background checks are done. However it seems that some people get their Oath appointments within a month after an interview while in some other cases it takes over 6 months. USCIS is not forthcoming with explanations of the reasons for this. It is apparent however that Philadephia DO treats such discrepancies as "normal" and does not wish to do any additional investigation or work to make this process more transparent.
Click to expand...

I looked through the older posts in this thread and I still find it hard to explain how someone who completed their interview in March didn't make it to the June ceremony (if that is indeed the case). At least in our case since our interviews were barely a month before the oath date I can understand ...

Two reasons would be

1) They did not have enough room. The June 14 ceremony is supposed to be another mega ceremony in the convention center with thousands of people. They had one just like that one on April 4 that (as far as I can tell) cleared the backlog of people interviewed up to about a month earlier (even people interviewed on March 8 and 9 made it to the April 4 ceremony). I didn't see any posts from people waiting for the April 4 oath letter who didn't get it (granted this forum has just a minuscule sample of all the applicants out there). So I would assume that they shouldn't have any trouble fitting at least the people interviewed in March (who should be at the top of their list from a first-come, first-serve point of view).

2) Further background checks have to be completed before the oath can be scheduled. This doesn't make sense too because some of the people interviewed on March 8 and 9 were handed oath letters during the interview. Whatever happened to the background checks in those cases ?

Of course there is no point trying to make any sense of how things work at USCIS but just the fact that none of the people posting here (not that there are many of us) got oath letters for June 14 almost suggests some kind of a mailing snafu (I can always hope - can't I ?). I will know more at my InfoPass appointment on Thursday. Then again, maybe not ! :D

-KM
 
drjochen said:
Great, they must have forgotten to put it in the envelope.
The red note says to report at 9.45 am. When does the actual ceremony begin? In Philly, I had to report 1 1/2 hours before the ceremony began...
Any other useful information on the sheet?
Now I am getting bold - could anyone scan it and e-mail it to me?
Click to expand...

ANYONE?????????????
At least tell me when the guests should arrive, please!
 
Surprise, surprise....good news for me, encouraging news for all of you guys(Kagemusha, Alnera,York90...) I just got my oath notice (June 5, 2007). It was mailed out on June 4, 2007 from zipcode 19130. You guys can get it either today or tomorrow. For your info, I passed my interview test on May 09, 2007, no name change requested. See you guys on June 14 at PA Convention Center......:) :)
 
Wow ! That is very encouraging indeed. I didn't get mine today. I am still not sure if I will get it tomorrow (interview was on May 15) but I can certainly hope now. I am quite sure that the people who had interviews in March (alnera, york90) will get it tomorrow.

I did figure that it was a mailing problem because it is impossible for all of us (especially alnera and york90) to not get the oath letter for the June oath.

-KM

P. S. Just out of curiosity how close are you to the 19130 zip code ?
 
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fire2china,

Congratulations! Hopefully, we will get ours tomorrow. When I was interviewed in March, the IO told me that I will be in the June ceremony. So I will keep my hopes alive until tomorrow.
 
Hello Folks,

We got our OATH LETTER today. So it it just the mail that is the problem. Kagemusha, york90, I think you should get yours today as me and fire2china got ours........
 
Congratulation alnera ! (and fire2china too). I won't get home for another 3-4 hours and so I won't know until then. If I don't get it today I guess it means I did not make it (my interview date is the most recent out of our group and I don't know what their cut-off was for the June 14 ceremony). But I really hope that is not the case.

-KM
 
Congratulations! Alnera. Kagemusha, you will get oath notice today because it was said it is a MEGA ceremony.
 
Hello Kagemusha,

Our Oath Letter was just mailed June 5, just yesterday. Fire2china was mailed June 4. It seems that they are just starting to mail the letters. I think you will get yours.
 
Well I didn't get mine today. I am starting to really hate this wait. I don't know why the DO had to wait till the last minute to mail out the letters. I will stick to the original plan and wait until the end of the week to see if I get it before doing an InfoPass (canceled the appointment I had for this week).

-KM
 
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Finally, I'm a US citizen

Folks,

I can now finally declare that I'm a US citizen. :) Just returned form the Oath ceremony in Clayton Hall U of D in Newark, DE. The process, although long, was smooth given the crowd. I had a name change in my application so I get an additional letter from the Wilmington District Court indicating the name change.

This cermeony naturalized 255 new citizens. The crowd was more than what I had expected with accompanying friends and family. I even met my IO there!

Just one clarification on the oath letter. Please note the section you've been assigned in your oath letter. This would be listed just below the location name. For example: Section A, Section B etc.

Section A - Oath letter printed on WHITE colored paper
Section B - Oath letter printed on RED colored paper
Section C - Oath letter printed on BLUE colored paper

Applicant have to stand in the line based on their section and register. Here, they'll just take your green cards away and provide brochures and a sticky note indicating your number. Please hold on to this carefully. After the oath is taken, you'll be asked for this sticky note to be able to find and give you your naturalization certificate.

I'm sure this is the way it's gonna be for all Philly USCIS ceremonies.

Good luck to all !!!

COGNAC
 
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Congrats Cognac ! I am sure it feels great to have reached the end of this journey. Going from start to finish in under 5 months is quite impressive for Philly DO (especially for someone from DE). Hope to see you around on these forums in the future.

-KM
 
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