San Jose, CA - N-400 Timeline

[Huracan]

Thanks for this info, Huracan. So, looks like it is not only important to sit in the specified seat/row but to also leave it in the right order.

Yes, don't worry much about it, they collect the Green Card at the moment you enter your row to seat. Only problem could be if you switch seats with your spouse or someone else once you enter the row of seats. When entering the row you do it from the center aisle of the theater, when you leave you leave on the lateral aisle. Yes, it is important not to try to pass people when leaving your row, just leave in order I don't remember exactly, but I think they explain the procedure right at the end of the ceremony. I would assume that if they have some issues is because the Green Cards for a row got mixed up or they have missing certificates or something like that. The procedure itself is quite simple, and it worked great in my row.

 

[Amicus]

Yes, don't worry much about it, they collect the Green Card at the moment you enter your row to seat. Only problem could be if you switch seats with your spouse or someone else once you enter the row of seats. When entering the row you do it from the center aisle of the theater, when you leave you leave on the lateral aisle. Yes, it is important not to try to pass people when leaving your row, just leave in order I don't remember exactly, but I think they explain the procedure right at the end of the ceremony. I would assume that if they have some issues is because the Green Cards for a row got mixed up or they have missing certificates or something like that. The procedure itself is quite simple, and it worked great in my row.

Thanks for the details, Huracan. I'm not worried as much as I'm tired of this process. Naturalizing at SJ DO is almost half as bad as getting stuck in name check.

 

[tt tt]

Yes, guys I am under the SFO INS jurisdiction -- did the FP in oakland.
But I am a south bay guy at heart

 

[mahba]

Spouse oath complete

My wife had her oath at 3 pm in Campbell yesterday. Nothing new to report except that the 3 pm ceremony is under an hour whereas the one at 10 am (which is what I had, back in Feb) is almost 2 hours.

If you enter the parking lot from Winchester Blvd and park about 100 feet before the Heritage theater you will save yourself about 20 minutes when the time comes to leave.

 

[siliconhybrid]

April Oath letter anyone?

 

[TblSpoon22]

I think Huracan answered most of the questions about the Oath ceremony already. I would just add that don't worry about the seating and distribution of the certificate. They look at you and the photo to give it out, then you can look and make sure it is yours and in case of any mistake there is a resolution table where a IO can help you.

Mahba, are you talking about the church parking lot? That is a good place to park. Another idea is to park on the street right in front of the theater, it is called Jeffers Way. But first we have to see if it is ok to park there. I saw many people walk from there.

 

[N400toLawrence]

Slow Oath Scheduling?

April Oath letter anyone?

looking at
http://www.editgrid.com/user/cistracking/N400_Tracking
it looks like many of you who got interviewed and have been recommended for approval back in Jan and Feb still have no luck with Oath letter. Any idea what the hold up is? I feel the process would have been faster and reduce backlog if SJ conducts SAME DAY OATH since SJC is a very busy place for citizenship applications. Same Day Oath will force the IOs and supervisors to make the decision the same day. After all, if one waited for so long for USCIS to conduct investigation on background and national security and get to the interview process, it should mean one is cleared the security and is not a thread to the country. If SJC is receiving 500-800 people at each Oath planned each month, that means SJC conducts roughly about 25-40 citizenship interviews a day, why not gather all the 25-40 people together at the end of the day or even ended of the week to do an Oath. I am sure there is benefits for doing group oath but i think a small ceremony is just as wonderful and gives both the future citizenships and the IOs opportunity to know each other. I don't mean to insult the officers in charge but i feel this is a simple mathematical solution. I am sure there is greater security issue that they have taken into consideration to slow the whole process. Again, SJC might be much busier than i thought. But if the status check on the website gets updated every day than no one would need to make appointment to INFOPASS (which most of the time is waste of time and i hope many of you would agree with me on this) expect the ADIT processings and interviews. I am sure everyone's got computers or the public libraries will have computers and it should not be problems for general public as INFOPASS requires computer to make that appointment anyway, why not make that information available to the applicants and reduce the actual office visit to local DOs so the officers can focus on something more important.

Just my 2 cents

 

[neon_lite]

nothing is overkill

I brought with me:
1) Selective Service Card (Important!)
2) Old Passport (important!)
3) CA ID (important!)
4) 5 yr tax transcript
5) marriage cert (I apply with employment base)
6) SSN card
7) Utility Bill

They only asked me item 1-3. If you have'em, carry'em ^_^
most likely they wont ask, but what do you get to lose.

The documents you'd need are highly dependent on the immigration officer. My wife and I had our interviews on the same day and we had very different experiences.

My officer didn't ask me for anything. Nothing, whatsoever, not even the GC. She only asked for the interview letter and that's it. She was professional but not friendly by any stretch.

OTOH, the office who interviewed my wife was very nice and friendly. But he did ask her for our marriage certificate, even though her GC wasn't based on marriage. He also asked for utility bills and tax transcripts (although didn't actually end up looking at them).

I took the conservative approach and took everything, just in case.

 

[neon_lite]

April Oath letter anyone?

Not yet. I expect them next week.

 

[N400toLawrence]

Documents to bring to N400 interview

The documents you'd need are highly dependent on the immigration officer. My wife and I had our interviews on the same day and we had very different experiences.

My officer didn't ask me for anything. Nothing, whatsoever, not even the GC. She only asked for the interview letter and that's it. She was professional but not friendly by any stretch.

OTOH, the office who interviewed my wife was very nice and friendly. But he did ask her for our marriage certificate, even though her GC wasn't based on marriage. He also asked for utility bills and tax transcripts (although didn't actually end up looking at them).

I took the conservative approach and took everything, just in case.

During my interview, the officer asked to see something in our JOINT name and she specifically asked for BANK STATEMENT. I had prepared everything and basically brought a copy of my N400 file including copy of supporting documents and both orgionals and copies for the last three months (of bank statements, tax transcript, bills that came in both of our name and separate, credit card statements showing same address, insurance, and such) I DID NOT bring any of the orgionals for documents summited for N400 as both myself and my spouse were very busy in the last few month working days and nights 6-7 days a week we just got lazy to dig all files out (even though they are somewhat categorized but we have just recently upgraded our office and home and it's kind of a mass now and files are just piling in the storage boxes). We both agreed to just bring a copy of N400 that we filed last year and the orgionals and copies of the joint documents from last three month. I was not asked to show Green Card, Passport, License, or any other documents at all, Just the Bank Statement. I asked her if she needs anything else and so happened to have the Tax Transcript layed in front of me so she said: Just give me the Tax Transcript if i have a copy for her otherwise, don't worry about it. So i suppose this was not important to her because she did not request it. I filed base on three year residency and marriage to a USC.

To summarized, I'd suggest you to bring anything you can think of to your case. If you are filing base on your marriage to an USC, bring documents showing both of your name and possibly get your spouse to be there for you (after all, he/she can you your moral support during interview). I was asked where my spouse was during the conversation before the IO went through my application and what our plan was since i was interviewed early in the morning.

Best Luck to you

 

[bkarth]

Any April Oath letters?

Any April Oath letters?


---------------
04/17/07: FedExed
04/19/07: Received
04/19/07: Priority Date
04/20/07: Notice Date
05/10/07: FP Notice
06/14/07: FP Appt and Done
01/17/08: Interview
??/??/??: Oath

 

[luckyjack]

Passports received but not certificates yet.

Hi,
We have received our US passports by mail. At the time of oath, they gave us the citizenship certificates. We went to a passport office for the passports, where we have given our certificates as well. Four weeks later ,we have received our new US passports, but not the certificates as yet. Its been 4 days now that we received our US passports ,but no certificates yet(we were told then that certificates will come back first in mail).
Is it normal to receive the passports first and then our certificates. Please share your ideas.
Thanks.

 

[luckyjack]

Ok, we have received them today. thanks anyways.

 

[mahba]

I think Huracan answered most of the questions about the Oath ceremony already. I would just add that don't worry about the seating and distribution of the certificate. They look at you and the photo to give it out, then you can look and make sure it is yours and in case of any mistake there is a resolution table where a IO can help you.

Mahba, are you talking about the church parking lot? That is a good place to park. Another idea is to park on the street right in front of the theater, it is called Jeffers Way. But first we have to see if it is ok to park there. I saw many people walk from there.

I was refering to the parking lot that you enter from Winchester, just before you get to Campbell Ave. It is a Heritage Theater lot - it has a sign for the Heritage Theater at the entrance.

 

[siliconhybrid]

Any April Oath letters?

Nope.

I hope it makes you feel better because if no one has received oath letters, that means the oath letters are not delivered, i.e. you haven't missed the boat yet.

I am more than confident ppl will start receiving Oath letter this week, starting with tomorrow.

 

[bkarth]

it doesn't make me feel better

Nope.

I hope it makes you feel better because if no one has received oath letters, that means the oath letters are not delivered, i.e. you haven't missed the boat yet.

I am more than confident ppl will start receiving Oath letter this week, starting with tomorrow.

siliconhybrid, the fact no one got the April Oath doesn't make me feel better it sickens me even more. I can't even plan my trip outside the country, I want to spend about couple of months back in my home country and I can't do that now. These kind of delays are ONLY from San Jose and it makes me so annoyed.

ALL OVER the country it takes less than 6 months. My Friend(s) who live in Ohio and NJ both applied around Nov 2007 are citizens now. I applied in April 2007 and still worrying when the Oath letter will come and even SFO and Oakland is way faster. In my opinion San Jose is the most worst and un-organized service center in the whole country and this is TOTAL crap.

Can we do something like lodge a complaint? I am not sure what to do.

I am frustrated for sure.

-----------------
04/17/07: FedExed
04/19/07: Received
04/19/07: Priority Date
04/20/07: Notice Date
05/10/07: FP Notice
06/14/07: FP Appt and Done
01/17/08: Interview
??/??/??: Oath

 

[siliconhybrid]

Bkarth

I shared the same feeling.
Because of this long process in SJ DO, my wife and I had to delay our Euro trip indefinitely. In addition, my wife has been out of work for 4 months now because of her expired H1B. Our family needs a second income.

However, we just try to see thing in half full way, there are so much things we are thankful for.

I say, we wait till this Friday, if nothing shows up, we (I) will schedule another infopass for Monday.

 

[mrdp]

April oath letters

Hi bkarth, siliconhybrid

I am sure oath letter for april will come this week( or may be on the way). I am hoping that we will be in this batch...

Good luck to all who are waiting... ( including me.. ha ha)

 

[neon_lite]

siliconhybrid, the fact no one got the April Oath doesn't make me feel better it sickens me even more. I can't even plan my trip outside the country, I want to spend about couple of months back in my home country and I can't do that now. These kind of delays are ONLY from San Jose and it makes me so annoyed.

ALL OVER the country it takes less than 6 months. My Friend(s) who live in Ohio and NJ both applied around Nov 2007 are citizens now. I applied in April 2007 and still worrying when the Oath letter will come and even SFO and Oakland is way faster. In my opinion San Jose is the most worst and un-organized service center in the whole country and this is TOTAL crap.

Can we do something like lodge a complaint? I am not sure what to do.

I am frustrated for sure.

I completely agree with you. Especially for a ceremonial activity like taking oath, it's ridiculous that we have to wait >2 months after the interview. At the interview, they do administer the oath to tell the truth. Can't they just follow it up at the end of the interview and just administer the citizenship oath at that point? Just mail the certificate to the permanent address just like the passport is.

Even if that's not possible, I don't understand who created the rule that oath ceremony can only be held one day a month. If only they held it just 2 times every month or 3 times every month, I think that'll significantly shrink the backlog.

Finally, if EVEN that is not possible, then how about renting a larger place for the oath ceremony which may be able to accommodate more than the ~400 people currently. Rent a stadium for god's sake if needed.

Since I attended my wife's oath ceremony on the 20th I know what it was like. Except for the speeches in 5 different languages which literally bore you to death, everything else is "mass targeted", i.e. everyone just stands up and takes the oath. It's not like they are going to each person and making sure they recited the oath correctly.

IMO, oath ceremony is a huge waste of time. I think the oath itself is important but having to wait 2 months is ridiculous. Having to sit through translations into 5 different languages is torture. Makes you wonder, if they are going to translate everything in people's native languages anyway, then why bother with that sham of an English test.

 

[Huracan]

I was thinking about collecting complaints about the San Jose office (stripping them of the nicknames of course) and send a sample to my congressperson Zoe Lofgren who happens to be the Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and see if she can do something to make San Jose pick up some speed. What do you think? Do you think there could be a better person to send this?