Seattle DO - N-400 timeline

Alan7 said:
If I attend the 12/10 oath ceremony, they will be taking my green card away and there's not enough time to get a US Passport since my flight will be leaving the next day.
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Find out where your closest Passport Agency is, take your ticket with you, take your Naturalization Certificate with you and go apply there for a passport. They are able to issue a passport within a day. If your oath is early, you'll probably get your passport that same day.
 
Mr Vertigo said:
Find out where your closest Passport Agency is, take your ticket with you, take your Naturalization Certificate with you and go apply there for a passport. They are able to issue a passport within a day. If your oath is early, you'll probably get your passport that same day.
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Agreed with Vertigo. Talk to Seattle passport agency first as soon as possible and make an appointment with them. Maybe they can issue the passport right away.
 
Thanks for your suggestions guys... but my Oath Ceremony is at 2PM on 12/10 and the Seattle Passport Agency closes at 3PM. My flight leaves 12/11 at 9AM so this just doesn't give me enough time :-(

I tried to get an appointment with Infopass to convince them to give me another oath date. However, it looks like there are no more Infopass Appointments available for the next 2-3 weeks. Is there any way I can get an emergency appointment? What is the procedure? Thank you!
 
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Hello,

My advice to you Alan,don't reschedule the oath date,you can reschedule the vacation ,i know there will be penalties ,but i am sure it won't be that big compare the headache dealing with USCIS again,wait for letter,calling them....etc.

Just go have your oath,apply for passport,then go enjoy your vacation and take this issue out of your mind for good.

good luck
 
Yes, for the love of all that is good and mighty, do not reschedule your Oath Date. Anything else can wait, even if there are penalties.
 
Vertigo and San000, I agree with you since anything is better than being at the mercy of USCIS again. I actually wanted to try to get an Infopass appointment to see if they can give me an oath date BEFORE 12/10. That way I might have enough time to get my passport from the Seattle Passport Agency. But it looks like there are no Infopass appointments available right now. So, I might just have to postpone my vacation..
 
I actually tried moving my oath date sooner. First time was right after the IO told me that I passed my interview test and showed me the oath date. I begged her to allow me to move it sooner. She said she needs to have a reason to do that. I said I want to vote. If she moves it 7 days earlier, I could vote in 2008 election. She said that's not good enough reason.

Then I decided to go to immigration office later one. They even gave me the form to fill out. After i filled it, the person at the desk looked at it and said that they won't approve it for reason to vote. I asked what reasons do they move the date for? She said something important like family emergancy that requires going out of country or having a ticket and it requires you to get Oath sooner so you can get passport sooner. I couldn't lie on a form just before my oath. So I let it go.

Basically they let you move it sooner as long as you have a real good reason. Just go to Immigration office on one of the days they have oath ceremony (Wednesdays and Fridays in Seattle) and then ask the person at window that you would like the form to move your oath date sooner. After you are done filling the form and handing it to person at desk, they take it to IO to review it and give you an answer within an hour. That's basically what they told me. But mine didn't even get that far since the person at window told me that she is 100% sure that they will reject it for voting reason. You might have a real good valid reason. So it's worth trying.

Oh oh, The lady told me that if I had a good reason, i could get my oath that day with the rest of the people who had shown up for the oath. So I guess they can pull up your records real fast, print your citizenship certificate in time for that day's oath.

Good luck.
 
Alan7 said:
I actually wanted to try to get an Infopass appointment to see if they can give me an oath date BEFORE 12/10.
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Try walkin on Wednesday. I heard Seattle might allow people to walk in on Wednesday.

After the security point, you have to wait till all people with appointment to clear the reception desk before you can talk to the desk for an appointment with IO. I am not sure this would work, but may be worth a shot if you are desperate.
 
That sounds like a great plan. So, I am assuming the oath ceremony is at 2PM today? Also, would they allow me to get into the building with no Infopass Appointment? :)
 
Alan7 said:
That sounds like a great plan. So, I am assuming the oath ceremony is at 2PM today? Also, would they allow me to get into the building with no Infopass Appointment? :)
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You don't need to present appointment letter to go through the security check. At the reception desk, you need to wait for all people with appointment letters to clear (i.e., finish checking in) before the reception desk can talk to you.

Beg the reception desk and show them the airline ticket and tell them how urgent your trip is. Hopefully they can let you in to talk to an IO. Beg again if they initially refuse your request.
 
** ASC may allow walk-ins **

I went to the USCIS/ASC in Tukwila to see if I could walk in and be fingerprinted. After quick security, there were very few people there so I lined up in line 2 and waited patiently. The four people that were in line 1 were discusted that I was called when they were waiting longer that I did (they were looking for forms, I think). The receptionist wanted to know why I wanted an earlier date and I said that I my be away at that time in my notice as it was near Christmas. He told me to goto window 11 and ask there. The waiting room was empty except for maybe 4 people. There were even less being fingerprinted (none!). I asked the nice ASC girl if I could do a walk in and she gave me the paper to fill out!! I returned with it filled out and she nicely asked me to come into the ASC room. No sooner did I sit down than I was called for fingerprinting. As I was leaving, there were hoards of people wanting to get in through security. I was in and out in about 20 minutes total.

I hope this helps.
Rafiq
 
After reading the advice from San000 and Mr. Vertigo yesterday, I decided not to send my oath approval letter back for rescheduling to a later date. I wanted to either get a sooner date or just show up for my 12/10 date, even if it meant postponing my vacation. In order to get a sooner oath date, Username and Calvillager recommended that I try to request the front desk at the Seattle office and that I show up there even though I didn’t have an appointment…so I did just as you guys suggested!

I showed up at the office at around 12:30 PM and explained my situation to the guy sitting at the front desk. He kept telling me that there’s not much he could do but I begged him to reconsider :) Then another guy came to the front desk at around 1PM. He was the one organizing the ceremony – handing out the booklets and telling people what to do after they entered the auditorium for the ceremony. I showed him my tickets and explained that I needed to take the oath today in order to get my passport on time. He called someone, gave them my A# and asked that person to look into my file. He then told me that he needed to hear back from the person he called regarding my case and that they were going to do their best. At around 1:45 PM (15 minutes before the ceremony) he told me that I could go ahead and take the oath today! He wrote my name and information on the list of around 115 people that were scheduled to take the oath and asked me to get into line for the oath. The ceremony lasted about 2 hours and I finally got my Naturalization Certificate.

I can’t thank you guys enough for all the help. If it was not for you, I would probably have sent my approval letter back and who knows how much longer I would have had to wait. Also, it was good to know that the Seattle Passport Agency can issue a visa on the same day (thanks to Mr Vertigo).

For those of you that will be needing passports in a hurry…I happened to talk to an agent from the Seattle Passport Agency following the ceremony and he informed me about their policy – If you can bring the itinerary of an international flight scheduled to depart within 14 days then you can make an appointment with them and they will mail your passport back to your home address ASAP. However, if the itinerary says that your flight is leaving within 7 days, they will try to issue your passport to you on the SAME day, in most cases. He told me that I should be able to get mine tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the info and good luck to everyone!

Finally, here’s my timeline:

05/19/2008: N-400 sent (Seattle DO NSC)
05/21/2008: PD
05/28/2008: Check Cashed
06/02/2008: NOA1 rec'd
06/07/2008: FP letter rec'd
06/12/2008: FP done
09/24/2008: IL rec'd
11/25/2008: Interview Date
12/03/2008: Oath Ceremony
12/04/2008: Applied for Passport - Seattle Passport Agency (downtown)
12/05/2008: Passport Received - in person
 
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That's great news Alan! :) Congratulations to you and hope your vacation goes well. Glad you didn't reschedule and just went ahead and personally asked for a different date. Rescheduling would have just prolonged your oath. This way you're all done!
 
Alan7 said:
At around 1:45 PM (15 minutes before the ceremony) he told me that I could go ahead and take the oath today!
12/03/2008: Oath Date[/I]
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It's wonderful. It seemed a little bumpy dealing with the receptionist at the front desk, but it all worked out eventually for you. Great story. Maybe you can create another thread to share your amazing story with people in similar situation. I believe it will get lots of echos. Congratulations. So happy for you. Have a good trip.
 
That is great news. congrats. I'm glad you were able to get in that day. Hope you can get your passport as quick as your oath ceremony.
 
Passport but no Naturalization Certificate

I got my passport today.
Did some one else has his/her passport but did not get the Naturalization Certificate back with the passport?
 
hotmailman said:
I got my passport today.
Did some one else has his/her passport but did not get the Naturalization Certificate back with the passport?
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Normally, the natz certificate is mailed separately from the passport. You'll get it in a few days.
 
passport card

My passport card was delivered to my house today. My wife notices it is an official mail so she put the envelope on the fridge with a big magnate over it. Do you think this might damage the card?

in the notice that came with it it says to keep it away from heat only.
 
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