San Jose, CA - N-400 Timeline

Just finished my FP. But given that processing seems to be so slow, I dont expect to hear anything for a few months. Aug/Sep folks seem to be getting interviews now. So mine could be July/August if things go at this speed. dont mind as have to go out of the country for may.
 
Hi,

What is the number of the FBI line you can call for the results? Also, do the customer service reps give you a status different than what is posted online? Do they contain upto date info like where your application is -- in what stage?

Also, can one schedule an appointment with District officer or call them for upto date information on your case?

Thanks,
Morpheus

insead00 said:
So I applied exactly 3 months before my 5 years of GC life. I never received a receipt - the fingerprinting notice came within 3 weeks of my application. My wife and I applied at the same time and checks wer cashed simultaneously but her fingerprinting notice did not come till 3 months after mine. There was no receipt for her either.

Fingerprinting was smooth. I called the FBI line the next day to make sure they had it and tey told me the results were sent to USCIS a couple of hours ago.

Interview notice came with a 4 week leadtime. Went in to the interview room for a 9:05 interview at about 8:30. Took a copy of the NY Times to read as I had no clue how long it would take. It was interesting that a few people got called in and came out holding a naturalization certificate. As far as I know they do not administer individual oaths at the San Jose DO. Anyway, I got called in at around 9:10 to my surprise. The IO introduced himself and told me he had looked at my application that morning. He then noted that I traveled extensively (I was out 16 times during my 5 years) and we got in to a discussion about how China was doing (I'm from India but I travel a lot to China). He then started walking me thru the app. I put in that I was a member of IEEE and his son was too. So he digressed for about 2-3mins to talk about engg careers. I had ticked yes for the "Have you ever been cited..." and just put "Traffic related only" in the comments. He asked me if they were just citations and I said yes, that was the end of it. I think he flipped to my FBI clearance to make sure. After that he walked me through the rest of the app and made me sign my photographs and asked me the std interview questions all from the booklet.

I then interrupted him and asked him if I could get the Feb 21st oath date as I travel overseas extensively. He said that was full but Mar 7th had a couple of openings. He put a sticky on my app saying that he was recommeding I be put in for Mar 7th. He also popped out to see if he could get my oath letter right then but came back saying he would mail it out to me the same day. He then handed me the N-445 and that was that.

My interview was on Thursday, I received my oath letter the following Monday. I went through a little bit of heartburn as they had a typo of my name on the oath letter. I scheduled an Infopass to make sure they had the right name on the nat cert but canceled it after hearing they make changes on the spot.

Mar 7th, went for my oath, the spelling was correct on the nat cert. I had traveled outside the country. The IO asked me if I had been to India. I said no. He said" you should not tick yes for this question". I told him I had been to the UK though...he said "Oh, how many days, I said 4 and he wrote OK in Red on my oath letter.

Then we got the oath done and that was that. I'm going to SFO passport office on Tuesday and that should hopefully be that.

App: July 29, 06
Received: Aug 8, 06
FP: September 20th, 06
Interview: Feb1, 07
Oath: Mar 7, 07

Hope that helps and thank you to everyone for helping over the last decade.
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omorpheus....you can call the FBI to check on fingerprints status (ie. if FBI has returned the fingerprints results back to USCIS). The phone number to call is 1 304-625-2000, option 3.

Note that FBI will not give you the status of your name check so don't even bother to ask them.

As for calling USCIS, good luck on that one. I think I can safely say that calling them is a waste of time since they won't give you any good information that you don't already know from your online status. I have yet to talk to someone on the phone that is nice enough to give you meaningful information.

I think you're better off talking to an Immigration Officer at the DO, get an InfoPass appointment and you can ask them for your case status. Be nice to the IO and he/she should give you some more information that what is online. :D

To make an InfoPass appointment, here is the URL:

http://infopass.uscis.gov/

Good Luck! :)
 
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My timeline for SJ DO office

Applied: 08/10/2006
FP : 09/09/2006
-- waited
--waited
--waited
Finally after 3 months.....
Recd Interview letter: 12/12/2006
Interview: 02/12/2006
Oath: 03/21/2007

Overall..took me ~7 months.
 
Successfully completed my interview today

I had my naturalization interview at 9am today.

Reached the USCIS office on the Monterey Rd in San Jose about 20 minutes prior to the interview. After going through the security gates, I was asked to proceed upstairs to room # 219 and place my interview letter in the tray on window # 1. The waiting room was huge with 135 people seating space but we hardly had 3 to 4 people in the room at any given time. There is a little kids play area with some Lego blocks and stuff like that. However, I would highly encourage folks with little kids to arrange for baby sitter rather than taking them with you.

Anyways, I was called in for the interview about 10 minutes late at 9:10am. It was a huge welcome change to face an officer who extremely polite. There was absolutely no sign off rudeness that one typically hears over the phone. I was made to raise my hand and take the oath that I would only tell the truth during the course of the interview. After some small talks, the officer went over the entire N-400 application to ensure that everything was correct. Since filing my application, I had taken an international trip. So, I had updated the page # 4 of the application form and taken a copy of the page with me. When the officer reached that page, I told that I have one correction to make to the form, he simply took the newly printed page from me and replaced the old one with it.

After going through the entire form, the officer asked me to write a simple sentence ("I am a Director at <my company's name>) on a pre-printed form and then asked 10 questions from his computer screen and soon after congratulated me for passing the test and gave me a copy of the form, I believe 652. I was back in to my car at 9:34am.
 
Thanks a lot for the info happygal. I called FBI name check but they said that you have to call us after 12 weeks of FP. Before that they don't have anything on the system. She didn't even ask my case number.

I think I should try and schedule an infopass appointment. Do you think its too early or should I go for one?

Thanks again.

Morpheus

happigal said:
omorpheus....you can call the FBI to check on fingerprints status (ie. if FBI has returned the fingerprints results back to USCIS). The phone number to call is 1 304-625-2000, option 3.

Note that FBI will not give you the status of your name check so don't even bother to ask them.

As for calling USCIS, good luck on that one. I think I can safely say that calling them is a waste of time since they won't give you any good information that you don't already know from your online status. I have yet to talk to someone on the phone that is nice enough to give you meaningful information.

I think you're better off talking to an Immigration Officer at the DO, get an InfoPass appointment and you can ask them for your case status. Be nice to the IO and he/she should give you some more information that what is online. :D

To make an InfoPass appointment, here is the URL:

http://infopass.uscis.gov/

Good Luck! :)
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Congratulations Takadigi and kkboy :)

I wonder if there is a connection between so few in the waiting room and the dry up of interview letters. I have a feeling that they don't have as many interviewing officers as they used to do. I don't think I have heard from anybody receiving an interview letter in at least a month and a half, or two months.

PS: I should have followed this thread more closely, it seems that one poster received the interview letter at the beginning of March, for interview on April 10. This was posted by susubram on March 10.

http://www.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?p=1626098#post1626098

It seems that is slow and backlogged, but still moving.
 
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Huracan said:
Congratulations Takadigi and kkboy :)

I wonder if there is a connection between so few in the waiting room and the dry up of interview letters. I have a feeling that they don't have as many interviewing officers as they used to do. I don't think I have heard from anybody receiving an interview letter in at least a month and a half, or two months.
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Thanks Huracan! You might be right. During my 35 minutes or so of waiting time, I only saw two immigration officers taking turns to take the candidates in. The good thing is that the interviews are extremely straight forward. The officer who interviewed me started the conversation saying, "...your case is very straight forward and clean and so we won't need a long interview." And whole interview lasted less than 10 minutes, which also included going over the entire form and performing formalities like handing me the notice of recommendation for approval.
 
Can anyone tell me what impact it might have on N 400 application form for making the fees payable to "Immigration & naturalization service" instead of "Dept. Of Homeland Security". It was error on my part on writing check.Anyone had any previous experience?
 
kkboy said:
Applied: 08/10/2006
FP : 09/09/2006
-- waited
--waited
--waited
Finally after 3 months.....
Recd Interview letter: 12/12/2006
Interview: 02/12/2006
Oath: 03/21/2007

Overall..took me ~7 months.
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KKboy, did your status on the USCIS website got updated when you got the appointment letter or not? Also, what about after the interview and before Oath?
 
Hi Syed,

As your question is pretty general in nature you might get more answers by posting it outside the San Jose thread. I don't remember now which check payees would cause trouble or not. I guess you just sent the application, so I think it is best to wait and see if it is cashed. If it is cashed, then that's it, you don't need to worry about this. If they refuse to cash they will send the application back to you.

My 2 cents.
 
SYED SAAB said:
Can anyone tell me what impact it might have on N 400 application form for making the fees payable to "Immigration & naturalization service" instead of "Dept. Of Homeland Security". It was error on my part on writing check.Anyone had any previous experience?
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Has your check been encashed? I would imagine, they will just return your application along with the check and you will have to resend it with the correct payee. The payee needs to be one of the two -

1) Department of Homeland Security
OR 2) United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

Anything else, and the check and application gets returned.
 
Question on Check Cashing

I mailed my application on
03/14/2007 and it was received on 03/15/2007

My check is not yet encashed as per my bank online account details
In the forum many people checks are encashed on the next day.

Don't know whats going on :confused:
 
Chips,

I think you're worrying too much. One thing is that the check is cashed one day after receipt of application, and other thing is what it will take for it to show in your online bank. I don't want to go to details on how your expectation is a bit exaggerated. Although one thing is that the package might have been delivered, but still waiting to be opened and processed. Wait a few days and everything will show, checks, notice of action, etcetera. It hasn't even been one week since you sent your application, it is going to take months to get through the whole process.

It would be nice if you could come back a few days from now to tell us, that yes, everything was alright ;)

My 2 cents
 
Huracan, thx !

omorpheus said:
KKboy, did your status on the USCIS website got updated when you got the appointment letter or not? Also, what about after the interview and before Oath?
Click to expand...

Omorpheus...that website update is totally messed up. I have not seen anything there since Aug 18th or so.... I have my oath in 2 days, still the web update says "received and pending". I won't trust that at all. In case of family based GC's however, the web update seems to be prompt...just fyi.

Huracan, you should get ur IL soon...hopefully u took infopass and pestered the immi officer recently. I did it twice and it kind of (maybe) moved my case...who knows !!!
 
it's ok !!

SYED SAAB said:
Can anyone tell me what impact it might have on N 400 application form for making the fees payable to "Immigration & naturalization service" instead of "Dept. Of Homeland Security". It was error on my part on writing check.Anyone had any previous experience?
Click to expand...

I had sent mine payable to USCIS as well...am done with my case ( well almost) :). relax, you are ok.
 
during my interview....

Huracan said:
Congratulations Takadigi and kkboy :)

I wonder if there is a connection between so few in the waiting room and the dry up of interview letters. I have a feeling that they don't have as many interviewing officers as they used to do. I don't think I have heard from anybody receiving an interview letter in at least a month and a half, or two months.
Click to expand...

I shot a direct question at the IO...asking why SJ is so slow and why Oakland/SF is fast. He said to me that SJ is heavily backlogged ,mostly due to the heavy volume of applicants flooding it with apps. They are just delaying sending ILs for cases in such a case to maintain a steady flow. Even the oath ceremony (once every month) can only accomodate 500 people, SJ DO is trying to balance that too. Just hang in there..u shall get ur IL very soon. Good luck !
 
kkboy said:
Omorpheus...that website update is totally messed up. I have not seen anything there since Aug 18th or so.... I have my oath in 2 days, still the web update says "received and pending". I won't trust that at all. In case of family based GC's however, the web update seems to be prompt...just fyi.

Huracan, you should get ur IL soon...hopefully u took infopass and pestered the immi officer recently. I did it twice and it kind of (maybe) moved my case...who knows !!!
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Thanks kkboy. My dates so far:

DO: San Jose
PD: 12/18/2006
FP Notice: 1/12/2007
FP Done: 1/20/2007 (actual date on FP notice)

That's it ...

Do you think I shud take infopass appointment to check my status because FBI line says call after 12 weeks from your FP. Does it affect your application positively or negatively?

Thanks
 
kkboy said:
Huracan, you should get ur IL soon...hopefully u took infopass and pestered the immi officer recently. I did it twice and it kind of (maybe) moved my case...who knows !!!
Click to expand...

Hi kkboy,

Thanks for the advice. I think you're right and the pestering can help with interview scheduling. So far I am exercising patience, as I can afford to let this take its course (i.e. I am not in a hurry to sponsor someone, or work out of the country, or major election, or any other thing that would add urgency to my case). I am also optimistic that the name check is done :) However, I might schedule an Infopass to find out if this is the case and to inquiry about why it is taking so long to get an interview scheduled in San Jose and whether something can be done about it. For now, I will still try to be patient, there are honestly other people's cases that are more urgent than mine.

At the current speed I would probably expect a letter within two to three months, unless I'm stuck in name check without knowing ;)
 
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